Solutions Architect vs Enterprise Architect: Salary & Career Benchmarks in Sweden

In Sweden, Enterprise Architect roles typically command a higher median salary than Solutions Architect positions. According to our 2026 live benchmark data, a mid-level Enterprise Architect earns a median salary of SEK868K, whereas a Solutions Architect brings in roughly SEK8K (a gap of SEK860K at the median).

Seniority, tech stack, and location all move this gap. Senior practitioners in either discipline can exceed the upper range through specialist skills. See the skills premium section below for the specific certifications and tools that push offers to the top of the range.

While both positions are vital to a modern tech organisation, Solutions Architect and Enterprise Architect have fundamentally different daily workflows.

Solutions Architect focuses primarily on translating business requirements into end-to-end technical solutions and working with clients or product teams to define system design. Day-to-day work revolves around running discovery workshops, producing solution design documents, working with engineering leads on technical feasibility, presenting architectures to stakeholders, and supporting pre-sales or delivery teams.

Enterprise Architect focuses on governing the overall technology estate, setting architecture standards, and aligning technology strategy with business outcomes. Their time is spent producing architecture principles and roadmaps, chairing architecture review boards, engaging with C-suite on technology investment decisions, assessing vendor and build options, and managing technical debt strategy.

Transitioning between these two paths is achievable but requires targeted upskilling.

Moving from Solutions Architect to Enterprise Architect: Senior Solutions Architects or Cloud Architects with strong business communication skills are the typical pathway. The enterprise architect role is almost exclusively filled by internal promotion or lateral moves from adjacent senior architecture roles.

Moving from Enterprise Architect to Solutions Architect: Senior software engineers or cloud engineers with strong communication and system design skills are the typical entry path. The role requires the ability to present complex architectures to non-technical audiences.

Neither path requires starting from scratch. Professionals in both roles share underlying technology fluency; the gap is usually domain knowledge and specific tooling rather than core engineering fundamentals.

In Sweden in 2026, both roles are seeing demand, but with different drivers.

Solutions Architect demand is high, particularly in Enterprise and fintech transformation programmes in Stockholm, led by employers such as Ericsson and Klarna. Enterprise Architect demand is moderate, concentrated in enterprise architecture functions inside Swedish banks and enterprises managing complex legacy-to-cloud transitions, led by employers such as SEB and Ericsson.

Workspace flexibility significantly impacts total compensation value in Sweden.

Solutions Architect roles score 55% on our remote-friendliness index (Moderate). This is because documentation and design work is remote-compatible, and Sweden's broadly hybrid-friendly norms have kept this flexible at Stockholm scale-ups, though banks such as SEB and Handelsbanken still expect two to three office days a week. Where in-office attendance is required, it is typically driven by client-facing discovery sessions and cross-functional delivery reviews require significant in-person presence, and Stockholm-based enterprises formalise this into a fixed hybrid schedule more often than the scale-up crowd.

Enterprise Architect roles score 45% (Low). Strategic documentation is remote-compatible, and Sweden's flexible-working norms keep hybrid the default even for senior architecture roles is the primary driver of flexibility. When office days are required, it is usually for C-suite engagement, board presentations, and cross-divisional governance work require sustained in-person presence, and Stockholm-headquartered banks like SEB typically expect this for quarterly steering sessions.