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Technical Lead vs. Technical Architect�Same Situation, Different Roles.

By Doria Hamelryk & Nathan Abondance

#FTD25

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Nathan ABONDANCE

  • Technical Architect
  • Cofounder & CTO @Think2
  • Technical Architect
  • Founder @Nortech Consult

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Doria HAMELRYK

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Why this topic?

  • There is a lot of confusion between these two roles.
  • Although they overlap, they remain distinct jobs, profiles, and responsibilities.
  • A Technical Lead is not an Architect.�An Architect is not a Technical Lead.
  • The career path for each role depends on skills, strengths, and what we like (and don’t like) to do.

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Real Life Scenario

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Reports Performances��A Salesforce Report becomes increasingly slow and occasionally times out. ��The business asks the team to “fix the report.” �

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Technical Lead Mindset : How do we make it faster?

Approaches the issue from the execution layer, focusing on making the existing mechanism work better.

DIAGNOSE

  • SOQL queries
  • Filters, Joins, Fields
  • Object Relationships
  • Report type structure

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OPTIMIZE

  • Add/selectivity indexes
  • Adjust sharing to avoid recalculations
  • Replace expensive formula fields
  • Remove unnecessary relationship
  • Propose using fewer joins

REDESIGN

  • Suggest scheduled snapshots
  • Migrate queries to Big Objects
  • Populate fields using Apex

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Architect Mindset : Should we do this in Salesforce?

Approaches the issue from an ecosystem and capability perspective, focusing on whether the platform is being used correctly.

CHALLENGE

  • Why to we need this report?
  • What do we do with the data?
  • Why do we need Real Time data?
  • What is the requested Frequency?

SUITABILITY

  • Is Salesforce the right system of truth for this metric?
  • Is the report too analytical/BI-oriented for SF?
  • Is this report actually compensating for missing processes or governance?

ENVISION

  • Should the report move to a BI Tool
    • A data warehouse (Snowflake, BigQuery)?
    • An ETL or replication layer?
  • Should the data be denormalized or pre-aggregated?

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Mindsets & Mental Models

Aspect

Technical Lead

Architect

Primary focus

Performance inside Salesforce

Correct system & capability fit

Horizon

Immediate fix

Structural fix

Mindset

“Optimize what we have”

“Should we even have this?”

Main activities

Debug, optimize, refactor

Reframe, redesign, reposition the need

Deliverable

Faster report

Correct target solution (not always SF)

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Batch Synchronization Problems��Nightly batch updates create data collisions and duplicates in Salesforce.��The business expects the team to “resolve the integration issues.”�

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Technical Lead Mindset : Fix the job so it runs smoothly

The Technical Lead assumes the integration pattern is given and must make the implementation robust.”

DIAGNOSE

  • Check Batch Logs
  • Identify Row-Locks Objects
  • Identify root cause of Duplicates creation

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OPTIMIZE

  • Reduce batch size
  • Reorder Operations & PK
  • Review Scheduling
  • Spread jobs

REDESIGN

  • External Ids management
  • Delta mode in place of all records
  • Retry mechanism / Dedup Logic

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Technical Architect Mindset : �Does this integration pattern still make sense?

The Architect assumes the Batch Approach is a design choice that might be wrong for today’s needs

CHALLENGE

  • Why are we still using batches? Because it was always like this?
  • Do we really need full data refresh? How important is data freshness?
  • Which system is the source of truth of the data?

STRUCTURAL CAUSES

  • Row locks: too many processes, poor PK management
  • Duplicates : poor FK strategy (external IDs), unclear data ownership
  • Governance : Identification of master vs. slave systems

ENVISION

  • Move to Real-Time or Near Real-Time (CDC, EDA,…)
  • Setup of an Enterprise broker (Kafka, Solace…)
  • Throttling, Decoupling and CDM strategy
  • Guidelines : use of integration patterns

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Mindsets & Mental Models

Aspect

Technical Lead

Architect

Entry point

“Batch job is failing”

“The integration pattern is outdated / wrong”

Time horizon

Next weeks

Next months / years

Scope

This job, these objects

Global data flows, data ownership

Deliverables

Refactor batch, improve DML patterns, add upsert & retry

Redesign integration (delta/events), clarify SoT, introduce broker/MDM/API layer

Goal

Make the batch work reliably

Make the architecture resilient and scalable

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Customer 360 View��Leadership asks for a complete, consistent customer profile�across various systems like CRM, ERP, marketing, and support systems.��

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Technical Lead Mindset : �How do we consolidate the data?

