Principal Solutions Architect

Merlin International • McLean, VA

21h • Hybrid

About The Position

Merlin Group operates at the intersection of cyber innovation, national security, and technology-driven transformation. With a mission to accelerate the adoption of high-impact technologies across the U.S. public sector and regulated commercial markets, Merlin is uniquely structured around three core tenets – Invest, Enable, and Scale – each designed to address a specific stage of the technology lifecycle. Together, our affiliates – Merlin Ventures, CGC, and Merlin Cyber – form a flywheel that builds enduring capability for customers, partners, and the broader cyber ecosystem, operationalizing technological advancement into mission-ready, enterprise-grade solutions. At Merlin, we believe our strength lies in our people. Team members are encouraged to be creative, collaborative, and nimble, pursuing paths to deliver the cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions that our customers rely on. From next-generation cyber defense to secure cloud and AI, we are united by one purpose – transforming innovation into mission impact. The Opportunity Merlin Cyber is seeking a Principal Solutions Architect to design the cross-cutting solutions our Technical Practice Area (TPA) sellers take to market. You own design direction for Merlin validated solutions, architectures that combine several partner products across multiple Zero Trust pillars, which Merlin Labs engineers then build and document. The other half of the job is making those solutions sellable, so TPA leads and sellers have the narratives, visuals, and answers they need to run a solution conversation. The role calls for broad experience across IT and cybersecurity, commercial instinct for what makes a solution sellable, and strong fluency in U.S. federal requirements, frameworks, programs, and missions. You will also help evaluate emerging technologies in AI, post-quantum, and cybersecurity, decide which of them become Merlin offerings, and work directly with early-stage ISVs to align their technology to federal use cases. Hybrid or remote role. Candidates near the DMV (D.C., Maryland, Virginia) are preferred due to occasional collaborative and partner sessions at our headquarters in McLean/Tysons Corner, VA.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in cybersecurity across architecture, engineering, or consulting roles, with hands-on IT experience.
• Experience with multi-vendor integrations and interoperability patterns across complex enterprise or government environments.
• Demonstrated Zero Trust architecture expertise and breadth across multiple security domains (identity, endpoint, network, cloud, application, data, logging/analytics).
• Proven ability to design and present architecture diagrams and executive-ready visuals; excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrated experience enabling sellers: building the narratives, qualifying questions, BOMs, visuals, and objection handling a sales team uses to run a solution conversation on its own.
• Experience running technical workshops with vendors or customers, facilitating the room, driving to a decision, and producing actionable deliverables.
• Practitioner-level understanding of AI/ML in cybersecurity, including the associated risks; hands-on familiarity with agentic coding tools and LLM APIs to design AI-enabled solutions.
• Working knowledge of U.S. federal requirements, frameworks, and environments (e.g., NIST RMF/800-53/171/172, NIST 800-207, FISMA, FedRAMP, FIPS 140-3, TIC 3.0, EO 14028, and the CISA Zero Trust Maturity Model).
• Ability to travel up to 25% for customer meetings, partner workshops, and events.
• Candidates must be U.S. citizens or eligible to obtain a U.S. security clearance.

Nice To Haves

• Relevant technical certifications (e.g., CISSP, CCSP, CISM, CEH, Zero Trust, Security+ or equivalent).
• Proficiency with agentic coding tools and LLM APIs (e.g., Claude Code, Codex), MCP, and AI security frameworks, guidance, or best practices (NIST AI RMF, adversarial ML concepts, model governance).
• Experience in pre-sales engineering or advisory consulting (discovery, solution design, demos/POCs).

Responsibilities

• Design cross-cutting Merlin solutions that combine partner products across the identity, device, network, application, data, analytics, and automation pillars, mapping agency requirements to Merlin's capabilities.
• Lead technical discovery sessions, whiteboarding, and architecture reviews, communicating clearly with both executive and engineering audiences.
• Document assumptions, dependencies, and risks, and recommend phased deployment roadmaps aligned with agency modernization priorities.
• Produce architecture diagrams, reference designs, and implementation patterns that show alignment to federal frameworks and mission outcomes.
• Own the design and target architecture of Merlin validated solutions, including cross-cutting reference architectures, BOMs, and service descriptions developed with TPA leads and Merlin Labs.
• Decide which combinations of partner products become named Merlin solutions.
• Look for pairings that create a differentiated, sellable offer, and resolve overlap between competing partners.
• Approve the architecture and solution definition for each Merlin Validated Solution. Labs engineers author the technical content, integration guide, and runbook that ship with it.
• Translate product capabilities into mission-aligned value propositions and prepare executive-ready and technical visuals and narratives for briefings and proposals.
• Bring AI-enabled capabilities and emerging technologies into solution offerings with secure design and responsible use in mind and advise on adoption of AI/ML in federal environments.
• Provide pre-sales engineering support and hand off cleanly to TPA leads and customer success teams.
• Align proposed solutions with agency needs and federal guidance (NIST RMF/800-53/171/172, NIST 800-207, FISMA, FIPS 140-3, FedRAMP, TIC 3.0, EO 14028, the CISA Zero Trust Maturity Model, and agency Zero Trust strategies), and design them so the control evidence Labs produces speeds up authority to operate (ATO) and deployment.
• Give TPA sellers what they need to run the solution conversation on their own: a one-page narrative, qualifying questions, objection guidance, value drivers, sizing documents, demo paths, whiteboard exercises, etc.
• Support named pursuits with technical win themes, solution positioning in RFI and RFP responses, POC and pilot scoping with clear success criteria, and competitive displacement plays.
• Collaborate with TPA sellers on Executive Mission Days and turn Zero Trust maturity assessment findings into solution recommendations.
• Build joint value propositions with partner field teams, including joint solution briefs, co-sell motions, and enablement so partner sellers and sales engineers can position Merlin's cross-cutting solutions.
• Lead Use Case Development Workshops for early-stage technology partners.
• Lead technical sessions with an ISV to identify the federal mission use cases.
• Map ISV capabilities to federal frameworks and guidance, including CISA Zero Trust Maturity Model pillars and maturity levels.
• Deliver prioritized use cases, framework mappings, recommendations, and integration points that would enable a Merlin solution.
• Develop reusable workshop tools and artifacts to deliver quality outcomes consistently.
• Work alongside a Technical Product Manager, who owns prioritization, and Merlin Labs engineers, who own the build.
• Collaborate with Merlin ISV/OEM product management, solution engineering, and alliances to validate integrations and interoperability across the Merlin portfolio.
• Develop reusable collateral, including diagrams, templates, playbooks, decision guides, and seller kits that TPA leads, sellers, and Labs engineers reuse.
• Support Cybersecurity Research Analysis and Merlin Labs in market and technical evaluations, and advise Merlin stakeholders on technology adoption, go-to-market strategy, and partnerships.
• Mentor Merlin Labs engineers and TPA staff on solution architecture, federal frameworks, and design patterns, and support internal enablement on federal use cases.

Benefits

• Access to an on-site gym
• Medical insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA) options
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• 401(k) with employer match
• Unlimited PTO

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Education Level: No Education Listed