Associate Principal Solutions Architect

ROLE SUMMARY

The Associate Principal, Solutions Architect is Tekion’s primary technical and strategic interface for OEM Digital Retail programs. In this role, you will serve as the face of Tekion to both the OEM and its consulting partners, responsible for capturing complex business requirements, designing integrated solutions, and driving alignment across internal product, engineering, and delivery teams.

You combine deep automotive domain expertise with strong technical acumen and executive communication skills. You are equally comfortable whiteboarding integration architectures with a systems integrator, negotiating solution tradeoffs with an OEM product team, and translating partner needs into actionable specifications for Tekion’s product organization. This is a high-visibility, high-impact role operating at the intersection of OEM strategy, consulting delivery, and Tekion platform capability.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

OEM & Partner Engagement

• Serve as the single-threaded technical owner of the OEM relationship, acting as Tekion’s primary point of contact for both the OEM program team and any consulting or systems integration partners (e.g., Deloitte).
• Build and maintain trusted relationships with senior stakeholders across OEM product, technology, and program management organizations.
• Lead onsite workshops, discovery sessions, and executive presentations; travel 25% to 50% to support engagement milestones and build in-person relationships.

Solution Design & Technical Architecture

• Translate complex OEM business requirements, such as dealer enrollment workflows, SSO and identity federation, OEM accessory ingestion, secure checkout, or financial services integrations, into well-defined technical solution designs.
• Identify, evaluate, and communicate solution tradeoffs clearly, enabling stakeholders to make informed decisions about scope, timeline, and risk.
• Lead technical scoping and effort estimation for new and evolving program initiatives, including defining integration patterns, API contracts, and data flow designs.
• Collaborate with Tekion’s product and engineering teams to develop prototypes, proofs of concept, and reference architectures for advanced capabilities such as digital lending, document handling, and high-trust OEM-to-DMS integrations.

Product & Engineering Alignment

• Serve as a critical translator between OEM partners and Tekion’s internal product organization, ensuring external requirements are accurately captured, prioritized, and reflected in roadmap and sprint planning.
• Develop and maintain high-quality technical artifacts, including BRDs, PRDs, API specifications, and solution architecture documents; keep project materials current in Confluence and Jira.
• Partner with product managers and engineering leads to identify platform gaps, influence the product roadmap, and ensure delivery commitments are grounded in technical reality.

Technical Delivery & Hands-On Proficiency

• Demonstrate hands-on technical capability, including API testing and validation with tools such as Postman, review of integration specifications, and participation in technical design reviews.
• Support integration delivery by providing guidance to both partner and internal engineering teams on Tekion platform capabilities, APIs, and data models.
• Proactively surface and resolve technical blockers, including SSO provisioning challenges, data synchronization issues, and cross-system dependency risks.

Communication & Executive Presence

• Communicate platform capabilities, solution designs, and delivery status clearly and confidently to audiences ranging from engineering leads to C-level executives.
• Deliver compelling product demonstrations and solution presentations; manage expectations and negotiate technical scope with external partners and internal stakeholders.
• Represent Tekion’s capabilities and constraints with credibility, advocating for the best possible solution while maintaining strong partner relationships.

SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

Required

• 8+ years in solutions architecture, technical pre-sales, or senior technical/product roles, with meaningful experience supporting automotive digital retail programs in a B2B context.

• Deep expertise in automotive retail domain areas, including vehicle desking, F&I, menu selling, lending and financing workflows, and DMS integrations.

• Demonstrated experience working at the interface of OEM programs and dealership technology, understanding how OEM requirements flow through to dealer operations and DMS platforms.

• Experience engaging with and navigating large consulting or systems integration firms (e.g., Big 4, Accenture, Deloitte) as part of complex, multi-party program delivery.

• Strong solution design skills, including the ability to define integration architectures, evaluate tradeoffs, scope effort, and produce clear technical documentation.

• Hands-on proficiency with REST APIs and integration tooling (e.g., Postman); comfort reading and producing API specifications and data flow diagrams.

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with a proven ability to build trust with senior stakeholders and lead executive-level discussions.

• Experience maintaining project documentation in Confluence and Jira within agile delivery environments.

Preferred

• Direct experience supporting an OEM Digital Retail program (e.g., Hyundai, GM, Honda, Stellantis) in a solutions architecture or technical program management capacity.

• Strong working knowledge of fixed operations, including service, parts, and repair workflows, and how they intersect with digital retail and customer lifecycle platforms.

• Familiarity with digital document management, e-contracting, and forms workflows in an automotive retail or financial services context.

• Experience with SaaS or cloud-native platform architecture in automotive, supply chain, or enterprise software environments.

• Exposure to CRM, online retail checkout, or consumer-facing digital retail platforms and their integration with back-office DMS systems.