We continue to cover the Salesforce job market extensively at Salesforce Ben, and for good reason. The ecosystem has struggled for a couple of years following a boom period during COVID, with a continued supply-and-demand issue worldwide impacting everyone – from entry-level admins to experienced Salesforce developers and beyond.
Technical architects (TAs) remain the pinnacle of all roles in the Salesforce ecosystem, as they can combine their deep platform knowledge with big-picture strategic thinking to help teams solve complex problems. However, that value in knowledge comes with an expensive price tag.
According to our salary survey from last year, TAs consistently rank as one of the highest-paid roles across nearly every country – including the US, India, Canada, and the UK. So, it comes as no surprise that TAs make up around just 1% of the global Salesforce talent pool. Companies understand what they bring, but also know they’re expensive to fund.
One thing that has been acknowledged quite widely recently in the ecosystem is job adverts that – according to experienced TAs – do not match the value the role really brings, highlighting low salary offers as the main issue.
Darrell Gallegos, an experienced freelance TA, took to LinkedIn to voice his displeasure at the salary being offered for a potential role.
Shekhar Bhojwani, a certified senior Salesforce TA, further echoed this sentiment, touching much on Darrell’s point about career choices.
It’s clear that a discrepancy is growing between the salary being offered and what the expectations are, but there are a few different factors that impact this discussion. On the one hand, this may genuinely be a strategic approach for companies, presenting lowball offers due to smaller budgets.
On the other hand, this may be a sign that the salaries for TAs are “correcting themselves” after years of overpaying in more lucrative periods for the Salesforce job market.
To investigate this further, I spoke to three veteran voices in the ecosystem – Keir Bowden, former CTO of Salesforce UK at Credera, Paul Battisson, the CEO and Founder of Groundwork Apps, and Melissa Shepard, the Co-Founder and Managing Architect at Maple Digital Transformation – to discuss how the role of a TA has evolved, why this trend has emerged in the Salesforce job market, and what the true reason behind it really is.
“Companies Don’t Really Understand What an Architect’s Supposed To Be Doing…”
As highlighted above, the uproar in the ecosystem is ongoing – why are TAs being offered offensively low salaries when they can bring so much knowledge to an organization?
Melissa, a seasoned mentor for future architects, believes that companies frequently misinterpret the role of technical architects. This misunderstanding leads to an expectation of hands-on development skills rather than the strategic design work that truly defines the profession.
“Companies don’t really understand what an architect’s supposed to be doing,” Melissa explained. “They’re looking for some skill sets that maybe are below architect, but they’re calling it architect. They’re bringing salaries down when sometimes they want more of a senior or lead developer, but they’re calling it an architect because they want them to do some architect stuff.
I saw [a job posting] recently where they basically advertised for a scrum master, but it was a solution architect. Those are two completely different skill sets. I’m a horrible project manager, but I can be a great architect. You can’t put those two things together. So, I think that’s part of what’s happening – companies have a hard time measuring the value of an architect.”
Melissa also mentioned how it can be difficult to measure the success of TAs.
“What I’ve seen is that companies often don’t value architects because their work isn’t as easy to measure. With a developer, you give them a user story, they complete it, and there’s a clear output. But with architects, it’s different – they’re not closing tickets. It’s not that kind of role. And because of that, companies struggle to see the value.”
While the likes of admins and developers have tangible, measurable outputs, it’s harder to track how well a TA is doing without those same metrical expectations in place.
Is the Salesforce Certified Technical Architect (CTA) Credential Losing Value?
The Salesforce Certified Technical Architect (CTA) is the most prestigious credential in the Salesforce ecosystem. Held by only a small percentage of professionals – including Melissa – it demonstrates deep expertise in designing scalable, enterprise-level Salesforce solutions.
But even Salesforce’s most elite credential isn’t immune to this current perception gap. Melissa noted that the return on investment for this cert has faced a sharp decline, with that misunderstanding from businesses still persisting.
“I got my CTA four years ago, and I just keep seeing the ROI on it dwindle over the years,” Melissa explained. “I think most businesses don’t know what the CTA is or understand its value. I’ve seen job postings that say they’d prefer someone with it, but they’re only offering $85 to $95 an hour.”
“I just think, good luck with that. In a lot of cases, it doesn’t even matter to them. Companies just don’t care or don’t understand what the certification actually represents.”
In essence, as the job market becomes increasingly saturated, there’s a risk that the CTA will be seen as a “nice-to-have” rather than the dealbreaker it once was.
“It’s Hard to Say For Definite that the Architect Role Is Being Undervalued…”
While many continue to argue in the corner of undervaluation for technical architects, others have suggested that TAs are currently facing a long-awaited correction from some previously generous offerings.
During the post-COVID years, demand for Salesforce expertise skyrocketed, and what followed was inflated salaries and new job titles. But as the conditions in the job market have tightened since 2023, companies are becoming more discerning, and these inflated roles are now being “right-sized”.
Keir argues that these boom years were simply unsustainable, and it was only a matter of time before TAs noticed a shift in what was being offered.
“Those eye-watering salaries that had to be paid in Salesforce just to hire anyone – I think they were fairly anomalous. That’s not how things usually work. There was a massive surge in interest and a major skill shortfall, so some people were able to inflate their salaries, probably undeservedly. Now that the market’s tightened, they’re being pushed to justify those rates, and many are finding they can’t.”
