Learn About the Salesforce Architect Role
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Describe what a Salesforce architect does.
- List the skills that Salesforce architects use in their work.
The Power of an Architect
If you’ve learned about the Fourth Industrial Revolution here on Trailhead, you know that rapid advances in technology are changing the way companies connect with their customers. To achieve their business goals, organizations need technical experts who know the landscape and who can design the right Salesforce solution.
These experts are Salesforce architects. Read on to learn some of what architects do and how they drive success throughout the implementation process.
What Is a Salesforce Architect?
Salesforce architects design, build, and deliver solutions that businesses need to succeed in a demanding economy.
Architects are the lead technical resource for delivery teams and project stakeholders. Now, not all architects start out as developers, and they don’t all have an engineering background. But they do have deep technical knowledge, and they draw on that knowledge to serve as trusted digital advisors, technical influencers, and experienced practitioners.
For example, architects consult on product purchasing strategy and communicate with business stakeholders. Because they understand what’s possible technically, and they have a clear vision of the desired business outcome, they can recommend an implementation that adds value and is both scalable and sustainable.
What does this look like in practice? Let’s say an electronics company uses Salesforce Commerce Cloud to manage its product and customer orders. The company already delivers a great digital experience, and its customers can make purchases online for in-store pickup. But some customers don’t complete their orders.
The Salesforce architect analyzes the problem and recommends integrating Marketing Cloud to send the customer reminders about their abandoned shopping cart. The architect then designs the integration strategy, considering a number of factors, from processing limits to license allocations, in coming up with a recommendation for which connector to use. The architect’s work helps determine which products the business invests in and how that investment impacts other parts of the organization.
Required Skills
Successful Salesforce architects typically have a broad background in solution architecture, technical architecture, and systems engineering.
Here are the technical skills and specializations a Salesforce architect should have.
- A solid understanding of the architectural principles of cloud-based platforms, including SaaS, PaaS, multitenancy, multitiered infrastructure, integration patterns, and application servers
- Experience with release management, source control, and deployment technologies such as CI/CD pipelines, Metadata API, and integration services
- Experience with cross-cloud Salesforce (SFDC) implementations integrated with other cloud and on-premise systems
- Awareness of platform-specific design considerations such as large data volumes, allocation limits, and data migration
- Knowledge of software design principles
An architect should also have these soft skills and nontechnical skills.
- Ability to communicate solutions to a variety of technical and nontechnical stakeholders
- Strong business acumen
- Executive presence
- Ability to identify technical design risks
- Experience developing governance strategies to mitigate risk
Plan Your Architect Journey
If you’re interested in becoming a Salesforce architect, take a look at the Salesforce Architect Careers page. There you find a description of a day in the life of an architect and a trailmix you can follow to start building skills.