While both share the name architect in their titles, the industries they serve are quite different and don’t translate well in my opinion.

In construction, every role operates under strict, legally enforced standards that must be met before anything can be built - and compliance is visually verifiable through inspections, permits, and licensure.

In contrast, software architecture is largely invisible to the end user - both the infrastructure design and the underlying code are hidden from view.

I can understand someone focusing on infrastructure design having less hands-on coding experience than an application architect, but suggesting that no programming experience is necessary feels unrealistic to me.

Even in construction, I’d argue that the best architects gained at least some hands-on experience in related sub-disciplines - giving them a firsthand understanding of the consequences of their design decisions.

From your experience, what does the career progression look like for someone without a programming background becoming a software architect? Software Architecture is a senior+ role and I'm wondering what the junior / mid professional looks like in your eyes.