Keir suggested that the high rates that we’ve seen in previous years were driven by panic due to an acute skills shortage and had a lot less to do with long-term market fundamentals.
In Salesforce Ben’s Salary Survey, Matt Hafford, Director of Cloudway Talent, said that between 2020 and 2022, a 30% pay rise was standard for anyone changing roles, applying even to junior professionals, who were being handed six-figure salaries and senior titles. He also mentioned that “we may not see the likes of this again”.
As demand stabilizes and roles come sparingly, it has become more difficult for TAs to ask for – or expect – the same offer that was on the table a few years ago.
What Does “Architect” Mean?
Another contributor to this change in perception may actually lie in how the term itself is being used. In today’s Salesforce job market, “architect” is less of a tightly defined role and has become a “catch-all” title that applies to a wide range of skill sets and seniority levels.
“It’s hard to say for definite that the architect role is being undervalued because there are about ten different roles now being called ‘architect’,” Paul explained.
“One of the big shifts we’ve seen in the Salesforce space – that you don’t see as much elsewhere – is the rise of solution architects. In Salesforce, solution architects are typically less technical. They often come from an admin or functional background and have a strong understanding of how Salesforce works, but they’re not writing code or handling deep technical implementations.”
“Historically, those roles weren’t paid as much as technical architects because they require a different skill set. So if you’re looking at average architect salaries across the board, of course, they’re going down – because there’s now a broader class of professionals being grouped under that title.”
From hands-on developers to functional consultants, more professionals are being labeled as architects, regardless of whether they possess the depth of strategic knowledge the title traditionally expects.
Paul elaborated on this point using an external example.
“It’s similar to the way job titles work in some American companies. Many roles carry a VP title, but that doesn’t mean they all carry the same level of responsibility or compensation. In the UK, being a director means something specific. In the US, if half the company are VPs, then naturally, the average VP salary will drop. That doesn’t mean the true VP role isn’t valuable.
So I don’t want to say the term ‘architect’ has been watered down – that feels too negative – but its meaning has definitely broadened. And that broader scope is part of what’s creating pressure on salaries and perceptions of value.”
Preparing for the Future: What Should TAs Do?
The Salesforce job market is in a cooling period, and as such, the expectations around the TA role are being redefined. But there’s still a broad agreement on one thing: experienced, adaptable technical architects remain essential; they just need to position themselves to evolve.
According to 10K’s Talent Ecosystem Report, enterprise tools like ServiceNow and AWS are becoming increasingly integrated in Salesforce environments. Architects who understand these systems and how they work will be more valuable to companies – something that Melissa was quick to reinforce.
“Don’t tie yourself too specifically to Salesforce. Understand it well enough to see how it sits at the center of a company’s ecosystem, but also learn other systems like AWS, Snowflake, and integration tools. The more you understand the broader enterprise landscape, the more valuable you become. If a job posting asks for an architect with both Salesforce and AWS experience, you’ll have an advantage over someone who’s only focused on Salesforce.”
Keir also preached the importance of providing a well-rounded understanding of Salesforce to stand out to businesses. In a tougher job market, TAs may no longer be able to rely on technical expertise alone and need to be able to handle different business scenarios as well.
“When the market tightens, it’s not enough to say, ‘I’m a technical architect, and I just do the technical stuff.’ That might work when demand is high, but in more competitive times, you need to show that you’re a well-rounded architect,” Keir explained.
“A big part of the role should be working with the business, talking to stakeholders, and translating technical concepts in a way they can understand. You’re not expected to be a business expert, but you do need to bridge that gap.”
“And it goes beyond just the business side. You’ve got to collaborate with QA, training teams, and everyone else involved in a Salesforce implementation. A good architect should be able to turn their hand to all of that and be effective.”
And lastly, Paul believes technical architects still have a “way in” when it comes to negotiating strong salaries by positioning themselves as experts in solving one of the ecosystem’s biggest headaches: technical debt.
As Salesforce orgs mature and layer on complexity, the demand for architects who can untangle legacy implementations, streamline systems, and prevent long-term issues is only growing.
Paul said: “One of the biggest opportunities for technical architects right now is in dealing with technical debt. Salesforce has grown and evolved so rapidly that many orgs have ballooned into complex, legacy-heavy systems that require real expertise to unpick.
I don’t think that’s going to get any less problematic, especially as AI starts generating even more solutions. If anything, it’s going to get worse before it gets better. That’s where architects can really step in and say, ‘Let’s help you build something sustainable, including AI – but without just layering more on top of an unstable foundation.’
Sometimes, you need to prune back and simplify. You need a surgeon, someone who can go in and perform the heart transplant properly. That kind of work takes time and experience, and that’s where the true value of the architect comes in.
I’m personally optimistic: it’s still a very good, sustainable career.”
Final Thoughts
While many technical architects may not have expected the current shift in how their role is now perceived, it’s clear that a combination of factors, such as economic correction, title inflation, and the evolving tech stack, has played a role.
Whether this trend continues or reverts eventually remains to be seen, but those who continue to adapt and upskill will remain extremely valuable in the changing landscape of Salesforce.
If you’re a Salesforce Architect, help us understand how the role is evolving – take our survey and share your experience.
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