The Technical Lead will interpret the business request as:

“I need to bring more customer data into Salesforce so users see everything “

DATA ACQUISITION

  • API Endpoints
  • Push/Pull
  • Apex, ETL, MW
  • Data Mappings

DATA MODEL

  • New Fields
  • New Custom Objects
  • Account Relationship

INTEGRATION

  • Building or refactoring Apex REST
  • Improving middleware jobs
  • Managing external IDs
  • Handling retries, errors, mapping issues

DATA QUALITY

  • Deduplication rules
  • Validation rules alignment
  • Normalizing incoming data

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DATA DISPLAY

  • Flexi Pages
  • LWC
  • Reports / Dashboards
  • Data Cloud?

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Technical Architect Mindset : �What does Customer 360 actually mean for the business?

The Architect thinks a Customer 360 is NOT a technical project.�It is a business operating model and data governance approach.

CUSTOMER DEFINITION

  • Customer concept in each system
  • Customer attributes & CDM at Enterprise level

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GOLDEN RECORD

  • Mastership of Data
  • MDM system
  • Golden record : federated or centralized

INTEGRATION

  • Real-time updates?
  • Event-driven architecture?
  • Replication / virtualization?
  • Push/Pull?

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PRIVACY & SECURITY

  • GDPR consent unification
  • RTBF applied everywhere
  • Minimized data duplication
  • Region-specific laws

GOVERNANCE

  • Creation/Update rights
  • Sensitive data
  • Approval flow

BUSINESS VALUE AND OUTCOMES

  • Why it’s needed?
  • What are the success factors?

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Mindsets & Mental Models

Aspect

Technical Lead

Architect

View

System-level

Enterprise-level

Main question

“How do I consolidate data?”

“What is the strategic source of truth?”

Focus

Fields, objects, integrations

Operating model, governance, data ownership

Success metric

All data visible in Salesforce

Consistent global customer identity

Output

Working integrations, clean data

MDM strategy, golden record, unified model

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So… �Technical Lead / Technical Architect�Complementary & Different�

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TECHNICAL LEAD

TECHNICAL ARCHITECT

SCOPE

  • Project-level execution
  • Team coordination.
  • Enterprise-level architecture
  • Governance.

PROJECT

  • Coordinates with PM/PO to refine user stories, estimates and technical feasibility
  • Communicates with stakeholders to align technology choices with enterprise goals

DESIGN

  • Translates requirements into actionable technical tasks
  • Short-term technical decisions
  • Defines architecture patterns, standards, and best practices.
  • Designs scalable, secure, long-term solutions aligned with business strategy

SALEFORCE SPECIFIC

�

  • Customizes Salesforce Product
  • Direct in/out Salesforce integration
  • Monitors performance, stability, and technical debt
  • POC for new Products
  • End-to-End Salesforce integration & Security
  • Ensures Salesforce fits into global landscape

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TECHNICAL LEAD

TECHNICAL ARCHITECT

DELIVERABLES

  • Hands-on coding
  • Code reviews
  • Technical guidance
  • Architecture Schemas
  • Guidelines & Studies
  • Technical validation

INTERACTIONS

  • Developers
  • Business Analysts
  • PMs
  • Architects
  • Other TLs (other techno)
  • C-level / Executives
  • Business leaders
  • Enterprise Architects
  • Cyber-security, Compliance, Legal
  • External partners (other techno)

SUPPORT

  • Supports developers, unblocks issues, and maintains delivery velocity.
  • Guides delivery teams by validating designs and resolving high-level blockers.

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Choose Your Best Fit: Self-Assessment

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Self-Assessment

1. What type of problems energize you?

TL: “I love fixing complex technical issues and making things work better.”

Arch: “I love understanding why something is built and how all parts connect.”

3. How do you approach ambiguity?

TL: Solve the immediate problem

Arch: Step back and question whether the problem should even exist

5. What conversations do you enjoy the most?

TL: Hands-on technical decisions and implementation details

Arch: Cross-team alignment, long-term strategy, risk and governance

2. Where do you naturally focus your thinking?

TL: Inside the solution → code, flows, queries, performance

Arch: Above the solution → business processes, system roles, data ownership

4. What gives you the most satisfaction?

TL: Delivering high-quality implementations

Arch: Designing the right system and removing future obstacles

6. How do you prefer to create impact?

TL: Improving the product and the team’s velocity

Arch: Improving the business capabilities and overall ecosystem

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Conclusion

Two Roles, two Angles.

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Both Essential.

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Your path depends on what you ENJOY.

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Some points discussed during the session

It’s possible to drive both roles at the same time :

  • The project is not that big, so the architect and the tech lead is the same person.
  • You start as the architect at the beginning of the project, then move to technical lead once the vision and guidelines are set.
  • You can be a tech lead on one project, and a tech arch on another one, it depends on the need

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In regards of the presence of those roles :

  • We could have a part time architect on a project, especially when the scope of the project is fixed, but it’s more difficult to say the technical lead will be part time.
  • On the other hand, on big project you could have a team of several architects working full time on the project. Most of the time they will be driving topics involving multi-systems, not only the Salesforce ecosystem.

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