System Architect - Level III

About the role

MSM Technology is seeking a highly skilled System Architect – Level III to lead the technical architecture, modernization strategy, and continuous Operations & Maintenance (O&M) for the FDA’s mission‑critical FARM system. FARM is a high‑visibility, 24/7 operational system that processes regulatory submissions, manages 26 active enterprise workflows, and interfaces with critical FDA legacy systems. The Level III Architect serves as the technical authority for the application baseline, ensures “Zero Downtime” resilience, governs deployment of minor enhancements (under 200 hours), and leads troubleshooting for complex Tier‑3 system defects while integrating zero‑trust principles and complying with FDA Enterprise Performance Life Cycle (EPLC) frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Architectural Governance: Lead design, implementation, and maintenance of the FARM Java/WebLogic architecture; ensure technology stack compliance with FDA security standards and vendor‑supported releases.
• Mission‑Critical O&M Support: Act as final technical escalation point for Tier‑3 production outages; participate in on‑call rotation meeting FDA SLA of 15‑minute response during business hours and 30‑minute troubleshooting for off‑shift emergencies.
• Enterprise Integration: Oversee alignment and data pipelines between the core FARM Oracle 19c database and interfacing platforms, ensuring asynchronous messaging (Apache Kafka) and search indexing (Apache Solr) operate without latency.
• DevSecOps & Release Management: Govern GitLab CI/CD pipelines; achieve FDA mandate of 99 % first‑cycle User Acceptance Testing (UAT) success for code deployments.
• EPLC & CCB Compliance: Author, review, and finalize system documentation (Version Description Documents, System Architecture Documents, Run Books); present architectural changes to the FDA Change Control Board for approval prior to production releases.

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Information Technology, or related field (Master’s preferred).
• Experience: 8–10 years progressive software engineering and enterprise architecture experience, including at least 3 years as Lead Architect on a federal government contract.
• Clearance Eligibility: U.S. citizen or foreign national with valid U.S. work authorization and physical residence in the United States for at least 3 of the past 5 years to satisfy OPM background investigation requirements.
• Process Discipline: Proven experience working within strict federal SDLC or EPLC frameworks.
• Technical Expertise: Minimum 5 years Java 11‑21, Oracle WebLogic 14c, Oracle 19c, Apache Kafka, RESTful APIs, JWT security, Apache Solr, Spring Boot, Hibernate, GitLab CI/CD, SonarQube, automated dependency scanning.
• Familiarity (Preferred): Integration with Appian BPM, OpenText Documentum, Adobe AEM.
• Preferred Certifications: TOGAF 9, AWS Certified Solutions Architect, CompTIA Security+, or CISSP.

Pay

Salary range: $175,000 – $185,000.