1. What is a Solutions Architect at Applied Systems?

As a Solutions Architect at Applied Systems, you are stepping into a pivotal role at the intersection of technical innovation and business transformation. Applied Systems has over 40 years of experience leading the insurtech industry, and this role is critical to modernizing and scaling the software that makes the company indispensable to its customers. You will not just be designing systems; you will be redefining what is achievable in a complex, data-heavy product ecosystem.

In this position, your impact spans across multiple development teams and product lines. You will provide the architectural vision and technical guardrails necessary to build highly scalable, cloud-native applications. By collaborating closely with the enterprise architecture team, you ensure that local application designs seamlessly align with the broader corporate blueprint. Your work directly influences product reliability, developer efficiency, and the long-term technical health of the organization.

Expect a highly collaborative and dynamic environment where you are encouraged to try new things and champion engineering best practices. Whether you are developing proofs of concept to validate a new technology or mentoring engineers through complex asynchronous design patterns, your expertise will be a guiding force. This role requires a balance of hands-on technical depth—particularly with tools like Golang, GCP, and Kubernetes—and the strategic foresight to anticipate downstream impacts across a vast product suite.

2. Common Interview Questions

Expect questions that test both your theoretical knowledge and your practical experience implementing those theories in production environments. The questions below represent patterns you will likely encounter during your interviews.

System Design and Architecture

This category tests your ability to design scalable, reliable systems from the ground up, focusing heavily on cloud-native principles and microservices.

• Design a high-volume, asynchronous notification system for insurance brokers.
• How would you architect a solution to migrate a legacy, monolithic SQL database to a distributed, cloud-native architecture on GCP?
• Explain how you would implement fault tolerance in a microservices ecosystem where downstream third-party APIs are highly unreliable.
• Walk me through your decision-making process when choosing between choreography and orchestration for microservice communication.
• How do you design for data integrity in a distributed system utilizing eventual consistency?

Cloud Native and Development Technologies

These questions drill into the specific tech stack used at Applied Systems, evaluating your hands-on knowledge of the tools you will be architecting for.

• Describe your experience utilizing Kubernetes for container orchestration. How do you handle auto-scaling and resource limits?
• What are the primary advantages of using Golang for building high-performance microservices compared to other languages?
• How do you use OpenAPI specifications to enforce contract-driven development across multiple teams?
• Explain a complex issue you troubleshot in a production GCP environment and how you resolved it.
• How would you structure a React frontend application to efficiently consume a high-volume, real-time API?

Leadership, Mentorship, and Agile

These questions assess your ability to influence teams, manage stakeholders, and drive architectural vision within an Agile framework.

• Tell me about a time you had to push back on a product requirement because it violated architectural standards.
• Describe your approach to mentoring a mid-level developer who wants to transition into an architecture role.
• How do you balance the need to deliver features quickly with the necessity of maintaining long-term architectural health?
• Walk me through a time when a proof of concept you developed proved that a proposed solution was not viable. How did you pivot?
• How do you ensure that architectural documentation remains a living, useful resource rather than becoming obsolete?

3. Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Preparing for the Solutions Architect interview requires a holistic approach. You must demonstrate not only your technical depth but also your ability to communicate complex ideas and lead cross-functional teams. Your interviewers will be looking for a blend of hands-on engineering experience and high-level architectural thinking.

Focus your preparation on the following key evaluation criteria:

• System Design & Cloud Architecture – You will be evaluated on your ability to design scalable, fault-tolerant systems. Interviewers want to see how you leverage cloud-native technologies, particularly within Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and how you approach microservices, containerization, and orchestration.
• Engineering Excellence & Standards – As an architect, you set the bar for quality. Expect to be assessed on your knowledge of API design, asynchronous patterns, and modern development stacks including Golang, React, and Temporal. You must show how you establish standards for coding, testing, and debugging.
• Problem-Solving & Analytical Thinking – Applied Systems values candidates who can troubleshoot complex issues creatively. You should be prepared to present in-depth analyses of technical problems, explain your decision-making framework, and discuss how you evaluate software technologies fit for purpose.
• Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration – Technical skills alone are not enough. You will be evaluated on your ability to mentor others, conduct constructive code reviews, and work across business units to break down requirements into actionable development stories.

4. Interview Process Overview

The interview process for the Solutions Architect role at Applied Systems is designed to be thorough, collaborative, and reflective of the actual work you will do. It typically begins with a recruiter screen to align on your background, remote work capabilities, and high-level technical fit. This is usually followed by a technical screen with a senior engineering leader or architect, focusing on your core software development experience and your familiarity with cloud-native ecosystems.

As you advance to the virtual onsite stages, expect a mix of deep-dive technical panels and behavioral interviews. You will likely face a dedicated system design interview where you must architect a high-volume, fault-tolerant service from scratch, defending your technology choices along the way. Additionally, there will be sessions focused on cross-functional collaboration, where product managers and engineering peers evaluate how you translate business requirements into technical roadmaps and handle downstream impacts.

