Enterprise Software and Solutions Architect

BCC-NIH • Bethesda, MD

9d

About The Position

Black Canyon Consulting (BCC) is seeking an Enterprise Software and Solution Architect to support work at the National Institutes of Health. This full-time role provides cross-functional technical leadership to align IT strategy with the program’s research, development, and operational goals, with a focus on agile delivery, digital transformation, holistic IT solutions, and platform modernization.

The architect will work across NLM/NCBI divisions and branches to engage stakeholders in defining, developing, and promoting enterprise architecture practices, solution standards, and governance. The role ensures that solution architectures align with infrastructure and operational requirements, meet architecture standards and cybersecurity requirements, and remain flexible and scalable. The position calls for an experienced subject matter expert who can provide thought leadership while also contributing hands-on to MVPs and solution prototypes.

As a team lead, this person will lead Enterprise Software and Solution Architects, establish team and individual success measures, coach and mentor team members, participate in hiring, and handle administrative supervisory responsibilities.

Requirements

• Management, leadership, and coaching skills.
• Customer-focused and team-oriented disposition.
• Excellent oral and written communication and presentation skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to work with customers, peers, and management.
• Sound judgment, integrity, and sense of responsibility.
• Experience as an Enterprise, Software, and/or Solution Architect.
• Generalist technical skills across the stack.
• Expertise in at least one programming language.
• Solid Linux skills.
• Experience with cloud technologies.
• Deep understanding of architectural building blocks, including web application firewalls, load balancers, gateways, proxies, caching, queuing, messaging, data-streaming systems, SQL and NoSQL data stores, and file systems.
• B.Sc. in a STEM field such as engineering, computer science, mathematics, or physics, or equivalent industry experience in software development.

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity with cloud-native technologies such as Kubernetes, containers, service mesh, and related observability tooling.
• Familiarity with API best practices, identity and access management (IAM), and security concepts, frameworks, and systems.
• Familiarity with workflow products and frameworks.
• Understanding of Agile processes.

Responsibilities

• Lead, promote, and encourage cross-functional adoption of Enterprise Architecture (EA) practices and principles.
• Capture and document the current state of software solutions, technology stacks, and system processes in a catalog of existing resources.
• Identify gaps in the current enterprise architecture and develop a roadmap and implementation plan based on current and future states.
• Collaborate with stakeholders and cross-functional groups to build consensus and credibility around the EA process.
• Own the EA process from input capture through implementation, enabling organic growth and expansion while prioritizing strategic initiatives and high-priority projects.
• Provide subject matter expertise, advice, coaching, and consensus-building.
• Learn new technologies and stay current with traditional and emerging best practices.
• Lead prototype development and participate hands-on in MVP efforts, prioritizing speed of delivery.
• Ensure solution architectures and designs address business, application, information, and infrastructure requirements.
• Partner with the CTO, architects, TPMs, product owners and managers, tech leads, DevOps, and software engineers to create solutions aligned with EA standards, common services, and cybersecurity requirements.
• Learn, understand, and champion organizational priorities.
• Architect solution designs through the development lifecycle, including solution-option evaluation and selection, buy-versus-build decisions, and early project estimates.
• Establish an inclusive EA community of practice that promotes collaboration, forward-thinking solutions, evaluation of emerging technologies, and adoption planning.
• Lead a team of Enterprise Software and Solution Architects.
• Define and assess success metrics and KPIs for the team and individual contributors.
• Ensure team members understand their duties and responsibilities.
• Coach and mentor team members, lead by example, and empower them to meet and exceed expectations.
• Select candidates and interview for open positions.
• Perform administrative supervisory duties, including attendance matters and providing performance-review feedback.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager