Solutions & enterprise architect

What does a solutions & enterprise architect do?

A solutions or enterprise architect plans how an organisation's technology systems fit together and serve the business.

A solution architect designs one system or programme. An enterprise architect sets technology direction across many systems and teams.

In Singapore, you find this role in banks, government agencies, telcos, healthcare groups, consultancies and large technology firms. It usually sits in an architecture office or IT division. It reports to a head of architecture, a chief technology officer or a chief information officer.

You work with developers, product owners, security teams, infrastructure teams, vendors and senior business leaders. Much of the job is explaining trade-offs to people who do not write code.

What the work involves

• Turn business needs into technical requirements and a design that teams can build.
• Review project designs against the organisation's architecture standards and approve them or request changes.
• Write and share principles, standards and guidelines that guide technology choices.
• Compare options on risk, cost, benefit and effect on existing systems, then advise senior leaders.
• Track new technologies and decide which ones merit a trial or a place in the plan.
• Meet project teams, security staff and vendors to resolve design issues and keep quality on track.

Pay in Singapore

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Skills a solutions & enterprise architect needs

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Solutions & enterprise architect job description

A solutions or enterprise architect designs technology solutions that meet business needs and fit the organisation's wider systems.

You define architecture standards, review project designs and advise senior stakeholders on technology direction. The role suits an experienced engineer who can work across business, security and delivery teams in a Singapore organisation.

Responsibilities

• Gather business needs and turn them into architecture requirements and solution designs.
• Design systems that cover applications, data, integration, infrastructure and security.
• Set architecture principles, standards and policies, and explain them to delivery teams.
• Review project designs and approve changes to the enterprise architecture.
• Find chances to reuse components and platforms across projects.
• Assess options for risk, cost, benefit and system impact, and present a recommendation.
• Work with security and risk teams so designs meet internal policy and local regulation.
• Research new technologies and propose where the organisation should try them.
• Guide developers and engineers through design questions during delivery.
• Maintain architecture documents, diagrams and decision records.

Requirements

• A degree in computer science, information technology, engineering or a related field is typical.
• Often 8 to 12 years in software or systems work, including several years of hands-on development or engineering.
• Working knowledge of at least one major cloud platform (AWS, Azure or Google Cloud) and of cloud security basics.
• An architecture framework such as TOGAF, or a cloud architect certification, is often listed as a plus.
• Clear writing and presenting skills, and experience managing stakeholders at senior levels.
• Familiarity with agile delivery, integration patterns, APIs and data platforms.

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Solutions & enterprise architect career path

Most architects start as software engineers and move into design work after several years of building systems.

From there, you can grow into enterprise-wide or leadership roles.

1. Software engineer

   Entry

   You build and test features, learn how production systems behave and pick up cloud and design basics.

2. Senior software engineer or tech lead

   Mid

   You own the design of larger components, guide other engineers and start working with business stakeholders.

3. Solution architect

   Senior

   You design end-to-end solutions for projects, weigh trade-offs and review designs from delivery teams.

4. Enterprise architect

   Lead · SkillsFuture title

   You align architecture strategy with business goals, set standards and policies, and oversee design quality across the organisation.

5. Chief architect or head of architecture

   Head

   You lead the architecture function and advise executives on technology direction and investment.

Steps marked "SkillsFuture title" follow the career pathway in the SkillsFuture Skills Framework. The others are titles commonly used in Singapore.

Related jobs and their pay

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Solutions & enterprise architect interview questions

We wrote these questions from the skills this job needs. They are not an official question bank.

1. Design a ticketing platform that must cope with sudden traffic spikes when popular events go on sale. Where would you start?

