Senior Architect

i4DM • Millersville, MD

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About The Position

We are seeking an experienced and highly motivated Senior Architect to serve as the lead technical authority responsible for defining, governing, and evolving the architecture supporting a mission-critical enterprise platform within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) environment. In this role, you will provide strategic architectural direction across cloud-native platforms, enterprise healthcare applications, and across cloud-native platforms, enterprise healthcare applications, and event-driven shared services architecture. You will work closely with the Program Manager, Technical Directors, engineering teams, and VA stakeholders to ensure systems are scalable, secure, interoperable, and aligned with Federal and VA enterprise standards. The Senior Architect will play a critical role in driving modernization, ensuring architectural consistency, and enabling high-performing, resilient platform services supporting millions of Veterans and healthcare providers.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or a related technical field.
• 10+ years of experience in system architecture, enterprise architecture, or technical leadership roles supporting enterprise or mission-critical application environments.
• Strong expertise in cloud-native architectures, microservices, containerization (e.g., Kubernetes), and modern application design patterns.
• Demonstrated experience designing and governing architecture for complex, large-scale systems and application ecosystems.
• Experience integrating platform-based, low-code/no-code solutions within enterprise environments.
• Strong problem-solving, strategic thinking, and communication skills, with the ability to influence technical direction across teams.
• Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams, including engineering, DevSecOps, and operations.
• Experience leading spec-driven design methodologies, including the precise definition of system schemas, edge cases, and architectural constraints to guide both human developers and automated coding agents.
• Experience supporting cloud platforms such as AWS (including GovCloud) and containerized environments (e.g., EKS).
• Candidates must be eligible to obtain and maintain a Public Trust clearance.

Nice To Haves

• Experience supporting VA enterprise environments, including familiarity with the VA Technical Reference Model (TRM) and governance frameworks.
• Experience working within a SAFe Agile environment supporting large-scale enterprise or mission-critical systems.
• Deep understanding of Zero Trust architecture principles and secure system design for regulated environments.
• Experience integrating architecture governance with DevSecOps pipelines, CI/CD automation, and Infrastructure as Code (IaC).
• Proven ability to bridge legacy systems with modern cloud-native architectures and support large-scale modernization initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the lead architect responsible for defining, maintaining, and governing enterprise system architecture across platform services and healthcare application environments.
• Establish and enforce architectural standards, design patterns, and governance processes aligned with VA enterprise architecture and technical policies.
• Ensure all architecture decisions support scalability, reliability, performance, and long-term maintainability of mission-critical systems.
• Develop, maintain, and evolve system architecture, including integration patterns, data flows, and technical standards for enterprise healthcare applications and platform services.
• Provide technical direction for cloud-native architectures, microservices, containerized environments, infrastructure as code (IaaS) automation, and low-code/no-code platform integrations and event-driven shared services architecture.
• Evaluate and recommend technology solutions that support modernization, interoperability, and platform scalability.
• Oversee system interoperability, data exchange patterns, and integration with internal and external healthcare systems, services, and APIs.
• Ensure architecture supports secure, reliable, and efficient data exchange across enterprise environments.
• Define and standardize integration approaches to reduce complexity and improve system resilience.
• Lead architecture reviews for new capabilities, system enhancements, and platform-based application development efforts.
• Identify and mitigate architectural risks impacting system performance, scalability, security, and sustainability.
• Provide guidance and decision-making support for complex system design and modernization initiatives.
• Collaborate with engineering, DevSecOps, and operations teams to ensure architecture is consistently implemented across environments.
• Align architecture with CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, and automated deployment practices.
• Support Agile and SAFe delivery by ensuring architectural guidance aligns with iterative development and release cycles.
• Ensure architectural documentation (HLDs, LLDs, diagrams, standards) is complete, accurate, and maintained under governance processes.
• Serve as the primary architectural point of contact for VA stakeholders, providing guidance on system design, technical decisions, and modernization roadmaps.
• Communicate architectural direction and trade-offs clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

What This Job Offers

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