I’m working in this role currently. It can vary company to company, but some of the tasks involved could be:

• Designing TA solutions which are maintainable, extensible, modular & follow good industry practices (SOLID, design patterns etc. if/where needed), so that a project or program team can pickup & run with implementing it
• Creating and maintaining TA frameworks, TA solutions or other shared formats which can be used by all/many projects & programs with TA across a company 
• Setting up & maintaining knowledge sharing, communities of practice, centres of excellence, code pairing & similar to bring TA engineers together + increase their skillset across a company
• Having TA expertise enough to be placed into any problematic, slow performing TA solution to identify and solve issues - with code, vendor alignment, testability issues, requirement issues, environment or data issues etc. 
• Beefing up missing documentation, training material, mission statement, vision, governance etc. around TA company-wide
• Sometimes being a go-to person for TA troubleshooting + support for projects when needed
• Identifying the best-fit languages, TA frameworks, TA tools, data input and output methods/types for a project or program TA solution
• Setup & overseeing of any company-wide shared TA team
• Sometimes CV scanning & interviewing new TA members

Amazing points @alex_read  they are certainly great guidance for me on my next steps.

one point if I may add, simplify TA solution to drive adoption within other teams across company including but not limited to Devs, SREs, Customer Success.

Update to the above description now... I think in most companies, it’s more of a testing domain-specific, technical lead/senior developer role with daily tasks as above. I.e. so like a developer department guru but with most of the work being design & support than coding + more akin to a Technical Architect.

I have started to get involved writing the overall documentation for entirely new software projects to aid testers though. Documents like High Level Design (HLD), Software Design (SDD), Low Level Design (LLD) Information Security Checklist etc. more similar to a Solution Architect. This isn’t so common I believe in testing & I’m quite lucky/fortunate to have a try at it… it’ll open more paths in future potentially. Just wanted to give an update here as the above path & tasks can in some cases open up a bit more under this role.

More info if interested:

https://www.leanix.net/en/ea/enterprise-architect-vs-solution-architect-vs-technical-architect-whats-the-difference?utm_term=&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=EMEA-NORTH_FI+%7C+EAM+%7C%C2%A0Enterprise+Architecture+%7C+PMax+%7C+ENG&hsa_ver=3&hsa_cam=19699599281&hsa_grp=&hsa_acc=9751618594&hsa_kw=&hsa_mt=&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_src=x&hsa_tgt=&hsa_ad=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMInO-N-ZCUgQMVDoVoCR25EQ0WEAAYAiAAEgInLfD_BwE

https://softwaredominos.com/home/software-design-development-articles/high-level-solution-design-documents-what-is-it-and-when-do-you-need-one/

https://huspi.com/blog-open/what-the-differences-lld-hld-dld/

 a Test Architect in automation projects, your responsibilities include:

1. Strategy & Framework: Develop test strategies and design robust automation frameworks.

2. Tool Selection: Choose suitable automation testing tools and frameworks.

3. Test Case Design: Collaborate on test case design for comprehensive coverage.

4. Script Development: Write, review, and maintain automation scripts.

5. Environment Setup: Ensure correct test environments are ready.

6. CI/CD Integration: Integrate automation into CI/CD pipelines for continuous testing.

7. Data Management: Manage and maintain test data sets.

8. Execution & Reporting: Oversee test execution, monitor results, and generate reports.

9. Optimization: Identify and address performance bottlenecks.

10. Maintenance: Keep scripts and frameworks up to date.

11. Training: Provide guidance and training to team members.

12. Problem Resolution: Troubleshoot and resolve automation issues.

13. Documentation: Maintain documentation and follow compliance standards.

14. Governance: Establish governance processes for consistency.

15. Stakeholder Communication: Keep stakeholders informed of progress and results.

That’s a great point posted - there are 2 types of TA architects sought in job adverts, those overseeing TA in a whole organisation or those for a specific, individual project. Sorry I didn’t spot you were after the later & fidelanders just answered that perfectly. All comments from me above relate more to the company-wide architect role instead.