Senior Data Architect (Secret Clearance)

Praescient Analytics • Fairfax, VA

1d • Remote

About The Position

Praescient Analytics is seeking a highly skilled and visionary Data Architect – Senior to provide enterprise-level technical leadership, data strategy, and big-picture oversight for the National Background Investigation Services (NBIS) and Enterprise Information Technology (EIT) application development suites. In this role, you will define the overarching data strategy vision, establish master data management (MDM) guidelines, and conceptualize advanced enterprise data models optimized for a secure cloud environment. Working without supervision on highly complex initiatives, you will lead the evolution of legacy transactional schemas into modern, highly scalable, and secure data mesh architectures within an AWS GovCloud environment. You will collaborate closely with principal software architects, data engineers, chief data officers, and federal program stakeholders, exercising wide latitude for independent judgment to ensure our nation's background investigation data architectures are resilient, secure, and compliant with zero-trust mandates.

Requirements

• Active U.S. Secret clearance is required.
• Must be a U.S. Citizen to meet federal contract mandates.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Architecture, Information Systems, or a related field with 10–12 years of relevant data design and integration experience OR Master’s degree in a related field with 8–10 years of relevant experience OR PhD in a related field with 5–7 years of relevant experience.
• Deep, extensive proficiency in conceptual, logical, and physical data modeling.
• Expert knowledge of relational (OLTP) modeling, dimensional (OLAP) modeling, Data Vault 2.0 methodology, and NoSQL structural design.
• Comprehensive experience designing and implementing enterprise cloud data structures within AWS and AWS GovCloud, specifically utilizing Redshift, Lake Formation, Glue, EMR, Athena, S3, and DynamoDB.
• Expert-level knowledge of enterprise-grade relational databases (Oracle, PostgreSQL), NoSQL engines, and massive parallel processing (MPP) data warehouses.
• Expert proficiency with industry-standard data modeling tools (e.g., Erwin, ER/Studio, or open-source equivalents), Git, Jira, and Confluence within an automated DevSecOps environment.
• Proven ability to work without supervision on highly complex, mission-critical projects, exercising wide latitude for independent judgment.
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to articulate complex data visions to both engineering teams and senior federal stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

• An active Top Secret (TS) or TS/SCI clearance.
• Prior experience providing enterprise data architecture oversight or technical leadership directly on Department of Defense (DoD), DCSA, or NBIS programs.
• Advanced expertise in federal data compliance frameworks (e.g., NIST, HIPAA), zero-trust data access architectures, and automated data encryption at rest and in transit.

Responsibilities

• Formulate, experiment with, and articulate alternative enterprise data architectures.
• Create comprehensive model, schema, ontologies, and interface specification documents, validating the data architecture against strict federal requirements and security assumptions.
• Design end-to-end data architectures, including data warehouses, data lakes, operational data stores, and metadata management repositories, aligning them with the Agile SAFe v6.0 roadmap.
• Author the blueprints for migrating and modernizing complex legacy data systems into highly distributed, cloud-native storage and analytical solutions specifically optimized for AWS GovCloud.
• Define enterprise data standards, data dictionaries, and master data management practices.
• Establish the governance models required to safely integrate third-party federal data sources while maintaining strict data lineage.
• Partner with backend engineers to design frameworks for high-volume, low-latency batch and stream processing pipelines (e.g., Kafka, Kinesis, Spark) that effortlessly bridge application and analytics tiers.
• Serve as the principal data advisor across the entire program.
• Work with software engineers, system architects, and customer application experts to evaluate technical trade-offs and drive advanced analytics capabilities.
• Leverage Jira, Confluence, and SAFe processes to translate high-level mission capabilities and agency mandates into foundational architectural epics, technical features, and data roadmaps.

Benefits

• Very competitive salary based on qualifications and experience
• Comprehensive, Company paid healthcare for you (We pay your premiums and deductibles)
• 401(k) with company match
• Travel & performance incentives
• 3 weeks paid time off (plus Federal Holidays)
• $5K annual training allowance

What This Job Offers

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