What is a Salesforce Technical Architect (and why do they make $200,000+ a year)?

The Salesforce Technical Architect is considered the greatest job title in the Salesforce industry. The position is so important that Salesforce Technical Architect commonly make anywhere between $200,000 to $500,000 a year.
But what does a Salesforce Technical Architect actually do, and should you pursue this as a career path? As a lead Salesforce Technical Architect at Google, I will share with you what a Salesforce Technical Architect does, what they DON’T do, and all the pros and cons of choosing this as a career path.
Salesforce Technical Architect Certification: trailhead.salesforce.com/en/c...
0:00 Introduction
1:06 What is a Salesforce Technical Architect?
3:44 What DOESN’T a Salesforce Technical Architect do?
7:10 Why are there so many different types of architect jobs?
8:44 What is a Salesforce Solutions Architect?
9:22 Should you become a Salesforce Technical Architect?

[@SalesforceForEveryone]

Excellent breakdown, anyone who says "I'm new to Salesforce and I want to be a Technical Architect" should be forced to watch this video. Congratulations on the 3rd kiddo! I love for my little girl, it's all that matters. I'm happy to see you being dad of the year on this topic in my opinion 🙏

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you Bradley appreciate the kind words! #Dadforce

[@tiphanieb9387]

Yay you're back ! You've been such an inspiration for me since I've began my Salesforce journey back in 2018 ! I'm now a Salesforce dev with the PD2 and on my way to become an architect ! Thank you SO much for all you're doing for the community :)

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you Tiphanie!! Awesome to hear about your success!!

[@asderik]

So glad you’re back!

[@nitishdas003]

woohoo he is back ! Good to have you 👍👍😀😀

[@yasmin1036]

Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!!! Thanks a lot, David K.Liu for the insights! It really helps me to decide on my career path. and Great to see you back! Appreciate your advice! 👍

[@krazeefrog5419]

Welcome Back David!, Hope you run a course soon

[@danielclift258]

Welcome back! We missed you.. and congrats on the expanding fam!

[@dvdkliu]

❤️❤️❤️ Thank you Daniel 🙏🙏🙏

[@mephistosson]

Happy to see you back!! Love your content and thought you forgot about us. Thanks for new content :))

[@dvdkliu]

Love you all ❤️

[@LazyWarriorV]

David! I’ve been waiting for this vid for almost a year! 😁🤘Congratulations on your 3rd little one! 🎉 Thank you for the great value in this video and I sincerely look forward to the content / courses you’re working on.

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you Francis 😁

[@a.soraparu773]

Knowledgeable and with a mix of humor? I'm an immediate fan! As a new admin who is being trained to inherit the bulk of the salesforce responsibilities in my small company. This is the guidance I've been searching for the past few weeks. Thank you so much for the digestible breakdown. Its a year late, but congrats on the baby!

[@FreerideTaurus]

Congrats on the new addition to the family, David! Love the shirt! :)

[@dvdkliu]

Thanks Kadir!!

[@millertime6]

So right about knowing complementary technologies. That’s probably the most underrated skill for a Salesforce professional. And Congrats on the new kiddo. 🎉

[@Reylan75]

Hi David, awesome video as always. Thanks for sharing your courses with me, I plan to take the Platform Dev 1 cert before the year ends! Wish me luck and I hope your channel grows

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you and good luck Mikko!

[@MrBhatts3]

Great to see you back David! Congrats on your 3rd kiddo. Ever since I watched your first video 2 years ago I was hooked and watched all your videos in 2 days. I go back from time to time and watch a lot of your videos for inspiration. Thank you so much for everything you do for the Salesforce and IT community. P.s. Will you be at Dreamforce this year? Would love to meet you in person.

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you! Yes see you next week!

[@cloudqualified]

It’s great to see a new video from a Salesforce legend! Congratulations on the new addition to your family!

[@dvdkliu]

Thanks!!

[@amospan14]

Liked and subscribed! Thank you for the 10 additional hours you are spending with us! And congratulations on your 3rd newborn! =)

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you kindly!!!

[@kendallk3997]

Congratulations to you & the family on the 3rd child!! Always enjoy your vids.

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you Kendall!

[@pavanteja3855]

Finally atlast...happy day. Thank you very much Sir for making a new video on Salesforce.

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you Pavan for supporting me!! 🥰

[@zaurorujov1710]

So nice to see you again David, you were my inspiration- good to see you! Keep doing great job! We missed you

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you Zaur!

