Chief Architect
About the role
Systems Planning and Analysis, Inc. (SPA) delivers high-impact, technical solutions to complex national security issues. With over 50 years of business expertise and consistent growth, we are known for continuous innovation for our government customers, in both the US and abroad. Our exceptionally talented team is highly collaborative in spirit and practice, producing Results that Matter.
The Sea, Land, Air Analysis Group’s mission is to deliver objective analyses, plans and strategies to US Navy, US Marine Corps, USAF, other DoD, and Australian Defence Force clients to support technology development, acquisition, delivery and sustainment decisions.
SPA has a need for a Chief Architect, who will serve as the lead designer of the Mission Planning Enterprise architecture and steward its evolution over the life of the program. This leader will ensure that software, data, and infrastructure form a cohesive, scalable, and interoperable system aligned with DoD and Air Force standards and the government’s reference architectures.
Responsibilities
The Chief Architect leads the design and evolution of the overall mission planning enterprise architecture, ensuring that software, data, and infrastructure form a cohesive, scalable, and interoperable system. They align architecture with DoD and Air Force technical standards, the mission planning enterprise engineering vision, and the government’s reference architectures.
The Chief Architect drives mission threads, use cases, interface specifications, and architecture conformance monitoring, and leads the comparison of vendor and platform‑specific designs against government requirements. They play a central role in architecture‑related working groups and interface control activities, helping ensure consistent implementation of architectural decisions across programs and vendors.
Qualifications
Required Qualifications:
- 10+ years of architecture experience on complex, distributed, software‑intensive systems, with at least 5 years in DoD C2, mission planning, or related domains
- Demonstrated experience designing or managing architectures that include frameworks, common components, and platform‑unique components, including internal and external interfaces
- Strong knowledge of DoD architecture frameworks and technical standards, including net‑centric and interoperability considerations
- Experience with component configuration management and architectural baselines, including tracking versions of frameworks, components, tools, and utilities across multiple environments
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or related field
- An active Secret clearance
Desired Qualifications:
- Master’s degree in systems architecture/software engineering, or systems engineering plus experience leading architecture and interface control working groups and authoring/maintaining interface control documents
- Hands‑on familiarity with .NET and native Windows environments and with planning migrations across operating system versions and standard desktop configurations
- Experience monitoring, enforcing, and evolving architecture conformance across multiple programs and vendors
- Demonstrated ability to develop architecture products (views, mission threads, use cases, models) that directly support requirements decomposition, test planning, and integration evaluations
- Prior experience evaluating vendor or COTS/GOTS architectures and products against government reference architectures in source‑selection or trade‑study contexts
Pay
At SPA, we strive to deliver a robust total compensation package that will attract and retain top talent. Elements of the compensation package include competitive base pay and variable compensation opportunities.
Salary range: USD $205,000.00/Yr. - USD $245,000.00/Yr.
Benefits
SPA provides eligible employees with an opportunity to enroll in a variety of benefit programs, generally including health insurance, flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, retirement savings plans, life and disability insurance programs, and a number of programs that provide for both paid and unpaid time away from work.