Solution Architect Lead

At American Equity we offer leading annuity products that help empower our clients to fulfill their needs and wants in retirement. Our success comes from hiring high-energy individuals who embody the beliefs that drive our unique culture. We currently fund over half a million retirements nationwide, and have been headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa, for over twenty-five years with satellite offices in Charlotte, NC and New York, NY.

GENERAL PURPOSE OF THE JOB:

The Solution Architect is responsible for designing solutions specific to business project context and strategy execution at a macro and micro level with architecture design and implementation oversight in the domains of internal and third-party integrations, web portals and APIs, business technology platforms, policy administration, journey mapping, and omnichannel. The incumbent establishes and owns application architecture solutioning and oversight for core and business applications related to our Distribution organization; ensures existing applications and technology continues viability; and creates and drives standard, reusable, and consistent approaches to development processes. The incumbent collaborates with internal and external partners to ensure technology decisions and blueprints align with the overall Enterprise Architecture framework and works with other department architects to ensure alignment to meet team, department, and company goals. The Solution Architect partners and works closely with key stakeholders and strategic vendors, service providers as well as developers to plan, design &/or challenge the application architecture approaches that support cross-functional business needs and align with longer term best practice standards and viable technology roadmaps.

Individuals within this role specialize in designing and delivering enterprise‑grade user interfaces and CRM platform solutions, leveraging modern front‑end frameworks such as React to create scalable, intuitive, and high‑performance digital experiences that support business growth and operational excellence.

**Position sits in Des Moines and will work an onsite schedule**

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Develops, maintains, documents, and governs on-prem and cloud application architectures for the technology application portfolio and infrastructure domain in support of business functions.
• Enforces enterprise standards and policies in-line with Enterprise Architecture and system development lifecycle (SDLC) standards and strategies, and responsible for implementation and standardization for the IT discipline.
• Architects and governs enterprise‑grade front‑end solutions utilizing modern JavaScript frameworks (React), ensuring scalability, performance, accessibility, and maintainability across customer and internal digital experiences.
• Provides technical leadership and oversight for front‑end engineering practices, including state management, API integration patterns, performance optimization, and responsive/mobile design standards.
• Leads architectural design, integration strategy, and solution governance for enterprise CRM platforms (Salesforce), including data modeling, workflow design, extensibility patterns, and cross‑system interaction.
• Facilitates discovery of internal and external customers’ critical business issues and requirements.
• Oversees the ongoing optimization and future state evaluation of current and future applications, including the creation and maintenance of application roadmaps, as well as ensuring the viability and longevity of existing applications and processes.
• Drives cloud technology innovation, maturation/readiness and leverage into IT investments.
• Provides technology leadership, mentoring, pair programming, training, and proof-of-concept development for adoption of cloud technology through all areas of application development, in particular as it relates to high-performing development teams.
• Partners with IT Leaders on business case development with careful consideration of
• migrating from current or legacy solutions and approaches.
• Conducts research and development around new technology concepts or implementations, and makes recommendations for driving business value.
• Provides advanced architecture and engineering support to automate and administrator AEL’s application systems into all enterprise information systems.
• Drives planning and execution of roadmaps and technology enhancements.
• Creates and maintains standards and documentation related to business processes, procedure, and infrastructure.
• Assesses current applications and architecture to ensure current implementations align with industry guidelines, best practices and management approved standards.
• Develops plans for implementing management directives in most secure manners with least disruption.
• Assists various IT departments with design, implementation and troubleshooting of technologies. Provide standards and best practice guidance and requirements to technology teams when no solution is currently available.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Direct Reports: 0

General Description of Indirect Reports (2 and 3-downs): 0

EDUCATION AND/OR EXPERIENCE:

Bachelor’s degree in information technology or related field of study; Ten (10) years of related information technology work experience; Five (5) years of information technology experience working

with cloud solutions; Experience with front-end development best practices, including mobile platforms.

CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, PROFESSIONAL DESIGNATIONS: N/A

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

• Proficient in the use of Microsoft applications, .Net framework, and a variety of software.
• Demonstrated experience architecting CRM systems at scale — including configuration, customization, integration, workflow design, and governance (Salesforce preferred).
• Deep expertise designing and implementing enterprise‑level front‑end applications using modern JavaScript frameworks (React strongly preferred), including component architecture, state management tools, and UI performance optimization.
• Ability to guide development teams in modern front‑end best practices, code quality, testing strategies, and reusable application patterns.
• Strong customer service orientation.
• Effective verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to work cooperatively and successfully with co-employees, customers, and other outside third parties.
• Ability to successfully handle pressure and meet deadlines in a fast-paced work environment.
• Ability to analyze and apply principles of logical thinking to a wide range of intellectual and practical problems.
• Ability to make decisions and recommendations on technology strategies while considering various options and business needs.
• Ability to apply advanced mathematical concepts and mathematical applications to tasks.

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This description covers the major purpose and essential functions of the job. It is not intended to give all details or a step-by-step account of the way each task is to be performed. Employees may receive other job related instructions and be required to perform other job related work requested by their manager. All requirements are subject to possible modification to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities.

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