Lead Mission Solutions Architect

Roles & Responsibilities

• Lead complex customer and mission engagements to discover needs, frame problems, define objectives, and translate ambiguous requirements into architecture strategies, executable solution concepts, and phased delivery paths.
• Develop and lead solution-architecture discussions that map mission needs to platforms, access patterns, secure compute environments, data flows, tooling, policies, system-design options, and dependencies across related disciplines.
• Direct technical trade studies and synthesize multiple sources of information to resolve complex problems, identify innovative applications, and recommend decisions with long-term mission or service impact.
• Lead functional teams or complex projects with moderate resource requirements, risks, or complexity; establish technical objectives, coordinate multidisciplinary contributors, and guide execution without formal supervisory authority.
• Mature Mission Computing front-door and demand-discovery practices by identifying recurring patterns, portfolio-level gaps, priorities, resource needs, and opportunities to improve services, reusable architectures, and capability roadmaps.
• Establish and share best practices, reusable architecture patterns, customer guidance, service-catalog content, decision frameworks, and technical quality criteria; mentor staff and provide technical leadership and knowledge transfer within the job family.
• Serve as a trusted partner to mission teams and leadership; communicate complex concepts clearly, influence stakeholders around tradeoffs and recommended paths, and collaborate across platform teams, laboratories, Enterprise Technology, Information Security Services, engineering communities, and department and division leadership.

Basic Qualifications

• Typically requires a minimum of 8 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 6 years and a Master’s degree; or a PhD with 3 years’ experience; or equivalent combination of related education and work experience.
• Extensive experience in solution architecture, systems architecture, requirements analysis, mission needs translation, platform integration, secure computing environments, access patterns, data workflows, cloud or hybrid platforms, developer services, mission computing, or related technical domains, with working knowledge of related disciplines.
• Experience leading complex technical projects or functional teams, developing strategies and objectives, coordinating multidisciplinary contributors, and guiding execution without formal people-management authority.
• Experience engaging customers or mission stakeholders to frame ambiguous problems, analyze multiple sources of information, communicate technical tradeoffs, and translate needs into architecture products, implementation plans, backlog entries, or roadmaps.
• Ability to communicate complex concepts clearly and influence technical users, project leaders, platform teams, Enterprise Technology partners, security or compliance stakeholders, and senior leadership toward practical technical outcomes.
• Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a Top Secret/SCI U.S Government issued Security Clearance within one year of hire.
• Ability to work a hybrid schedule with a minimum of 3 days per week onsite in McLean, VA; Bedford, MA; Colorado Springs, CO; San Diego, CA; Omaha, NE; Ft. Meade, MD; Charlottesville, VA; or Los Angeles, CA and travel up to 5%.

Preferred Qualifications

• Graduate degree in computer science, information systems, engineering, cybersecurity, systems engineering, or a related technical field.
• Experience leading complex customer-facing solution architecture, technical consulting, requirements discovery, platform intake, or capability adoption efforts spanning multiple teams, disciplines, or stakeholder groups.
• Experience developing architecture strategies, transition approaches, and roadmaps that integrate platforms, software delivery, DevSecOps, data, analytics, modeling and simulation, systems engineering, knowledge management, secure compute, or mission workflow capabilities.
• Experience leading trade studies, architecture reviews, stakeholder workshops, and technical decision-making for ambiguous or high-impact mission problems.
• Experience working across on-prem, hybrid, cloud, CUI-capable, classified-adjacent, laboratory, or other controlled computing environments and guiding users toward appropriate platforms, access patterns, workflows, and support models.
• Experience establishing or maturing technical front-door, intake, demand-discovery, prioritization, onboarding, consulting, training, community engagement, service-catalog, or feedback-loop mechanisms for internal customers.
• Experience creating reusable reference architectures, patterns, decision frameworks, engagement playbooks, customer guidance, and technical quality criteria, and transferring that knowledge to other staff.
• Experience navigating organizational policies, information security requirements, access processes, platform constraints, and cross-organizational tradeoffs while influencing decisions and advocating for resources needed to achieve long-term outcomes.
• Active TS/SCI clearance.