Salesforce Technical Architect - VA LGY

The Technical Architect (Salesforce) is a key member of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Loan Guaranty Service (LGY) Development Security and Operations (DevSecOps) team. This role is responsible for furthering modernization by analyzing technical enhancements, documenting technical requirements, and facilitating collaboration across teams to support the requirements gathering, design, evaluation, and development of mostly Salesforce technology solutions; however broader expertise and experience is preferred.

The Technical Architect (Salesforce) works closely with VA business users, the VA OIT (Office of Information Technology), product managers, developers, other architects, business analysts, and system administrators to design Salesforce technical architecture that is:

• Clearly defined
• Logical, functional, and scalable
• Aligns with Salesforce best practices
• Meets technical, compliance, and operational needs, and
• Capabilities operate as expected

Key Functions

• Solution Architecture & System Design
  • Collaborate with VA business users, VA OIT, developers, architects, and administrators to assess, define and refine technical architecture solutions.
  • Conduct research and stay informed on emerging Salesforce products/solution/tools, technologies, and best practices to support modernization.
  • Validate that proposed Salesforce architecture solutions, enhancements, or integration points comply with VA security, data governance, and architectural standards.
  • Perform proof-of-concept evaluations to assess technical feasibility and solution fit.
  • Evaluate/assess existing Salesforce components (including licensing agreements) for suitability in design of the solution architecture, including integration of non-Salesforce IT components where necessary.
  • Obtain VA business user and/or VA OIT solution architecture approval.
• Integration
  • Architect integrations between Salesforce and up/downstream systems, datasets, and tools using REST/SOAP APIs, middleware (MuleSoft), event-based integrations, and platform events.
  • Analyze integration patterns (synchronous, asynchronous, batch, event-driven) to select the best integration solutions between Salesforce IT components and other applications/data sets.
  • Ensure architecture and integrations follow authentication and data security best practices, including, but not limited to least privilege.
• Data Architecture & Management
  • Design scalable and efficient data models that align and support business processes using existing Salesforce ecosphere IT products/solutions.
  • Define data management practices including data integrity, deduplication, governance, migration, and archival.
  • Plan and execute large data migrations and exchanges using tools like Data Loader, APIs, ETL solutions.
  • Address data volumes to avoid performance and operational issues with Salesforce platform limits.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Systems Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• 3+ years of experience in IT architecture design and assessment, including designing and enhancing platform and app integrations.
• 2+ years of experience working with Salesforce Cloud products and solutions.
• Strong troubleshooting and diagnostic skills for resolving architecture design and integration issues.
• Experience documenting solution architecture, data architecture, and integration requirements, system workflows, technical diagrams, data mappings, and procedures.
• Working understanding of APIs, ETL, integrations, databases, cloud concepts, system architecture, and IT infrastructure basics.
• Working understanding of Salesforce IT security requirements/features
• Ability to communicate technical information clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting VA LGY or other federal initiatives using Agile, Scrum, and DevSecOps practices.
• Familiarity with VA LGY technology stack, including Salesforce, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Application Programming Interface (API) integrations, enterprise data platforms, analytics tools, and Linux/Red Hat environments.
• Knowledge of VA information technology architecture, security, data governance, internal and partner integrations, and compliance standards.
• Knowledge of user tooling concepts for web- or Salesforce based tools integrated with and/or ingesting data from a large, complex technology stack.
• General knowledge of Federal IT security requirements and processes including Authorities to Operate; Plans of Action and Milestones (POAMs); security scans, testing, and issue resolution.
• Additional recommended certifications: Salesforce (e.g., Certified Administrator, Certified Platform App Builder, Certified Platform Developer, Certified Integration Architect, Certified Data Architect)

Position Details

• Employment Type: Full-Time, W2
• Location: 100% Remote (US-based only)
• Hours: 40 hours/week with availability during core business hours of 8am -5pm ET
• Start Date: ASAP
• Eligibility: Must be eligible to obtain a Public Trust clearance