Platform SME

Systems Engineering Solutions Corporation•Suitland, MD

About The Position

The Platform SME provides deep technical expertise for enterprise platforms and shared technology services spanning cloud, on-premises, virtualization, SaaS, identity, automation, and hybrid environments. The role is responsible for designing, implementing, integrating, modernizing, operating, and continuously improving platform capabilities that support enterprise business and mission objectives. The Platform SME serves as a technical expert for one or more platform domains while working across adjacent technologies to ensure solutions are secure, scalable, supportable, resilient, and operationally sustainable. The role collaborates with platform architects, engineers, cybersecurity teams, operations personnel, and business stakeholders to translate requirements into practical solutions that can be successfully delivered, maintained, and supported throughout their lifecycle. The Platform SME is expected to understand both the engineering and operational implications of platform decisions and provide recommendations that balance technical capability, organizational readiness, supportability, scalability, and long-term sustainability. Success is measured through the successful implementation, operation, modernization, and support of enterprise platform capabilities rather than the production of architecture artifacts alone.

Requirements

12 or more years of experience implementing, integrating, operating, supporting, or modernizing enterprise technology platforms.
Demonstrated expertise in one or more enterprise platform domains with hands-on experience integrating adjacent cloud, virtualization, identity, networking, security, automation, or SaaS technologies.
Experience supporting cloud, on-premises, virtualization, SaaS, or hybrid environments within large and complex enterprise organizations.
Hands-on experience deploying, configuring, integrating, securing, upgrading, troubleshooting, and sustaining enterprise platform technologies.
Production experience implementing, integrating, operating, supporting, and troubleshooting two or more enterprise platform domains, such as VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Oracle Cloud, Microsoft 365, ServiceNow, or enterprise identity platforms.
Experience integrating cloud platforms, SaaS applications, identity services, automation platforms, and enterprise infrastructure into cohesive, supportable solutions.
Experience designing, implementing, automating, operating, and sustaining cloud, on-premises, and hybrid platforms using infrastructure-as-code, containerization, and microservices-based technologies.
Experience supporting platform migrations, modernization initiatives, consolidations, upgrades, technology refresh activities, or cloud adoption efforts.
Experience implementing platform integrations using APIs, identity services, automation, monitoring, configuration management, or orchestration technologies.
Experience supporting platform operations, lifecycle management, patching, upgrades, capacity planning, resilience, disaster recovery, monitoring, and operational readiness activities.
Ability to assess technical alternatives and make recommendations that balance functionality, supportability, scalability, operational complexity, and lifecycle cost.
Strong technical documentation, troubleshooting, communication, and knowledge-transfer skills.
Experience supporting production enterprise environments, including incident response, operational troubleshooting, upgrade planning, platform sustainment, service continuity, and operational readiness activities.
Experience planning, executing, and supporting platform upgrades, technology refreshes, version transitions, and lifecycle sustainment activities.

Nice To Haves

Advanced experience with one or more platforms such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), Oracle Cloud, Microsoft 365, ServiceNow, Red Hat OpenShift, Kubernetes, or other enterprise platforms.
Experience working across multiple platform domains such as cloud, virtualization, identity, networking, SaaS, automation, or infrastructure services.
Experience integrating cloud, virtualization, identity, networking, security, automation, and monitoring capabilities into cohesive platform solutions.
Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code, automation, orchestration, CI/CD, policy management, and platform engineering practices.
Experience supporting multi-cloud or hybrid-cloud environments integrating public cloud, private cloud, SaaS, and on-premises services.
Relevant cloud, VMware, architecture, security, networking, or platform certifications.
Technical judgment and operational awareness with the ability to balance functionality, security, scalability, supportability, and lifecycle considerations.
Clear, concise communication tailored to technical, business, and executive audiences.
Collaborative approach and ability to build alignment across multidisciplinary stakeholder groups.
Strong facilitation, mentoring, and knowledge-transfer skills.
Ability to anticipate downstream operational, integration, security, and support impacts when evaluating technical solutions and platform changes.
Adaptability, sound prioritization, and the ability to balance competing technical, operational, and business priorities.

Responsibilities

Serve as the technical authority for assigned enterprise platforms, providing design, implementation, integration, operations, modernization, and lifecycle guidance.
Assess current-state capabilities and define target-state architectures, transition plans, roadmaps, standards, and reusable solution patterns.
Evaluate platform gaps, redundancies, technical debt, risks, dependencies, and modernization opportunities, and recommend practical actions.
Lead or support architecture, engineering, design, investment, and change reviews to verify alignment with approved standards and technical baselines.
Coordinate with cybersecurity, cloud, infrastructure, data, application, project, and operations stakeholders to resolve cross-platform issues.
Maintain platform architecture artifacts, reference models, technology inventories, decision records, compliance documentation, and implementation guidance.
Guide platform configuration, integration, testing, deployment, operations, monitoring, maintenance, troubleshooting, and continuous improvement across the solution lifecycle.
Provide technical briefings, workshops, training, and hands-on assistance that promote platform adoption and consistent engineering practices.