Applied Systems places a strong emphasis on culture and values. Throughout the process, interviewers will look for evidence that you are a supportive teammate, a willing mentor, and someone who thrives in an Agile environment. The pace is typically steady, with recruiters keeping you well-informed between stages.

This visual timeline outlines the typical sequence of your interview stages, from initial screening to the final comprehensive panels. Use this to pace your preparation, ensuring you are ready for high-level architectural discussions early on, while saving deep-dive behavioral examples for the later cross-functional rounds. Keep in mind that as a 100% remote role, all stages will be conducted virtually, so optimizing your remote presentation and digital whiteboarding skills is essential.

5. Deep Dive into Evaluation Areas

System Design and Cloud Architecture

System design is the cornerstone of the Solutions Architect evaluation. Interviewers need to know that you can build highly scalable, performant systems that can handle the unique data demands of the insurtech industry. A strong performance means designing solutions that are not only theoretically sound but practically deployable, secure, and maintainable.

Be ready to go over:

• Microservices and Orchestration – Designing decoupled architectures using Docker and Kubernetes. You must explain how you manage service discovery, load balancing, and inter-service communication.
• High Volume and Fault Tolerance – Architecting systems that gracefully handle failure. Expect to discuss asynchronous design patterns, message queues, and reliability engineering.
• Cloud-Native Infrastructure – Leveraging GCP services effectively. You should understand the trade-offs between different storage, compute, and networking options in the cloud.
• State Management and Workflows – Advanced concepts like managing distributed state and complex workflows, particularly using tools like Temporal.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Design a highly available, asynchronous document processing pipeline for insurance claims."
• "How would you architect a fault-tolerant microservice ecosystem on GCP that must maintain strict data integrity during a zone outage?"
• "Walk us through a time you had to refactor a monolithic application into microservices. What were the downstream impacts?"

API Design and Engineering Standards

As an architect at Applied Systems, you are expected to provide the technical guardrails for development teams. This area tests your practical experience with modern software development and your ability to enforce quality through standards and documentation.

Be ready to go over:

• RESTful API Principles – Designing intuitive, secure, and versioned APIs. You should be highly familiar with OpenAPI specifications and contract-driven development.
• Modern Tech Stack Proficiency – While you may not code every day, you need deep practical knowledge of Golang, React, and SQL to guide teams and review pull requests effectively.
• Code Quality and Testing – Establishing robust standards for unit testing, integration testing, and automated debugging pipelines.
• Security and Data Integrity – Identifying vulnerabilities early in the design phase and ensuring compliance with industry data protection standards.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "How do you ensure backward compatibility when introducing breaking changes to a highly consumed RESTful API?"
• "Describe your approach to establishing coding standards for a newly formed Golang development team."
• "What metrics or indicators do you look for during a critical architectural code review?"

Cross-Functional Leadership and Mentorship

An effective Solutions Architect does not work in a silo. You must collaborate with enterprise architects, product managers, and software engineers to turn vision into reality. This evaluation area focuses on your soft skills, your Agile methodology experience, and your ability to influence without direct authority.

Be ready to go over:

• Requirement Refinement – Breaking down complex, ambiguous business needs into actionable, well-scoped development stories.
• Mentorship and Skill Development – How you guide junior and mid-level engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning and technical excellence.
• Stakeholder Management – Presenting in-depth technical analyses to non-technical stakeholders and building consensus around innovative solutions.
• Agile Methodologies – Operating within Agile Scrum or Kanban frameworks to deliver iterative architectural improvements.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Tell me about a time you had to convince a product team to prioritize technical debt over a new feature release."
• "How do you approach mentoring an engineer who is struggling to adopt a new architectural pattern?"
• "Describe a situation where a design decision you made had an unexpected negative downstream impact. How did you handle it?"

6. Key Responsibilities

As a Solutions Architect at Applied Systems, your day-to-day work revolves around providing technical clarity and strategic direction to software development teams. You will spend a significant portion of your time collaborating with product managers and engineering leaders to understand business goals and translate them into robust technical designs. This involves creating detailed technical documentation that outlines application architecture, engineering best practices, integration processes, and testing procedures.

You will frequently develop proofs of concept to demonstrate the efficacy of proposed technologies, particularly when evaluating new tools within the GCP ecosystem or modernizing legacy flows. Once a path is chosen, you will champion these architectural standards, identifying scalability, data integrity, and security concerns before they reach production. Your role is highly proactive; you are expected to anticipate downstream impacts across complex product ecosystems.

