Lead Solution Architect

C5MI Insight

3d • $200,200 - $254,800

About The Position

C5MI is hiring a Lead Solution Architect to serve as the single technical design authority for a large-scale, greenfield SAP S/4HANA financial management modernization program for a Department of War organization. The role is accountable for the integrity, coherence, and deliverability of the end-to-end solution across nine financial process areas. It leads the program’s architecture function, directs process-area solution architects, and partners with cloud, data, platform, and security architecture leaders to deliver a unified target architecture based on fit-to-standard and clean-core principles. The position chairs architecture governance, approves or rejects design decisions and extension requests, resolves cross-process-area conflicts, and defends the technical soundness of the solution to government leadership at milestone reviews.

The role also leads and develops the architecture team and broader architecture community; establishes design principles, standards, patterns, and decision records; and governs financial data, integrations, non-functional requirements, and design documentation. It advises program and government leadership on technical trade-offs, sequencing, scope, and schedule. The position requires travel to client sites of up to 50%, depending on program schedules, and is contingent upon contract award.

The Lead Solution Architect is also responsible for people leadership, including setting expectations, coaching and evaluating employees, supporting employee development and succession planning, planning and prioritizing workloads, managing performance and compliance matters, and aligning stakeholders. The role must follow C5MI policies and certified quality and information-security processes and protect sensitive information.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field, or the stated experience alternative without a degree; a master’s degree is a plus.
• With a bachelor’s degree: 10–15 years of professional experience and 5–8 years of people leadership experience. Without a degree: 14–18 years of professional experience and 8–11 years of people leadership experience. People leadership experience must include managing other people leaders.
• 10+ years of SAP experience, including 5+ years as a solution architect, enterprise architect, or lead architect.
• At least two full-lifecycle SAP implementations with direct responsibility for solution architecture or lead design authority.
• Deep SAP S/4HANA Finance expertise, including the universal journal, general ledger, asset accounting, controlling, and public sector funds management.
• Experience establishing and chairing architecture governance, including architecture review boards, design standards, and formal design decision records.
• Experience designing SAP and non-SAP integration architectures using APIs, middleware, services, and asynchronous messaging.
• Experience leading and developing architects or senior technical staff, including performance management and capability development.
• Must hold an active Secret security clearance or be able to obtain and maintain one before assignment; U.S. citizenship is required.
• Ability to safely perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation.

Nice To Haves

• Greenfield SAP S/4HANA experience.
• Active Secret security clearance at time of hire.
• Experience supporting federal ERP modernization programs, Department of War SAP environments, or other defense business systems acquired under DoDI 5000.75.
• Industry-recognized architecture or SAP certification, such as SAP Certified Solution Architect, SAP Enterprise Architect, or TOGAF.
• Experience delivering with SAP Activate using a fit-to-standard, clean-core approach.
• Experience with SAP Public Sector Management, including Funds Management and Budget Control System, and SAP for Defense & Security, including force element data modeling.
• Experience architecting solutions hosted in an accredited government cloud at Impact Level 4 or 5.
• Familiarity with federal financial audit drivers, including FIAR methodology, DoD 7000.14-R, and FFMIA.
• Master’s degree.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end target solution architecture across core finance, budgetary execution, asset accounting, payables and receivables, managerial cost accounting, inventory, financial reporting, integration, and legacy data transition.
• Lead, develop, and allocate the solution architecture team, including process-area architects, and coordinate architecture across cloud, data, platform, and security domains.
• Chair the architecture review board and establish design principles, solution patterns, naming and configuration standards, and formal decision records.
• Enforce fit-to-standard and clean-core delivery; evaluate custom development and extension requests against standard and pre-delivered federal content, documenting approved deviations.
• Direct the design of a standards-aligned chart of accounts and financial data model, ensuring financially relevant events are represented in a single, immutable, auditable document chain.
• Govern integration architecture across the financial core, low-code extensibility, analytics and reporting platforms, and logistics, procurement, and personnel domains.
• Own non-functional requirements for performance, scalability, availability, recoverability, and resilience in denied, degraded, intermittent, and limited-bandwidth conditions.
• Serve as senior technical authority at preliminary design, critical design, and production readiness reviews, presenting and defending the architecture.
• Partner with security and risk management framework leadership to ensure the architecture is authorizable, inherits available control sets, and sustains its authority to operate through change.
• Review and approve functional and technical design documentation, ensuring traceability from requirement through design to test.
• Establish technical debt and architectural runway strategies that balance milestone delivery with long-term sustainment and upgrade costs.
• Mentor solution architects and senior functional leads and build enterprise architecture capability across the program and C5MI delivery organization.
• Advise program and government leadership on solution trade-offs, sequencing, and technical implications of scope and schedule decisions.
• Travel to client sites up to 50%, varying according to client program schedules.
• Participate in quality assurance activities and protect sensitive information in accordance with security policies and certified processes.
• Perform other related tasks as assigned by the direct supervisor.
• Set performance expectations; provide coaching, feedback, and recognition; conduct goal-setting, evaluations, and development planning; and address performance, conduct, and attendance issues.
• Develop employees through coaching, mentoring, training, and stretch assignments; identify skill gaps and support succession planning and talent pipeline readiness.
• Foster an inclusive, respectful, high-performing environment that supports accountability, collaboration, company values, and professional standards.
• Plan, assign, and prioritize work; manage workloads and staffing within approved parameters; and escalate resource risks or constraints.
• Apply company policies consistently, partner with HR on employee relations, and identify and mitigate people, delivery, and compliance risks.
• Communicate expectations, decisions, and changes clearly; align objectives with business priorities; and collaborate across matrixed, cross-functional, and client environments.
• Adhere to C5MI policies and procedures, conduct oneself consistently with core values, maintain a respectful attitude, report to work prepared and on time, meet productivity standards, safeguard proprietary information, and treat vendors, customers, and colleagues with respect.

Benefits

• Medical insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• Life insurance
• Long-term disability coverage
• 401(k) plan
• Bonus opportunities
• Paid holidays
• Paid time off

What This Job Offers

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