Senior Technical Lead / Solution Architect

Guidehouse • Tysons, VA

2d • $130,000 - $216,000

About The Position

The Senior Technical Lead / Solution Architect provides senior, hands-on technical leadership for a large-scale agile software development and platform modernization program supporting a large Federal contract. Working under the direction of the integrated architecture team, the role translates approved architectures, designs, patterns, and standards into actionable implementation guidance for multiple workstreams, vendors, and delivery teams. The position collaborates with architects on solution designs, communicates approved designs to delivery teams, and helps ensure implementation follows architectural decisions and engineering standards.

The role oversees implementation across Scrum teams and vendors while supporting continuity of critical legacy operations during modernization. It helps ensure delivered capabilities are secure, scalable, maintainable, interoperable, and aligned with the program’s target architecture. Responsibilities include technical guidance and coaching, review of designs and code, resolution of implementation issues, coordination of cross-team dependencies, and identification and escalation of deviations, risks, and exceptions for architectural review and approval.

Requirements

• Ability to obtain and maintain a Federal or DoD Public Trust; approved adjudication is required before onboarding.
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, information systems, or a related field.
• At least 10 years of progressive experience in software engineering, solution implementation, systems integration, platform modernization, or cloud-enabled application delivery, including at least 5 years leading technical implementation for complex enterprise or mission-critical programs.
• Experience translating enterprise and data architecture designs into detailed technical direction, implementation plans, development standards, and working software.
• Ability to collaborate with Enterprise and Data Architects, provide implementation feedback, recognize when architectural review is needed, and work within established decision authority.
• Deep experience designing, delivering, and modernizing enterprise applications using Java, Spring Boot, microservices, APIs, and large-scale mission-critical application patterns.
• Extensive experience implementing integration and interoperability solutions across legacy Java-based, Python-based, cloud-native, microservices-based, and vendor-delivered platforms using APIs, messaging, Enterprise Integration Patterns, and event-driven or asynchronous techniques.
• Hands-on experience implementing AWS cloud-native solutions using services such as API Gateway, EventBridge, ECS/EKS, Lambda, SQS/SNS, DynamoDB, CloudWatch, and related integration and security capabilities.
• Expertise delivering scalable, resilient, highly available distributed systems using Docker, Kubernetes, Infrastructure as Code, DevSecOps, observability, monitoring, logging, disaster recovery, and production support practices.
• Strong understanding of domain-driven design, including domain models, bounded contexts, service boundaries, software design patterns, and modular architecture.
• Strong understanding of enterprise data architecture, interoperability, migration strategies, master data management, canonical data models, data governance, and relational databases including Oracle, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server.
• Experience implementing scalable NoSQL solutions using Amazon DynamoDB, MongoDB, Cassandra, or similar technologies, with understanding of distributed data modeling and consistency patterns.
• Strong understanding of enterprise security architecture, including OAuth2, OpenID Connect, SAML, JWT, