Lead Specialist, Solution Architect

Lead Specialist, Solution Architect - OnVUE

About OnVUE

OnVUE is Pearson’s online proctored test delivery platform, supporting the secure, reliable, and scalable delivery of assessments for Pearson’s certification and professional testing business. The platform enables candidates to test remotely while maintaining exam integrity through identity verification, monitoring, secure delivery workflows, and operational controls. The OnVUE environment includes modern and legacy systems, with ongoing focus on platform modernization, service resilience, API-first integration, cloud-native delivery, candidate and proctor experience, and improved developer and operational practices.

Role summary

As a Lead Specialist, Solution Architect, you are a recognized subject-matter expert who provides technical leadership for sophisticated, high-impact solution work. You independently translate business needs, stakeholder constraints, and technical requirements into secure, scalable, viable, and maintainable architectural models and guide solution delivery from inception through implementation.

You maintain technical consistency within the assigned scope, balance advanced solution design with hands-on support for complex delivery challenges, and resolve day-to-day integration and build issues. You influence through depth of knowledge, sound judgment, clear communication, and the ability to steer architecture discussions toward practical outcomes. You mentor engineers, junior architects, and peers, establish trusted technical patterns within your domain, ensure conformance to established frameworks, and escalate decisions that materially exceed the assigned scope to senior experts.

Key responsibilities

Solution architecture and technical leadership

• Translate business needs, stakeholder constraints, and technical requirements into robust architectural models and fit-for-purpose solution designs.

• Own solution architecture from discovery and design through implementation and production adoption.

• Provide technical leadership for high-impact projects, major features, product changes, services, domains, or business capabilities.

• Maintain technical consistency within the assigned product, service, project, domain, or broader solution footprint.

• Evaluate and communicate tradeoffs involving scalability, security, resilience, maintainability, integration, delivery risk, operational needs, and business value.

Implementation and delivery guidance

• Guide engineering and delivery teams through implementation while preserving architectural intent.

• Resolve complex architectural, integration, and build issues within the assigned scope.

• Consult on technical feasibility for major features, updates, integrations, and solution approaches.

• Identify high-stakes architectural risks early and coordinate practical mitigation.

• Adapt architecture to changing requirements without sacrificing solution stability, security, or long-term maintainability.

Standards, influence, and capability building

• Establish trusted and repeatable technical patterns within the assigned domain while ensuring conformance with established architecture frameworks, standards, and guidelines.

• Participate in architecture forums and guide discussions toward sound, practical outcomes.

• Mentor engineers, junior architects, and peers in solution design, technical practices, and architectural decision-making.

• Communicate design options, recommendations, constraints, and tradeoffs clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Escalate decisions outside the assigned scope or requiring senior technical or enterprise direction.

Required education and experience