Beyond design, you are an active participant in the engineering lifecycle. You will provide critical technical feedback during code reviews to ensure consistent quality and adherence to the standards you helped establish. Additionally, you will dedicate time to mentorship, guiding engineers through complex problem-solving scenarios and supporting the ongoing development of technical skills across the organization.

7. Role Requirements & Qualifications

To be successful as a Solutions Architect at Applied Systems, you need a blend of deep technical expertise and strong interpersonal skills. The company values practical, hands-on experience and the ability to navigate complex, high-volume systems.

• Must-have technical skills – You need 5+ years of software development experience with a strong focus on cloud-native development. Expertise in Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Golang, React, and SQL is essential. You must be proficient in microservices development, containerization (Docker), and orchestration (Kubernetes). Deep knowledge of API design, specifically RESTful principles and OpenAPI, is required.
• Must-have architectural skills – Practical experience building services designed for high volume, fault tolerance, reliability, and asynchronous design patterns. You must have a demonstrated ability to assess the downstream impact of design decisions across complex product ecosystems.
• Must-have soft skills – Strong problem-solving abilities, creative troubleshooting, and a track record of successfully working across business units to refine requirements into actionable stories. Experience with Agile Scrum or Kanban methodologies is mandatory.
• Nice-to-have skills – Experience with Temporal for workflow orchestration is a significant plus. While a Bachelor's degree in computer science is standard, Applied Systems explicitly encourages candidates with non-traditional backgrounds or military experience to apply, provided the technical expertise is proven.

8. Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How technical is the interview process for the Solutions Architect role? The process is highly technical. Even though you are interviewing for an architect position, you are expected to have deep, practical knowledge of software development, particularly with Golang, GCP, and Kubernetes. You will not necessarily be asked to write production code on a whiteboard, but you must be able to discuss code-level implementations, concurrency, and debugging strategies.

Q: Does Applied Systems require me to go into an office? No. This position allows you to work 100% remotely, provided you reside in North America. The company embraces flexible time and remote collaboration, so you will be evaluated on your ability to communicate and design systems effectively in a virtual environment.

Q: What makes a candidate stand out in the System Design rounds? Standout candidates do not just draw boxes on a screen; they articulate the why behind their choices. They proactively discuss trade-offs, acknowledge edge cases (especially regarding data integrity and security), and tie their technical decisions back to business value and user experience.

Q: How much insurance industry experience is required? While prior experience in insurtech is helpful for understanding the domain's complexity and regulatory requirements, it is not strictly required. Applied Systems values strong foundational architecture skills and problem-solving abilities above specific domain knowledge.

Q: What is the typical timeline from the initial screen to an offer? The process generally takes between three to five weeks. Applied Systems aims to move efficiently, but scheduling multiple senior technical panels can take time. Your recruiter will keep you updated on your status at each stage.

9. Other General Tips

• Master Virtual Whiteboarding: Since this is a remote role and interview process, practice using digital whiteboarding tools (like Miro, Lucidchart, or Excalidraw) while talking through your thought process. Clunky tool usage can distract from your excellent architectural ideas.
• Speak in Trade-offs: Whenever you propose a technology or design pattern (e.g., using Temporal vs. a standard message queue), explicitly state the pros and cons. Architects at Applied Systems are expected to evaluate software objectively based on fitness for purpose.
• Highlight the "Downstream": The job description repeatedly emphasizes assessing downstream impacts. In your behavioral and technical answers, always mention how your decisions affect other teams, existing product areas, and long-term maintenance.

• Structure with the STAR Method: For behavioral questions, strictly use Situation, Task, Action, Result. Ensure the "Result" highlights quantifiable improvements in reliability, efficiency, or team velocity.
• Prepare Questions for Them: Architects need to understand the business context to succeed. Ask your interviewers probing questions about their current technical debt, their GCP migration strategies, or how enterprise architecture collaborates with local teams.

10. Summary & Next Steps

Securing a Solutions Architect role at Applied Systems is an opportunity to drive meaningful technical transformation in an industry ripe for innovation. You will be at the forefront of designing resilient, cloud-native applications that power the insurtech ecosystem. By focusing your preparation on system scalability, modern engineering standards, and cross-functional leadership, you will position yourself as a candidate who can deliver immediate value and long-term vision.

The provided salary module reflects the targeted base range for this role in the United States. When interpreting this data, remember that your specific offer will depend heavily on your depth of experience with the core tech stack (GCP, Golang, Kubernetes) and your demonstrated architectural leadership. Additionally, this base salary is complemented by a comprehensive benefits package and potential performance-based bonuses.

Approach your interviews with confidence and a collaborative mindset. Your ability to communicate complex concepts clearly, mentor others, and design fault-tolerant systems is exactly what Applied Systems is looking for. Continue to refine your system design frameworks and review your past projects to extract compelling narratives. Focused preparation will materially improve your performance—you have the expertise to succeed, so go in ready to showcase your best amazing career moments.