[@syedhamzavlogs8914]

Hey David 👋..happy to watch you 😀..congratulations for 3rd child...May Almighty make it easy for you & your spouse!

[@matthewd4743]

So happy you are back!

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you Matthew!!

[@akashubhambhardwaj]

Congratulation for the 3rd kid David and thanks for this amazing packed video :)

[@dvdkliu]

Cheers Shubham!

[@SmookyMargiela]

Long time no see been waiting on a new video for a while 😅 thank you!!

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you for following my stuff Azurim!!

[@brucesmith8156]

Amazing video David!

[@abuwahid4808]

Thanks so much for explaining all these terms and responsibilities. I like to thank you from my bottom of heart, 6 years ago my journey from full stack web developer to Salesforce developer is because of your blogs and tutorials, appreciate your time and effort to share your knowledge.

[@dvdkliu]

Cheers Abu 😁😁😁

[@csnoremac1]

Thank you for the video. I'm 4 months into my first Salesforce admin job and was looking for direction. Your vids help.

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you Cameron and congrats!!!

[@sreenivaspakalapati8123]

Welcome back David and congratulations on the 3rd Kiddo🎊 Recently I started my career as a Salesforce admin in startup. Your videos helped me, and success stories in sfdc99 makes me motivated to earn new certs. I am planning for PD1 now😊. Thanks for everything, it's good to see you back🤝

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you Sreenivas wish you the best!!

[@ramanpandher6655]

Many many congratulations 🎉 for the third child David .. best wishes for good health of mommy and baby.. and you rocked KZbin with another video .. appreciate your time and efforts to make this video

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you Raman!

[@s0l1dsnake]

Congrats on the baby. You were a big inspiration for me in 2020 and now I’ve just gotten my PD1 and am a senior admin

[@dvdkliu]

Proud of you Emmanuel!!!

[@kennethngo9500]

Welcome back David!!! Your insight and clear explanations has definitely helped tens of thousands of people find new opportunities in this space! Congrats on the new kid! woooo

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you Kenneth appreciate you!

[@UrboyNK]

I'm glad your back. I just got a job at my local food bank that uses salesforce and now I'm learning the basic

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you Nyok and congrats!!!

[@SportPlusDad]

Good to see you back in front of the camera David. All the Technical Architect points sound right, but I don’t know how you can describe a solution architect as just a glorified admin who can’t code. There’s now a Solution Architect cert that includes Platform Developer I as a prerequisite, and you need to be able to write Apex for that.

[@dvdkliu]

Thanks for the info! Can't say I agree with Salesforce's choices here, as it's odd to me that a Solutions Arch cert would require a marketing cloud cert and a pd1. But it's all pretty new and I'm curious to see how it shakes up.

[@alexeylarkovich4048]

Nice explanation! Thanks! Now I know that I want to be a Technical Architect!

[@soomjeetsahoo8710]

Hey David, Congratulations on becoming father once again. You are my inspiration. Heck I pinged you in twitter previously regarding some career decision I had. Thanks for replying though. With your motivation and inspirations, I made it to Salesforce... Finally 🤘🏻 It was my goal becoming an architect in next 5 yr... Maybe its a bit harder journey than I thought and you made me rethink about being one. I feel I can't handle long meetings and not getting chance to make hands dirty with real implementation. Thanks, 😊

[@dvdkliu]

Cheers Soomjeet thank you!! Wish you success no matter what path you choose!

[@IoriBernstein]

Great video, David! Due to it, I have decide I don't want to follow the architect path, at least not at this moment haha

[@zaurorujov1710]

Congratulations David on your third kid! Your child will be lucky to have a such a intelligent dad ! 🎉

[@hyunhokim5912]

Haha Thank you for explaining my job. I am a Salesforce Solution Architect starting next month.

[@Sikho_With_Samir]

Congratulations on your thrid kiddo 🎉🎉 Happy to see you back and I request you to upgrade your Salesforce courses on Pluralsight. 😊 My career path or destination is to become a Salesforce Solution Architect and I need your brief guidance on it. Waiting for your further updates.

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you Samir! Yes I'm thinking of building then on KZbin 😁

[@thetechconsultant]

David!!!! Welcome back 🎉

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you Nasir!!

[@viktorl8]

Very well described!

[@DallasSalesforce]

100% this! Great definition of TA.

[@adlan25]

Proud to be sf technical architect, you are right.

[@ReinaldoHernandezOchoa]

Yup... I want to become a SF Tech Architect 😅 Thanks for this video and that clear explanation!

