Architecture: market

Vacancy

an open job that cleared the quality gate and lists at least two technologies

Observed candidate

a candidate whose stack contains this technology; an aggregate — not a single record leaves the perimeter

Matchable candidate

not counted yet

Window

jobs open at the moment the snapshot was built

Top-5 technologies in Architect postings across CIS and Europe: cloud, solutions architect, aws, azure, python. An architect is not tied to one stack, but experience across a broad set is required. Baseline skills: Java (dominates enterprise) or Python, Go, C#/.NET; microservices architecture; Kubernetes and Docker; one cloud deeply (AWS, GCP, Azure); databases — PostgreSQL, Redis, Kafka, ClickHouse. Architectural patterns are mandatory: DDD (Domain-Driven Design), CQRS, Event Sourcing, SAGA, API gateway, Service mesh (Istio). Notation: UML, C4 model, ArchiMate. Soft skills — stakeholder negotiation, technical leadership, team mentoring.

Solutions Architect — designs a solution for a specific client or project. Close to a customer-facing role with heavy business communication. Software Architect — internal product/service architecture, works with the development team, not clients. Cloud Architect — narrow specialisation on AWS/GCP/Azure, IaC, multi-region solutions. Enterprise Architect — the highest level: owns the architecture of the whole company, signs off the tech roadmap, answers to C-level. Data Architect — data and warehouses. Security Architect — security. Integration Architect — system-to-system integrations. By pay: Enterprise > Cloud ≈ Solutions > Software > Integration. Demand: Solutions and Cloud at the top.

Partially: 34% of Architect jobs are full-remote. Banks and fintech require hybrid or office because of compliance and the need for live workshops with dev teams and stakeholders. Marketplaces — more often hybrid. International product teams and consulting firms — often full-remote with client trips. Architects spend a lot of time on voice — Zoom/Teams calls with teams and stakeholders take 40–60% of the day.

Senior Developer — deep expertise in one area (Backend, Frontend, DevOps), writes code, does code review. Tech Lead — Senior + responsibility for the technical state of a team (5–10 people), spends part of the time on mentoring and planning but still writes code. Architect — barely writes code (10–20% of the time), focused on design, technology choice, documentation, and stakeholder negotiation. An architect operates at the level of an entire product or multiple services; a Tech Lead operates at the level of one service. Career flow: Senior Developer (5–7 years) → Tech Lead (2–3 years) → Software Architect → Solutions/Enterprise Architect. By pay: Architect usually pays 20–40% above Tech Lead for the strategic-thinking premium.

There is no direct path into architecture — it is an evolution. Baseline requirement: 5–7 years of Senior experience in one of the engineering roles (Backend, DevOps, Data Engineer, Security). Then: broaden scope by working across several services at once, taking part in RFC discussions, designing new components, mentoring juniors. Certifications help for Cloud Architect: AWS Solutions Architect Professional, Google Professional Cloud Architect, Azure Solutions Architect Expert. Books: "Designing Data-Intensive Applications" (Kleppmann), "Software Architecture: The Hard Parts", "Building Evolutionary Architectures". Soft skills — negotiation, presentations, documentation (UML, C4 model). The architecture path usually takes 8–12+ years from the start.

As of the latest data refresh, the Zorky CRM sample contains 13883 active open architect positions across CIS and Eastern Europe. These are postings published in the last 90 days — companies actually hiring. Geography is distributed; the leaders are US, GB, PL. Data is collected from 101 job boards and 15 780 company career sites: Telegram channels (an exclusive stream, especially from consulting), specialised job sites (HH, Habr Career, Djinni, DOU, NoFluffJobs, JustJoin.it, Pracuj.pl), and career pages of major banks and cloud companies. Architect is a relatively niche role — the volume of openings is smaller than Backend or Frontend, but consistently high thanks to ongoing legacy modernisation at large companies.

The main driver of the gap is contract currency and company type. Georgia (Tbilisi) attracts many remote relocants on international pay. Belarus — local market has shrunk, moves to Poland or Georgia.

A Senior Architect owns the tech stack at Senior Developer level plus architectural patterns and soft skills. Technical: one primary language deeply (Java + Spring, Python + Django/FastAPI, Go, C#/.NET), microservices, API design (REST + GraphQL + gRPC), one cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure), Kubernetes, databases (PostgreSQL, Redis, Kafka, ClickHouse). Architectural patterns: DDD, CQRS, Event Sourcing, SAGA, API gateway, Service mesh. Notation: UML, C4 model, ArchiMate. Soft skills: stakeholder negotiation, technical leadership, mentoring, documentation, presentations. Knowledge of non-functional requirements: performance, scalability, security, observability, disaster recovery, compliance.