Principal Architect

Unissant•Washington, DC

6d•Remote

About The Position

Unissant, Inc. is seeking a Principal Architect to join their team and support a large, multi-year IT services program for a government client. This role is accountable for the program's reference architecture, cross-team technical standards, architecture governance and decision-making, interoperability patterns, and evaluation of major technical trade-offs. The Principal Architect will collaborate with client technical stakeholders, program leadership, and delivery teams to ensure the program's cloud, security, data, analytics, AI-enabled services, and integration capabilities are secure, scalable, interoperable, and aligned with mission needs. The ideal candidate is a strategic, hands-on technology leader with extensive experience as a Principal, Chief, or Enterprise Architect on a large-scale federal IT services program, possessing deep technical expertise in cloud-native architecture, security, identity and access management, APIs, large-scale data platforms, and DevSecOps.

Requirements

Demonstrated experience serving as a Principal Architect, Chief Architect, Enterprise Architect, or comparable senior technical architecture leader on a federal IT services program supporting 80 or more FTEs.
Deep expertise in cloud-native architecture, including secure cloud foundation design, cloud network and security patterns, identity and access management, API architecture, and platform integration.
Experience architecting large-scale data platforms, including data ingestion, transformation, storage, cataloging, metadata management, data quality, data governance, and secure data-sharing patterns.
Experience establishing and operating architecture governance frameworks across multiple work streams, delivery teams, vendors, or stakeholder organizations.
Experience leading architecture review boards, technical design reviews, standards-setting activities, and complex technical decision-making bodies.
Strong understanding of interoperability and integration patterns, including APIs, service-oriented architecture, event-driven architecture, data exchange, external system integration, and platform extensibility.
Working knowledge of DevSecOps principles and practices, including CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, automated testing, security automation, deployment controls, monitoring, logging, and operational readiness.
Experience conducting and documenting major technical trade-off analyses involving architecture alternatives, security considerations, scalability, performance, cost, delivery risk, maintainability, and operational impact.
Ability to develop and maintain clear, concise, and actionable architecture documentation for technical delivery teams, client stakeholders, auditors, and transition personnel.
Experience collaborating with multidisciplinary teams, including cloud engineers, software engineers, cybersecurity professionals, data engineers, data scientists, product owners, scrum teams, and program management personnel.
Strong analytical, problem-solving, conflict-resolution, and stakeholder-management skills.
Ability to work independently in a remote environment while effectively coordinating decisions and activities across distributed teams.
U.S. citizenship or eligibility to obtain a government PIV credential is required.
Ability to successfully complete a federal background investigation and receive a federal suitability determination is required.
Ability to obtain and maintain required client access credentials and any applicable clearance is required.
Ability to satisfy E-Verify employment eligibility verification requirements is required.
Bachelor's Degree is required.

Nice To Haves

Prior experience supporting government client programs in a comparable mission or technical domain is preferred.
Experience architecting AI/ML platforms and services, including model serving, retrieval-augmented generation, vector search, AI orchestration, and data pipelines supporting AI workloads, is preferred.
Experience designing architectures for federated, multi-tenant, multi-team, or multi-system operating models is preferred.
Experience with AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, or multiple major cloud service providers is preferred.
Experience supporting federal modernization, cloud migration, enterprise data, digital services, cybersecurity, systems integration, or large-scale technology transformation programs is preferred.
Preferred fields of study include Computer Science, Information Technology, Information Systems, Engineering, Operations Management, or a related technical field.
MBA or Master's Degree in a relevant field of study is preferred.
Equivalent combinations of education, certifications, and relevant professional experience may be considered, where permitted by contract requirements.
Relevant architecture certifications are preferred.
Preferred certifications include TOGAF, AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect, SAFe Architect, or comparable cloud, DevSecOps, security, data architecture, and enterprise architecture credentials.
May be required to lift up to ten (10) pounds.

Responsibilities

Own, maintain, and evolve the program's reference architecture, ensuring alignment across cloud and security, data platforms, analytics, AI-enabled services, integrations, and APIs.
Establish, document, communicate, and govern cross-team technical standards, architectural patterns, and engineering practices to promote consistency, interoperability, security, scalability, and maintainability.
Lead architecture governance processes, including architecture review boards, technical design reviews, decision-making forums, and approval processes for significant technical and architecture decisions.
Define interoperability patterns for data exchange, service integration, API design, event-driven solutions, external systems, and platform extensibility.
Conduct, facilitate, and document major technical trade-off analyses to inform architecture, platform, infrastructure, security, and technology decisions.
Evaluate architecture alternatives based on security, scalability, performance, availability, cost, maintainability, delivery risk, operational impact, and mission alignment.
Partner with client technical stakeholders, program leadership, product leadership, and technical leads to ensure the architecture meets performance, security, privacy, availability, scalability, operational readiness, and mission requirements.
Develop, maintain, and manage architecture-related artifacts, including reference architectures, solution architecture diagrams, technical standards, architecture decision records, integration diagrams, data-flow diagrams, and technical roadmaps.
Ensure architecture documentation supports client oversight, audit requirements, program transition, institutional knowledge retention, and reuse.
Collaborate with engineering, cloud, cybersecurity, data, analytics, AI/ML, product, and agile delivery teams to ensure approved architectural decisions are implemented consistently.
Provide technical leadership and escalation support for complex cross-team architecture issues, technical dependencies, design conflicts, and integration challenges.
Resolve architecture conflicts and provide recommendations that balance program requirements, technical feasibility, delivery schedules, risk, cost, and sustainability.
Evaluate emerging technologies, architecture approaches, and platform capabilities to identify opportunities to improve mission outcomes, delivery speed, security posture, reliability, cost efficiency, and program sustainability.
Support the development and refinement of technical roadmaps, modernization strategies, target-state architectures, and transition plans.
Communicate architectural decisions, technical risks, solution alternatives, and recommendations clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders, including government client leadership.