What does a Drupal architect do?

A Drupal architect designs how a Drupal platform is put together: the content model, how sites and languages are organised, caching and performance, integrations, and how the platform will be upgraded. The goal is a system your team can extend for years without it getting slower or harder to change.

Do I need a Drupal architect or a Drupal developer?

If you know what needs building and the platform is healthy, a developer is enough. If you are starting a new build, consolidating several sites, going headless, or fighting performance and upgrade problems you cannot explain, you need architecture work first. I do both, so the engagement can shift from one to the other.

Which Drupal versions do you work with?

Drupal 7 through 11. Most new architecture work is on Drupal 10 and 11, and I regularly plan migrations from Drupal 7 and upgrades from Drupal 8 and 9.

Can you work with our in-house team?

Yes. A lot of my work is as the senior technical lead alongside an existing team: setting the architecture, reviewing pull requests, and pairing on the hard parts.

Drupal Architect

Drupal architect for platforms that have to scale.

I design Drupal platforms that stay fast, maintainable, and cheap to change as traffic, teams, and content grow. Twelve years of enterprise Drupal, Drupal 7 through 11, for Nasdaq, UNICEF, Pfizer, Sony Pictures, and TCS.

Most Drupal problems I get called in for are architecture problems in disguise: a content model that fought the editors, a multisite estate nobody can upgrade, a decoupled frontend that rebuilds the world on every save. Getting the architecture right early is the cheapest performance and maintenance work you will ever do.

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What a Drupal architecture engagement covers

Content modelling: entity types, fields, paragraphs versus layout builder, taxonomy, and revision strategy, designed around how your editors actually work.
Multisite and multilingual: one codebase or many, shared configuration, per-site overrides, and translation workflows that do not collapse under their own weight.
Headless and decoupled: JSON:API or GraphQL backends feeding Next.js or React, with preview, incremental regeneration, and on-demand revalidation wired end to end.
Performance: cache tags and contexts, render caching, Varnish or CDN layers, query profiling, and search offloaded to Solr or Elasticsearch where it belongs.
Integrations and identity: SSO, Azure B2C, SCIM, CRMs, payment providers, and LMS platforms, with clear boundaries so a third-party outage does not take the site down.
Upgrade path: an architecture that moves to the next major Drupal version as a routine task, not a rebuild.

How I work as your Drupal architect

I stay hands-on. The architecture decisions come with working code: a reference implementation, the custom modules that carry the hard parts, and the configuration your team will extend. You get a design that has already been proven against your real content and traffic, not a slide deck.

I can own the architecture end to end on a new build, or join an existing team as the senior technical lead who reviews designs, unblocks developers, and keeps the platform coherent while features ship.

Where an architect earns their fee

Before a rebuild or re-platform, when the decisions are still cheap to change.
When a Drupal estate has grown into several sites that each drift in their own way.
When you are moving to headless and need the Drupal side designed as an API, not a theme with an API bolted on.
When the site is slow and adding servers has stopped helping.

Relevant work

How it works

A short call to understand the platform, the team, and what is not working.
A review of the codebase, configuration, and infrastructure, with written findings.
An architecture proposal with the trade-offs spelled out, agreed with your team.
Implementation, either by me or alongside your developers, with reviews at each stage.

FAQ

What does a Drupal architect do?: A Drupal architect designs how a Drupal platform is put together: the content model, how sites and languages are organised, caching and performance, integrations, and how the platform will be upgraded. The goal is a system your team can extend for years without it getting slower or harder to change.
Do I need a Drupal architect or a Drupal developer?: If you know what needs building and the platform is healthy, a developer is enough. If you are starting a new build, consolidating several sites, going headless, or fighting performance and upgrade problems you cannot explain, you need architecture work first. I do both, so the engagement can shift from one to the other.
Which Drupal versions do you work with?: Drupal 7 through 11. Most new architecture work is on Drupal 10 and 11, and I regularly plan migrations from Drupal 7 and upgrades from Drupal 8 and 9.
Can you work with our in-house team?: Yes. A lot of my work is as the senior technical lead alongside an existing team: setting the architecture, reviewing pull requests, and pairing on the hard parts.

Planning a Drupal build or re-platform?

Send a short summary of the platform and what you are trying to achieve. I will tell you honestly whether it needs an architect and what that would involve.

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