VP, Solution Architect – Marketing Engineering

Cincinnati, Ohio
Synchrony Financial
Role Summary/Purpose:

In today’s rapidly evolving financial landscape, innovative solutions are essential to address complex challenges. The Vice President, Solution Architect thrives in a hands-on role focused on system design and architecture, leading by example to design, implement, and manage highly available, scalable integrations across marketing and related platforms. This role also entails continuous discovery, exploration, and rapid learning of SaaS platforms and solutions.

Success in this position requires deep expertise in solution architecture-developing microservices and integrated solutions utilizing AI tools-and integrating internal and external SaaS AI capabilities. The ideal candidate will demonstrate strong leadership, influence multiple teams, and adapt quickly to ever-changing technologies.

Our Way of Working

We’re proud to offer you choice and flexibility. At Synchrony, our way of working allows you to have the option to work from home near one of our Hubs or come into one of our offices. Occasionally you may be required to commute to our nearest office for in person engagement activities such as business or team meetings, training and culture events.

Essential Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with business and IT teams to understand requirements, ensure solutions adhere to standards, and deliver on schedule.
• Partner with multiple IT teams to develop high-availability, high-performance solutions that comply with organizational security and standards.
• Oversee the build and ongoing management of Marketing and Martech applications.
• Communicate regularly with business and technology leaders, providing status updates, dashboards, and solution reviews.
• Manage diverse IT technologies and priorities across multiple teams using Agile methodologies.
• Maintain comprehensive process and documentation standards, including design documentation, coding, testing, and code reviews.
• Implement proactive monitoring to minimize or prevent application impact. Provide 24×7 on-call escalation support as needed.
• Identify opportunities for automation, system improvements, and simplifications in engineering solutions.
• Maintain a passion for knowledge, continuously learning emerging technologies including AI/ML/Gen AI.
• Leverage GenAI tools to enhance deliverables and efficiency as required.
• Evaluate SaaS platforms’ AI capabilities and drive integration strategies using experience, Synchrony standards and industry best practices.
• Influence Agile development teams throughout all phases of the scaled Agile lifecycle.
• Lead Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) strategies leveraging, Bitbucket, CloudBees, Jenkins, and uDeploy tools.
• Collaborate with train and Agile team leaders to ensure delivery at every Program Increment.
• Mentor and guide team members at all levels, influencing upward, downward, and laterally.
• Ensure compliance with Synchrony’s architecture, security, and technology standards.
• Contribute to defining and maintaining future-state technology architecture and application modernization roadmaps.
• Define and enforce Non-Functional Requirements, including performance, security, reliability, scalability, usability, maintainability, and portability.
• Analyze production issues, troubleshoot effectively, identify root causes, and implement solutions.
• Stay current on emerging technologies, open-source projects, and programming languages.
• Work with third-party vendors to develop or integrate software into company products.
• Coach and mentor engineering leads to enhance their technical expertise and leadership abilities.
• Perform additional duties and special projects as assigned.

Qualifications/Requirements:

• Bachelor’s Degree with 8+ years of system engineering experience, or High School Diploma/GED with 12+ years of skilled system engineering experience.
• Excellent verbal and written communication, analytical, problem-solving, and collaboration skills.
• Minimum 5 years designing scalable applications.
• At least 3 years of leadership experience managing teams.
• Minimum 3 years working with Marketing solutions and SaaS platforms across Martech and AdTech.
• Proven experience integrating AI tools, building AI-driven solutions, and using AI tools.
• 4+ years managing high-availability technology solutions, including APIs across Java and other platforms, utilizing monitoring tools and dashboards.
• At least 2 years specializing with Martech/AdTech platforms.
• Strong critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving capabilities.
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to business and client stakeholders.
• Ability and flexibility to travel for business as required

Desired Characteristics:

• Experience with Java, Oracle, Apache, and other application servers across Linux, Unix, Windows, PCF, and AWS environments.
• Strong initiative, motivation, and communication skills.
• Familiarity with DAM, Preference and Consent management, CDP, Email, and SMS activation platforms is a significant plus.
• Expertise in continuous integration and delivery environments.
• Proficient with monitoring tools such as New Relic and Splunk for production support.
• Knowledge of JSON, REST, and GraphQL-based web services.
• Experience with financial or banking applications support and development preferred.
• Excellent interpersonal skills to influence clients, teams, management, and external stakeholders.
• Strong written and oral communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
• Relevant certifications in architecture, cloud platforms, or Agile methodologies are advantageous but not mandatory.

Grade/Level: 12

The salary range for this position is 135 000.00 USD Annual and is eligible for an annual bonus based on individual and company performance.

Actual compensation offered within the posted salary range will be based upon work experience, skill level or knowledge.

Salaries are adjusted according to market in CA, NY Metro and Seattle.

Our Way of Working :

We’re proud to offer you flexibility. At Synchrony, our way of working allows you to have the option to work from home near one of our Hubs or come into one of our offices. You will be required to commute to your nearest Hub (either virtual or physical) for in-person engagement activities such as regular business or team meetings, training and culture events.

Field Sales and some Commercial team roles may have varied location requirements based upon partner obligations or preferences.

Eligibility Requirements:

• You must be 18 years or older
• You must have a high school diploma or equivalent
• You must be willing to take a drug test, submit to a background investigation and submit fingerprints as part of the onboarding process
• You must be able to satisfy the requirements of Section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.
• New hires (Level 4-7) must have 9 months of continuous service with the company before they are eligible to post on other roles. Once this new hire time in position requirement is met, the associate will have a minimum 6 months’ time in position before they can post for future non-exempt roles. Employees, level 8 or greater, must have at least 18 months’ time in position before they can post. All internal employees must consistently meet performance expectations and have approval from your manager to post (or the approval of your manager and HR if you don’t meet the time in position or performance expectations).

Legal authorization to work in the U.S. is required. We will not sponsor individuals for employment visas, now or in the future, for this job opening. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.

Our Commitment:

When you join us, you’ll be part of an inclusive culture where your individual skills, experience, and voice are not only heard – but valued. Together, we’re building a future where we can all belong, connect, and turn ideals into action. More than 50% of our workforce is engaged in our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), where community and passion intersect to offer a safe space to learn and grow.

This starts when you choose to apply for a role at Synchrony. We ensure all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status. We’re proud to have an award-winning culture for all.

Reasonable Accommodation Notice:

• Federal law requires employers to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities. Please tell us if you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job or to perform your job. Examples of reasonable accommodation include making a change to the application process or work procedures, providing documents in an alternate format, using a sign language interpreter, or using specialized equipment.
• If you need special accommodations, please call our Career Support Line so that we can discuss your specific situation. We can be reached at 1-. Representatives are available from 8am – 5pm Monday to Friday . click apply for full job details