[@Praveen-he1su]

Welcome back bro. Please upload more videos about Salesforce ☁️☁️

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you Praveen!! Will do!

[@Praveen-he1su]

@@dvdkliu Superb bro. I am waiting..

[@anishvishwakarma6689]

Finally new video😍😍

[@Jim-kz2ue]

Great you are posting again.. thanks for the video. DF22 next week?

[@dvdkliu]

See you there Jim!

[@jeffyremigio2848]

Just when I am about to quit because I am bad at front end. Here you are giving some motivations 🙏

[@dvdkliu]

Go get em Jeffy 😁😁

[@feidoy]

Congrats 3x !!

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you!

[@wildatheart8894]

Great dad jokes. And Congratulations on the new baby!

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you!

[@hanwang110mhh]

Hey David, awesome content like always! Are you going to Dreamforce next week?

[@dvdkliu]

Yes! Hope to see you there!

[@hanwang110mhh]

@@dvdkliu awesome see you there. Hoping to get a pic with you

[@120m30]

Return of the King

[@dvdkliu]

🤣🤣🤣✌️

[@igorkudryk2199]

Welcome back!

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you Igor!

[@swapnilthakur1353]

Congratulations for your Third kid !!

[@reddzltuano8176]

Its been 11 months since the last video - we missed your content!

[@dvdkliu]

😁😁😁

[@extremeweirdness1528]

Hi David, Glad to see you back after a long break. I really want to be hands on and never lose my touch. Is it possible to be an architect and still be hands on ? I know just like you said a lot of job roles are not truly architect positions, but if I clear my CTA very long road ahead will I still get to keep my coding part with me ?

[@dvdkliu]

Yes a hands on architect is essentially a senior Salesforce developer!

[@healthywealthykarma]

I am facing these challenges it really helps to get on track

[@dvdkliu]

Glad it helped!!

[@AaronRClark]

I just want to work at a place where there is more than one dev that have ambition outside of just salesforce knowledge.

[@rickscott5966]

Congrats on your third kid! Any advice on a supply chain major who has worked with SAP, Oracle and logistics at big firms now transitioning into a job utilizing Salesforce ERP and implementation therein for a mid-size company? Thanks!

[@dvdkliu]

Get certified, play around in a dev org to try to understand the parallels and differences between platforms, and use your previous experience to your advantage from a process perspective

[@abhedyasingh]

Congratulations for your third child David!

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you Abhedya!

[@youmongrel]

OMG I'm an STA and didn't know it. I just work really hard (or really efficient), know every nook & cranny of my 1800 user system, work directly and make great relationships with business leads all over the world, run the dev team, ghost-run the SCRUM, but also do 80% of the development (so I guess that's why I'm not?)... but I have always turned down literal people management despite being a mentor. I make hella good PPT and Visio, record training or provide it on-site... I don't know what I am. Except doomed; I outlive everyone who's ever given me huge props so there won't be anyone left to write my LinkedIn recs when I move on :(

[@canyavuzkurt]

Congrats on your kid David 🎊

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you!!

[@ezugookoma9708]

He lives!!!!! 🎉🎉

[@dvdkliu]

Thanks buddy!! 😁

[@travy1]

David is the best KZbinr fr

[@dvdkliu]

Appreciate your support!!!!

[@jenniferluu3215]

Congratulations on your third child! 🎉

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you!

[@nikhilPUD01]

Legendary SalesForce expert is back 🤩😁

[@dvdkliu]

😘😘😘

[@musicbuff33]

We missed you!

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you!!! Feel all warm and fuzzy inside 😁

[@olgashirokova2626]

Thank you for the explanation. What is the difference between Technical and Solution/Application architect?

[@dvdkliu]

Have a section in the vid covering this closer to the end

[@hass2440]

Finally uploaded a new vid

[@kleytman]

Hi, I'm Kleytman Aular, Salesforce Technical Architect... just practicing

[@dvdkliu]

😁

[@blitzme99]

Thanks for making a video that I can send to my family when they ask what I do. My grandma says I Draw circles and squares on the screen.

[@dvdkliu]

🤣🤣

[@TF242]

Get 100x certified by memorizing exam questions via many websites available online and then BS your way through at large organization pretending you know how to solve something. That's the experience I've had with most Salesforce professionals in last 3 years.

[@dvdkliu]

Horrible game!

[@freddyg8247]

David, is it better to be an admin/dev who mostly updates and modifies existing code and has a very strong admin background….. or is it better to be in a role where you code heavily and are very fluent in code?

