Pega Lead System Architect

Job Title: Pega Lead System Architect

Total Experience: 10+ Years

Relevant Experience: 10+ Years

Domain (Industry): Banking

Work Location: Toronto, Canada

Work Mode: Hybrid

Shift Details: 2 PM to 11 PM

Role Summary

The Pega Lead System Architect is responsible for the end-to-end architecture, technical design, development governance, and successful implementation of enterprise applications built on Pega Platform. The role provides hands-on technical leadership, translates business needs into scalable solution designs, guides engineering teams, and ensures that applications are secure, performant, maintainable, and aligned with Pega guardrails and delivery standards.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead scope definition, requirements analysis, solution architecture, functional and technical design, application build, testing, deployment, and production transition.
• Architect complex Pega solutions for case management, workflow automation, business rules, integrations, data access, security, and user experience.
• Own application architecture decisions, including enterprise class structure, ruleset strategy, reusable components, data model, deployment approach, and integration patterns.
• Provide technical governance through design reviews, code reviews, guardrail compliance checks, architecture checkpoints, and quality gates.
• Lead and mentor System Architects, Senior System Architects, developers, and technical leads; assign technical work and remove design impediments.
• Collaborate with clients, product owners, business analysts, program management, infrastructure teams, security teams, and integration partners.
• Ensure non-functional requirements are addressed, including performance, scalability, availability, security, auditability, maintainability, and operational support.
• Guide performance analysis and tuning using appropriate Pega diagnostic and monitoring capabilities, including Pega Diagnostic Cloud where applicable.
• Oversee integrations between Pega applications and enterprise systems using REST/SOAP services, messaging, file interfaces, databases, and other approved patterns.
• Support release planning, deployment validation, production readiness, post-release monitoring, root-cause analysis, and resolution of critical technical issues.
• Maintain architecture artefacts, technical specifications, decision records, deployment guidance, and knowledge-transfer materials.
• Identify opportunities to improve delivery through reusable assets, automation, platform capabilities, and Pega best practices.

Expected Deliverables

• Solution architecture and high-level/low-level technical design artefacts.
• Architecture decision records, integration specifications, data and security designs.
• Design and code review findings, guardrail remediation plans, and quality evidence.
• Capacity, performance, deployment, cutover, and production-readiness recommendations.
• Technical delivery plan, estimates, risks, dependencies, and mitigation actions.
• Mentoring, technical enablement, and knowledge-transfer plans for the delivery team.

Success Measures

• Solution meets agreed business and non-functional requirements.
• Architecture decisions are documented, traceable, and aligned with platform standards.
• Delivery teams follow approved design patterns and Pega guardrails.
• Technical risks and defects are identified early and driven to closure.
• Production releases are stable, supportable, and operationally ready.
• Client stakeholders receive clear, timely technical guidance and status communication.

Interview Focus Areas

• End-to-end Pega solution architecture and design trade-offs.
• Enterprise class structure, ruleset strategy, reuse, and application layering.
• Integration, security, data, performance, scalability, and deployment architecture.
• Pega guardrails, design/code reviews, debugging, monitoring, and production support.
• Leadership of multi-location engineering teams and stakeholder management.
• Practical experience with current Pega Platform capabilities relevant to the assignment.

Mandatory Skills

Required Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or a related discipline.
• 10+ years of overall experience in information technology with extensive experience delivering Pega applications.
• Pega Certified Lead System Architect (PCLSA/CLSA) certification.
• Strong hands-on knowledge of Pega Platform, including App Studio and Dev Studio, case management, data model, security, integrations, reporting, background processing, and deployment.
• Ability to communicate architecture decisions and technical risks clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Desired Skills

• Experience with recent Pega capabilities such as Constellation architecture, DX API, Pega Blueprint, Pega GenAI, Pega Cloud, and Pega Diagnostic Cloud.
• Knowledge of cloud platforms, containers, CI/CD, DevSecOps, automated testing, observability, and enterprise security controls.
• Experience with Pega Decisioning, Customer Decision Hub, industry frameworks, or specialized Pega products relevant to the engagement.
• Prior consulting experience in a client-facing environment and the ability to support proposals, estimates, technical discovery, and solution demonstrations.
• Experience conducting architecture audits, performance reviews, technical risk assessments, and modernization or upgrade programs.