Chief Engineer / Architect

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), protects the American people, safeguards U.S. borders, and enhances the nation’s economic prosperity through innovation, intelligence, and collaboration. Within CBP’s Office of Information and Technology (OIT), the Border Enforcement Management Systems Directorate (BEMSD) manages a large, diverse portfolio of mission applications—sustaining legacy systems at high availability while modernizing and developing new solutions. The Systems & Applications Integration & Lifecycle Support (SAILS) program will provide BEMSD with full-lifecycle IT services—from new application development and 24x7x365 operations to legacy modernization—delivered through Agile and DevSecOps practices.

GDIT is seeking a Chief Engineer/Architect to support the SAILS program. In this role, you will serve as the senior technical authority for the program, leading the program’s technical architecture, modernization roadmap, and technical approach for DevSecOps within CBP’s established CI/CD environment. You will partner with program leadership and BEMSD stakeholders to translate mission needs into secure, scalable, integrated solutions while shaping the program’s long-term technical strategy.

Responsibilities

• Lead enterprise architecture and modernization across BEMSD’s application portfolio, enabling secure, scalable mission capabilities.
• Guide technical design decisions and ensure architecture standards remain aligned with CBP and DHS requirements.
• Oversee development and maintenance of architecture artifacts, including system interfaces, integration patterns, reference architectures, and technology roadmaps.
• Champion innovation across application development, modernization, and operations to improve mission agility and performance.
• Provide technical leadership to engineering teams across application, cloud, data, and integration domains.
• Partner with BEMSD stakeholders and development teams to translate mission needs into secure, compliant solutions.
• Evaluate and integrate AI, automation, and emerging technologies—including sensor, edge, and field data integration—to enhance mission capabilities.
• Brief BEMSD and GDIT leadership on architectural strategy, risks, tradeoffs, and recommendations.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a technical discipline.
• 15+ years leading enterprise architecture for large-scale federal IT programs.
• Experience leading modernization across complex application portfolios.
• Expertise in legacy modernization, cloud and hybrid architectures.
• Experience with Agile, DevSecOps, CI/CD, and modern software delivery practices.
• Strong executive communication, stakeholder engagement, and leadership skills.
• U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain a CBP Background Investigation (BI Full 6C (T4)).

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in a technical or management discipline.
• Prior DHS, preferably CBP OIT, program experience.
• Experience with Salesforce, ServiceNow, or enterprise BI platforms.
• Experience delivering AI/ML and automation capabilities in federal environments.
• Experience integrating operational data from sensor, edge, or field systems.
• Relevant cloud architecture certifications (e.g., AWS or Azure).

Pay

The likely salary range for this position is $170,000 - $230,000.

Schedule

• Scheduled Weekly Hours: 40
• Travel Required: Less than 10%
• Telecommuting Options: Remote

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision plan options, some with Health Savings Accounts.
• 401(k) plan with company match (pre- and post-tax contributions up to IRS annual limits).
• Paid time off: 15 days vacation, 10 holidays, and personal/sick time per calendar year (prorated based on hire date).
• Paid Family Leave: up to 160 hours in a rolling 12-month period.
• Short- and long-term disability, life, accidental death and dismemberment, personal accident, critical illness, and business travel accident insurance.
• Flexible work weeks where possible.
• Paid leave for parental, military, bereavement, and jury duty.