Chief Systems Architect

About the role

The Chief Systems Architect will serve as the principal technical advisor to program leadership and the customer, establishing the architectural direction for the Chinook Program. This role involves shaping the future architecture of a complex, mission-critical ecosystem, influencing enterprise technology strategy, and guiding multidisciplinary engineering teams in delivering resilient, secure, and scalable solutions.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the lead architect for a task order, while providing architectural guidance and alignment across the broader program as needed to ensure consistency, interoperability, and compliance across multiple task orders.
• Provide authoritative recommendations on technology integration, standards adoption, and data flow optimization.
• Collaborate with Product Managers, Release Train Engineers (RTEs), and cross-functional scrum teams to translate business needs into technical solutions that meet performance, scalability, security, and compliance requirements.
• Guide technical decision-making across geographically dispersed teams to ensure consistent design patterns, coding standards, and DevSecOps practices.
• Conduct architecture reviews and provide governance to ensure solutions are compliant with federal enterprise architecture frameworks, cybersecurity mandates (e.g., NIST), and cloud adoption strategies.
• Define, update, and validate architectural patterns and interface specifications for enterprise-level systems.
• Drive cloud-native solution strategies including containerization, and continuous integration/continuous delivery/deployment (CI/CD) pipelines in secure environments.
• Analyze and evaluate emerging technologies to inform future-state architecture and capability roadmaps.
• Represent Leidos and the Chinook Program in high-level technical exchanges, reviews, and governance boards with the customer and Intelligence Community (IC) stakeholders.
• Drive user-facing front-end development and back-end infrastructure that integrates with existing customer systems and end user mission requirements.

Requirements

Required qualifications include:

• US citizenship is required per contract.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or related discipline and 12-15 years of prior relevant experience or Master’s with 10-13 years of prior relevant experience.
• May possess a Doctorate in technical domain.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in systems architecture, software development, solution engineering, or enterprise information technology (IT).
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to present complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Proven experience designing, implementing, and managing complex, mission-critical enterprise architectures with the IC.
• Deep expertise in cloud architecture (AWS/C2S/IC GovCloud), data integration, and secure multi-domain systems.
• Experience working with geographically dispersed Agile teams and participating in SAFe ceremonies (e.g., PI Planning Events, System Demos).
• Familiarity with GEOINT data, the customer’s tools, infrastructure, and tradecraft.
• Exceptional communication and stakeholder engagement skills, with a demonstrated ability to lead cross-organizational collaboration.
• Knowledge of cybersecurity frameworks (e.g., NIST 800-53), zero-trust architectures, and cloud security principles.
• Certifications such as The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF), AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Google Professional Cloud Architect, Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP), Project Management Professional (PMP), or Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA).

Qualifications

Preferred qualifications include:

• Experience supporting customer mission operations and programs.
• Experience leading enterprise modernization or cloud transformation initiatives.
• SAFe certification, such as SAFe Architect, SAFe Agilist (SA), or SAFe Program Consultant (SPC).
• Experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP), hybrid cloud, and cloud migration strategies.
• Experience mentoring junior architects or leading architecture communities of practice.

Skills

Skills required include:

• Expertise in at least one high-level programming language like Python, C, C++, or Java in addition to front end JavaScript API usage like Svelte or React.

Benefits

Leidos offers a comprehensive benefits package including:

• Competitive compensation
• Health and wellness programs
• Income protection
• Paid leave
• Roth 401(k)
• Retirement

Pay

$131,300.00 - $237,350.00

Schedule

Full-time