OU Education Services (OUES) is a nonprofit corporation established to manage and expand online learning for the University of Oklahoma System. As a growing education technology organization, we partner with the University to design, market, enroll, and support innovative online programs that expand access to high-quality education and improve learner outcomes.
At OUES, we believe the best decisions are informed by trusted data, thoughtful collaboration, and a relentless focus on student success. As our organization grows, analytics is becoming a strategic capability that influences every stage of the learner lifecycle and every major organizational decision.
OU Education Services is seeking a Salesforce Architect to serve as the internal technical owner for Salesforce architecture, solution design, and integrations involving the platform.
Reporting within Information Technology, this role is responsible for ensuring Salesforce solutions are scalable, secure, supportable, and aligned with OUES’s broader technology environment. The Salesforce Architect translates business and product requirements into sound technical designs, establishes platform standards, guides implementation partners, and protects the long-term integrity of the Salesforce environment.
This role works closely with IT leadership, Product Ownership, Operations, Enrollment, Marketing, Data, PMO, Salesforce administrators, developers, vendors, and implementation partners. The position ensures Salesforce decisions are well structured, integrations are designed appropriately, technical tradeoffs are understood, and OUES retains ownership of its platform architecture.
This is an IT individual contributor role with high ownership and clear accountability for Salesforce technical direction, solution quality, and long-term maintainability.
Key Responsibilities
Own Salesforce Architecture and Solution Design
- Own Salesforce technical architecture and solution design across major initiatives and releases
- Translate business capabilities and product requirements into scalable, secure, and supportable Salesforce solutions
- Define and maintain standards for data models, automation, security, customization, and development
- Determine when to use native Salesforce functionality, configuration, custom development, integration, or another platform
- Evaluate architectural options, constraints, risks, and tradeoffs before implementation
- Identify decisions that must be structurally correct early and capabilities that can be safely deferred
Lead Salesforce Integration Design
- Own technical design for integrations into and out of Salesforce
- Define appropriate integration approaches using APIs, middleware, batch processing, event-driven patterns, and vendor-managed interfaces
- Partner with enterprise data and integration teams to establish system-of-record, data ownership, synchronization, and dependency approaches
- Ensure Salesforce integrations include appropriate monitoring, error handling, reconciliation, and recovery
- Maintain visibility into Salesforce dependencies across connected systems
Protect Platform Quality and Maintainability
- Review solution designs, configurations, automations, custom development, and integration approaches
- Challenge requirements or recommendations that introduce unnecessary complexity, customization, or technical debt
- Establish technical standards for Salesforce environments, releases, deployments, and change management
- Maintain visibility into architectural decisions, platform risks, and technical debt
- Ensure Salesforce solutions remain understandable, supportable, and owned by OUES
- Contribute to architecture documentation, solution designs, integration inventories, decision logs, and implementation runbooks
Guide Vendors and Delivery Teams
- Provide technical direction to Salesforce administrators, developers, vendors, and implementation partners
- Review vendor proposals, technical recommendations, and implementation deliverables
- Ensure external partners build against OUES architecture, standards, and long-term ownership needs
- Serve as the technical point of escalation for Salesforce architecture, platform design, and integrations involving Salesforce
- Support release readiness by validating technical dependencies, assumptions, environment needs, migration considerations, and implementation risks
Partner Across the Enterprise
- Partner with Product Ownership to ensure technical solutions support business outcomes, roadmap priorities, and phased delivery
- Partner with Operations, Enrollment, and Marketing teams to understand workflows, business needs, and platform requirements and simplify Salesforce design where possible
- Partner with Data and IT teams on Salesforce integration with Microsoft Fabric, analytics, reporting, governance, and future AI capabilities
- Partner with PMO and delivery teams to identify technical dependencies, sequencing risks, and decisions requiring escalation
Qualifications Required
- Significant experience designing and delivering enterprise Salesforce solutions
- Strong knowledge of Salesforce architecture, including data modeling, automation, security, sharing, integrations, and development patterns
- Experience translating complex business requirements into structured technical solutions
- Experience designing Salesforce integrations using APIs, middleware, batch processing, or event-driven approaches
- Strong understanding of configuration, automation, custom development, and integration tradeoffs
- Experience with Salesforce environments, releases, deployment practices, and change management
- Ability to assess technical feasibility, scalability, supportability, and architectural risk
- Strong communication skills with the ability to explain technical decisions and tradeoffs to technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Demonstrated ability to challenge assumptions and recommend simpler, more sustainable approaches
Qualifications Preferred
- Salesforce Education Cloud or other Salesforce solutions supporting enrollment, student lifecycle, or service operations
- Complex higher education or multi-system enterprise environments
- Microsoft Fabric, Azure, or similar data and integration platforms
- Environments where Salesforce operates as one part of a broader enterprise ecosystem
- Implementation partners, third-party vendors, and complex Salesforce delivery programs
- Architecture decision records, release readiness, and documentation practices that improve long-term supportability
- Salesforce architecture certifications or equivalent demonstrated experience
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.