[@dvdkliu]

In terms of money, full dev will make more. In terms of personal satisfaction, that's for you to decide!

[@freddyg8247]

@@dvdkliu thanks for the reply man. Do you think the JavaScript developer cert for SF is worth going for?

[@dvdkliu]

Yes, after PD2!

[@freddyg8247]

@@dvdkliu thanks for the reply. What would you say is the max size a team should be? I feel like a super large team is unhealthy in so many ways.

[@dvdkliu]

When learning, smaller is better. In fact being the only person on the team can be a great environment!

[@johneichsteadt4432]

Wasn't the term "Platform Architect" created to describe the person who has that central role/responsibility for smaller but complex implementations?

[@meighanrockssf]

I'd love to know where they don't both load TAs with meetings, design, and have them cover hands on, the board, and the dev and admin teams... I have head that for years and not once in my 10 years as a tech arch experienced it in practicality- from small shops to the big 5.

[@forcebuilder8302]

on the way to TA 😊

[@manojkumar-jt3fw]

I am a Java & Java script student , and i learnt them. Please suggest me should i pursue SalesForce a career ? How r the prospects ? Or should i pursue another field ?

[@dvdkliu]

Salesforce is great for devs! Jump in!

[@manojkumar-jt3fw]

@@dvdkliu tanx for the reply

[@devonpeters8205]

Do you think there is any overlap between a Salesforce Technical Architect role at the actual company vs what you're describing?

[@OleanderProducing]

LOL just figured out I am doing the job haha, never knew! My role title is admin :) Also I don't make anywhere near 6 figures lololol

[@vijayannaladas3097]

Hi Sir, I been working as a Salesforce admin from past two years for a big project, I want to change my career as Salesforce developer or commerce cloud developer, can you please help me to choose one of them, I been worked as a Java developer 3 years and moved to sfc admin role

[@dvdkliu]

Salesforce developer for sure!!!!

[@vijayannaladas3097]

@@dvdkliu thank you!

[@ht103084]

Congrats on the kiddo!!!

[@dvdkliu]

Thank you!!

[@jerrel.writes]

6:05 BRO 😂😂😂

[@_xcelpro]

Amazing content!! I'll subscribe because of your third child 😄

[@dvdkliu]

Yay!!!! Thank you Edison lol

[@dvdkliu]

One day I will show this comment to my 3rd kid

[@coreykuruma5916]

Kirkland Signature!

[@dvdkliu]

Hi Kuruma 😁

[@longjohn714]

Congrats on your 3rd child buddy.

[@cizzlen07]

I hate architecture of all kinds but stuck with it now. Fml

[@khaldrogo5593]

Hi sir....what is salesforce developer future scope...i am 28 years old....

[@dvdkliu]

Future is bright!

[@khaldrogo5593]

@@dvdkliu is it sustainable future for 20-25 years?

[@dvdkliu]

No, but nothing big now will sustain that long. Coding will be around in 25 years though, so learning any language now will benefit you forever

[@khaldrogo5593]

@@dvdkliu is it better to learn data science than salesforce?(for good future) As salesforce will have no scope when it is over

[@dvdkliu]

That is what I'm betting on myself. Salesforce + AI / data science. If my son was just graduating from college now I'd say go full data science with focus on AI

[@thandohanise2697]

So are they like Solutions Architects?

[@JohanYu]

Kirkland Signature = Costco ???

[@dvdkliu]

Yup!!

[@JohanYu]

@@dvdkliu see you next week!

[@dvdkliu]

Yup!!

[@michaeldavis6713]

dont know if i should like and subscribe, sounds like he should spend more time with his kids

[@travy1]

first comment

[@dvdkliu]

Ezugo wins but I still appreciate you 😁

[@lilylin66]

LOL at "all the garbage I put on KZbin" ! Congrats on your 3rd kid!!!

[@MistaNateJay]

200k yr not enough

[@rokhaou8562]

8th comment 😆

[@huilongzhuo363]

Hello, David. It is great to see you back again!! Thank you for opening the CTA box!! Now, I am more confident than ever that the CTA path is what I will continue journeying on🥾! But first I need to get a full-time Salesforce Developer job.💪You can probably tell my daughter is helping me with this reply 👧 and one hour less time with my family 😂

[@dvdkliu]

Ha ha ha good luck on both journeys, parenting and CTA. Make your daughter proud!

[@camedarus]

So basically anyone who's ever worked in a smaller company as the sole Salesforce admin has also been the technical architect. Not necessarily a very good one, but a technical architect none the less.