Platform Architect

Systems Engineering Solutions Corporation•Suitland, MD

About The Position

The Platform Architect provides technical leadership for the design, engineering, modernization, integration, and lifecycle evolution of enterprise platforms and shared technology services. The role translates business, technical, operational, security, and performance requirements into platform architectures, engineering standards, reusable patterns, service boundaries, and implementation roadmaps that enable secure, scalable, supportable, and resilient enterprise capabilities. The Platform Architect evaluates business needs, engineering proposals, and technology investments to ensure platform decisions are technically sound and operationally sustainable. The role balances innovation with practicality and is expected to assess not only what a platform can do, but also the long-term implications of implementing, operating, securing, supporting, governing, and maintaining it. The Platform Architect establishes standards, reusable patterns, and architectural guardrails that promote consistency, reduce unnecessary customization, minimize technical debt, and improve the delivery of shared services across multiple technology platforms. The role works closely with engineering, operations, cybersecurity, service management, business stakeholders, and platform subject matter experts to ensure individual technology decisions contribute to a cohesive and sustainable enterprise platform ecosystem. Success is measured not by the deployment of new technologies, but by the delivery of platform capabilities that are scalable, reliable, supportable, economically sustainable, and capable of evolving with the needs of the organization.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Systems Engineering, Engineering, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience.
At least 12 years of experience designing, implementing, integrating, operating, supporting, or modernizing enterprise platforms in complex cloud, on-premises, or hybrid environments.
Demonstrated experience with one or more major enterprise platform domains, including public cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP), private cloud and virtualization (VMware Cloud Foundation), enterprise SaaS platforms, identity services, infrastructure platforms, or shared technology services.
Experience designing and supporting platform architectures across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments, including compute, storage, networking, identity, security, monitoring, and operational services.
Experience leading platform modernization, migration, consolidation, integration, or transformation initiatives involving multiple technologies, teams, and stakeholders.
Experience establishing platform standards, reusable architecture patterns, service offerings, operational models, and lifecycle management processes.
Demonstrated experience balancing technical requirements with operational supportability, maintainability, scalability, resilience, lifecycle cost, and long-term sustainability.
Experience evaluating technology alternatives, platform investments, and architectural approaches and providing recommendations supported by technical, operational, financial, and business considerations.
Experience working closely with engineering, operations, cybersecurity, service management, and business stakeholders to deliver platform capabilities that can be successfully implemented, supported, and sustained.
Experience producing architecture artifacts, standards, roadmaps, technical assessments, decision records, and executive-level recommendations.
Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to present complex technical concepts, trade-offs, risks, and recommendations to both technical and non-technical audiences

Nice To Haves

Professional certification in enterprise architecture, cloud architecture, cybersecurity, systems engineering, networking, IT service management, or a relevant technology platform.
Experience with Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, or another enterprise cloud platform, including landing zones, hybrid connectivity, security, monitoring, and multi-environment architecture.
Experience with enterprise platform technologies such as ServiceNow, Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Defender, container platforms, integration platforms, or comparable solutions.
Experience with Terraform, CloudFormation, Ansible, PowerShell, Python, or comparable automation and configuration-management tools.
Familiarity with platform engineering, DevSecOps, CI/CD, containers, Kubernetes, service catalogs, golden paths, and reusable self-service capabilities.
Experience supporting architecture review boards, technical design reviews, engineering reviews, security reviews, or comparable governance forums.

Responsibilities

Promoting scalable enterprise services and reusable platform capabilities while minimizing unnecessary customization, technology sprawl, operational complexity, and unsustainable support models.
Evaluate emerging technologies, platform investments, and modernization opportunities through the lens of business value, operational sustainability, supportability, risk, and total cost of ownership.
Establish platform strategies that promote reuse, standardization, service orientation, and long-term maintainability across the enterprise.
Define platform roadmaps that balance modernization objectives with operational realities and organizational capacity.
Develop reusable platform patterns, enterprise standards, reference architectures, and service blueprints that reduce redundant solutions and accelerate delivery.
Promote common services and enterprise capabilities in lieu of one-off implementations and unnecessary customization.
Establish architectural guardrails that enable consistency while supporting business requirements.
Lead technical reviews, alternatives analyses, and architecture assessments.
Challenge assumptions and provide objective recommendations regarding technology investments, platform selection, customization requests, and engineering approaches.
Clearly communicate tradeoffs among cost, complexity, risk, supportability, scalability, and implementation timelines.
Evaluate technology proposals, platform capabilities, and architectural alternatives based on business value, technical merit, operational complexity, supportability, organizational readiness, lifecycle costs, scalability, and long-term sustainability.
Clearly articulate the consequences, risks, dependencies, operational impacts, and support requirements associated with proposed technology decisions, including the implications of maintaining existing approaches.
Evaluate the operational impacts of technology decisions, including staffing requirements, support models, licensing costs, training needs, security obligations, and lifecycle management considerations.
Partner with operations and service management teams to ensure platform solutions can be effectively supported and maintained after implementation.
Promote designs that improve reliability, observability, resilience, and service ownership.
Identify platform designs that introduce unnecessary operational burden, excessive customization, specialized support dependencies, or unsustainable lifecycle costs and recommend practical alternatives.
Ensure platform capabilities include viable operating models, ownership structures, support processes, monitoring requirements, documentation, and transition plans prior to production deployment.
Facilitate collaboration among business, engineering, cybersecurity, operations, and leadership stakeholders.
Drive consensus and alignment around platform strategies, standards, and investment priorities.
Mentor engineering teams on architecture principles, service-oriented thinking, and platform governance practices.