   What a good answer covers

   • Clarifies load, latency and fairness requirements before drawing anything
   • Uses queuing, caching and horizontal scaling to absorb spikes
   • Protects inventory consistency so seats are not oversold
   • Plans for failure with rate limits, graceful degradation and monitoring
   • States trade-offs and what to test before launch

2. When would you choose microservices over a monolith, and when would you not?

   What a good answer covers

   • Links the choice to team size, release pace and domain boundaries
   • Names the costs of microservices: operations, testing, data consistency
   • Mentions a modular monolith as a middle option
   • Gives an example where a monolith was the better call

3. How would you decide between AWS, Azure and Google Cloud for a new workload?

   What a good answer covers

   • Starts with workload needs, existing skills and current contracts
   • Compares services, data residency options in Singapore and integration with current tools
   • Considers lock-in, cost model and support
   • Suggests a small proof of concept before committing

4. How would you secure a cloud workload that stores customer data?

   What a good answer covers

   • Covers identity and access, least privilege and multi-factor authentication
   • Encrypts data at rest and in transit and manages keys properly
   • Separates networks and limits public exposure
   • Sets up logging, alerting and regular configuration checks
   • Explains who is responsible for what under the shared responsibility model

5. Walk us through how you would apply TOGAF on a real project. What would you use and what would you skip?

   What a good answer covers

   • Describes the main phases from vision to governance without jargon
   • Adapts the method to project size instead of following it page by page
   • Names useful outputs such as principles, target state and gap analysis
   • Explains how the framework helps with stakeholder agreement

6. Two systems must exchange data. How do you choose between synchronous APIs and event-driven messaging?

   What a good answer covers

   • Compares coupling, latency, failure handling and ordering needs
   • Explains retries, idempotency and dead-letter handling for messages
   • Considers who owns the contract and how it changes over time
   • Gives a use case for each style

7. A product team wants to add an LLM-based assistant to a customer service app using an LLM API. What design concerns do you raise?

   What a good answer covers

   • Checks what customer data would be sent out and whether it must be masked
   • Plans for wrong answers with grounding, fallbacks and human handover
   • Looks at cost per request, latency and rate limits
   • Sets up logging, evaluation and a way to switch providers

8. Design a web application on AWS that must stay available if one data centre fails. How do you set recovery targets?

   What a good answer covers

   • Uses multiple availability zones with load balancing and managed databases
   • Defines recovery time and recovery point targets with the business
   • Explains the cost step from backup to warm standby to active-active
   • Adds monitoring and regular failover tests

1. Two delivery teams want different technologies for the same shared service, and the project is already late. What do you do?

   What a good answer covers

   • Gets both sides to state requirements and constraints
   • Compares the options against agreed principles and cost of change
   • Brings in the sponsor if the decision affects scope or budget
   • Records the decision and the reasons so it is only reopened with good cause

2. You must move an ageing core system to the cloud while it keeps serving customers. How do you plan it?

   What a good answer covers

   • Maps dependencies and data flows before choosing a method
   • Considers rehost, replatform or rebuild for each part
   • Moves in stages with a rollback plan and parallel running
   • Identifies risks to data, security and users, and who signs off each stage

3. The monthly cloud bill has nearly doubled after a new product launch. How do you find the cause and fix it?

   What a good answer covers

   • Uses cost tags and billing reports to find the largest increases
   • Checks for oversized instances, idle resources and heavy data transfer
   • Separates quick wins from design changes
   • Sets budgets, alerts and review habits to keep costs in check

1. Tell us about a time you said no to a senior stakeholder's request. How did you handle it?

   What a good answer covers

   • Explains the request and the risk behind refusing it
   • Shows respect and offers alternatives
   • Uses evidence such as cost, risk or delivery impact
   • Describes the outcome and what changed in the relationship

2. Describe an architecture decision you made that turned out to be wrong. What did you do?

   What a good answer covers

   • Owns the decision and takes responsibility
   • Explains how the problem was found
   • Describes the fix and the cost of correcting it
   • Names the process change made afterwards

1. You are designing a customer data platform for a Singapore retailer. How does the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) affect your design?

   What a good answer covers

   • Notes that consent, purpose limits, access and correction requests, and data protection all shape the design
   • Designs for retrieving, correcting and deleting an individual's data
   • Limits who can see personal data and logs access
   • Plans for breach detection and the notification process with the data protection officer
   • Checks cross-border transfers when cloud regions or vendors are outside Singapore

2. A bank client wants to host a new service on a public cloud. What do you consider given expectations from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)?

   What a good answer covers

   • Knows MAS sets technology risk and outsourcing expectations for financial institutions and checks the current versions
   • Assesses the cloud provider for resilience, security and exit options
   • Plans for audit access, incident reporting and data protection
   • Involves the bank's risk and compliance teams early

Common questions about a solutions & enterprise architect job

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