Contract
A vetted engineer embedded in your team for a defined term.
Hire enterprise architects
Conntal places enterprise architects who have carried a decision through delivery rather than stopping at the diagram. Candidates are screened by Ace8 practitioners on a real estate decision with real constraints — cost, residency, existing debt — and on whether they can say no to their own preferred architecture.
The screen · Enterprise architectConntal Vetting Standard
Scenario put to the candidate
A client wants an event-driven rebuild of a batch settlement process. Their team has never run a broker in production and the regulator requires replayable audit evidence. What do you recommend?
The full rubric, including what separates a senior answer from a mid one, is directly below.
Screened by practitioners
Ace8 and AceMQ engineers, not recruiters
130+
enterprises served across 26+ countries
Contract, C2H or direct
onshore, nearshore or offshore
The screen
What we actually ask.
This is the rubric a practitioner uses when they assess a enterprise architect. We publish it so you can judge our bar before you engage us — and so candidates know exactly what they are walking into.
The screen · Enterprise architectConntal Vetting Standard
Scenario put to the candidate
A client wants an event-driven rebuild of a batch settlement process. Their team has never run a broker in production and the regulator requires replayable audit evidence. What do you recommend?
A senior answer contains
- Asks what breaks today before designing what replaces it, and whether batch is actually the problem.
- Names the operational cost honestly: a broker the team cannot run is a new outage source, not an upgrade.
- Treats replayable audit evidence as an architectural constraint with retention and immutability implications, not a feature.
- Is willing to recommend not rebuilding, and can say what would change that answer.
Where a mid answer stops
- Starts from the target architecture and works backwards to justify it.
- Treats the regulator's requirement as a logging question.
- Cannot describe who operates the thing after go-live.
Titles this covers
One brief, several job titles.
These titles overlap heavily and are used inconsistently between companies. Tell us the outcome you need and we will tell you which title actually fits it.
- Enterprise architect
- Solution architect
- Integration architect
- Data architect
- Cloud architect
- Principal architect
What we screen on
Technologies, by category.
Candidates are screened against the stack you actually run, not a generic checklist. Messaging appears on every role because it is where our deepest bench sits.
Practice
TOGAFcapability modellingtarget state and roadmaparchitecture review boards
Integration
event-driven architectureAPI managementWSO2MuleSoftApigee
Platform
Kuberneteshybrid cloudAWSAzureGCPmicroservices
Regulated
data residencymodel risk governanceaudit evidenceFIPS constraints
Engagement
Contract, contract-to-hire or direct.
Platform work usually starts with a defined piece of change and becomes ongoing ownership, which is why most enterprise architects engagements begin on contract.
Contract-to-hire
Work together first, convert when it is obviously working.
Direct placement
A permanent hire, screened to the same standard.
Location
Global bench, nearshore first.
We staff globally. Nearshore is our default recommendation because it preserves same-working-day overlap while aligning cost with budget.
OnshoreHighest rate
NearshoreOur default recommendation
OffshoreLowest rate
Rate bands and procurement detail on the delivery models page.
How it works
Three steps, and the first one is not a recruiter.
- 01
A practitioner scopes the role
An engineer who runs this technology reads your brief and tells you what is missing from it. Most briefs we receive ask for the wrong seniority or the wrong title.
- 02
We screen, then shortlist
Sourcing is ours; the technical decision belongs to the vetting practitioner. You see candidates who have already passed the scenario published on this page.
- 03
Start, convert or replace
Contract, contract-to-hire or direct. If the fit is wrong we say so first and replace rather than defend the placement.
Who vets enterprise architects
A named engineer owns this screen.
Platform engineering lead
Kubernetes and DevSecOps delivery across EKS, AKS, GKE and OpenShift; incident response with a 15-minute commitment.
Name and headshot pending — see /how-we-vet
The full rubric, the funnel and every vetting practitioner are on the Conntal Vetting Standard page.
FAQ
Enterprise architects: what buyers ask
What does an enterprise architect actually do?
They own the shape of the estate: how capabilities map to systems, which decisions are reversible, and what the target state costs to operate. The useful ones stay attached through delivery, because an architecture nobody implements is a document.
How do you screen enterprise architects?
On a real estate decision with real constraints. The strongest signal is whether a candidate will argue against their own preferred architecture when the constraints do not support it, and whether they know who operates the result.
Is this consulting or staffing?
Staffing. Conntal places an architect into your team. If you want the architecture delivered as an engagement rather than a hire, Ace8 does that work directly and we will point you there instead.
Do you place architects on contract?
Yes. Contract is common for a defined target-state or assessment phase; direct placement is common where the role owns the review board and the roadmap on an ongoing basis.
Do your architects have regulated-industry experience?
Many do. The parent practices deliver into banking, healthcare and public sector, so candidates are routinely screened on residency, auditability and the governance constraints those sectors impose.
Can an architect be staffed nearshore?
Often yes, though architecture roles carry more stakeholder time than most, so we look harder at working-day overlap. Nearshore usually works; offshore is situational for this role and we will say so.
Need enterprise architects? Start with the brief.
Send the requirement and an engineer who runs this technology will tell you what is missing before we source anyone.