Lead Specialist, Solution Architect

Role Overview

The Solutions Architect on the OnVUE team will be senior technical leader responsible for defining, guiding, and governing the architecture of the platform and product area, being a key technical contributor for a major core offering as a part of Pearson VUE. This role provides hands-on architectural direction and technical leadership ensuring solutions are scalable, secure, maintainable, and aligned with broader platform and enterprise standards.

The Solutions Architect works closely with the platform architect, product management, engineering leads, and the OnVUE team to translate product requirements into sound technical designs and to support successful implementation throughout the development lifecycle.

The Product

Our OnVUE remote proctoring system allows people to take exams anywhere in the world. OnVUEʼs software provides streaming video of the exam taker to the proctor supervising the exam in a secure and interactive way. The OnVUE product has grown significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic and is a core part of Pearson VUEʼs testing strategy. We are planning for significant investment in the technology powering OnVUE and this role will be key to taking this product into the future.

OnVUEʼs primary tech stack is Java (currently version 25) and Angular (currently version 19) and we strive to use modern versions. OnVUE runs in Microsoft Azure in Kubernetes.

Key Responsibilities: Architecture & Design

• Own and evolve the end-to-end architecture for a specific product or product domain.
• Design solution architecture, balancing functional requirements, non-functional requirements, and delivery constraints.
• Define and document architectural patterns including microservices, APIs, data flows, integration approaches, and deployment models.
• Ensure solutions align with modernization goals such as cloud-native design, resiliency, scalability, and maintainability.
• Translate business requirements and technical constraints into actionable design guidance for engineers.
• Review and approve significant design and implementation decisions within the team.
• Identify and resolve day-to-day architectural, integration, and build issues to maintain system consistency and stability.
• Ensure adherence to enterprise architecture standards while tailoring solutions to product-specific needs.

Key Responsibilities: Implementation & Delivery

• Provide ongoing architectural guidance during development, testing, and release cycles.
• Partner closely with engineers to ensure designs are implemented correctly and pragmatically.
• Perform design and code reviews with an architectural lens, focusing on quality, scalability, security, and performance.
• Identify technical risks early and collaborate with the team to define mitigation strategies.
• Ensure solutions meet security, privacy, availability, and compliance requirements.
• Support incremental modernization and refactoring of existing systems toward target-state architecture.
• Balance architectural rigor with delivery velocity, making informed trade-offs when necessary.

Key Responsibilities: Collaboration & Technical Leadership

• Act as the primary architectural point of contact for the product team.
• Collaborate with:
• Platform architects to ensure alignment with shared services and standards
• Product managers to shape technically feasible roadmaps
• Tech leads and developers to align on implementation strategy
• Provide technical mentorship to engineers, helping raise overall design and engineering maturity.
• Facilitate architectural discussions and decision-making within the team.
• Clearly communicate architectural intent, trade-offs, and rationale to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Promote consistent engineering and architectural best practices within the team.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• Strong experience designing and implementing software systems in enterprise or product-based environments.
• Experience designing APIs, service integrations, and distributed systems.
• Proven ability to guide teams through complex technical decisions.
• Strong documentation and communication skills.

Preferred

• Experience with cloud-native architectures (microservices, containers, event-driven systems).
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, and automated testing.
• Experience working on high-availability or customer-facing platforms.
• Exposure to security best practices, authentication/authorization, and data protection.

Skills & Competencies

• Product-Focused Architecture: Design solutions that serve immediate product needs while supporting long-term evolution.
• Technical Leadership: Lead by influence and expertise rather than authority.
• Cloud Architecture: Apply Azure services effectively to build scalable and resilient systems.
• System Design: Break down complex problems into clear, implementable designs.
• Problem Solving: Diagnose architectural issues and propose practical solutions.
• Collaboration: Work effectively within a single team while aligning with broader architectural direction.
• Adaptability: Respond constructively to changing requirements and priorities.
• Continuous Learning: Stay current with evolving technologies, frameworks, and architectural practices.

Applications will be accepted through 2/20/2026. This window may be extended depending on business needs.

Compensation at Pearson is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, and specific location. As required by the California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York State, New York City, Vermont, Washington State, and Washington DC laws, the pay range for this position is as follows:

The minimum full-time salary range is between $150,000 - $165,000.

This position is eligible to participate in an annual incentive program, and information on benefits offered is here.

Who We Are

At Pearson, our purpose is simple: to help people realize the life they imagine through learning. We believe that every learning opportunity is a chance for a personal breakthrough. We are the world's lifelong learning company. For us, learning isn't just what we do. It's who we are. To learn more: We are Pearson.

Pearson is an Equal Opportunity Employer and a member of E-Verify. Employment decisions are based on qualifications, merit and business need. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status or any other group protected by law. We actively seek qualified candidates who are protected veterans and individuals with disabilities as defined under VEVRAA and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act.

If you are an individual with a disability and are unable or limited in your ability to use or access our career site as a result of your disability, you may request reasonable accommodations by emailing [email protected].

Job: Architecture

Job Family: TECHNOLOGY

Organization: Assessment & Qualifications

Schedule: FULL_TIME

Workplace Type

Req ID: 22369

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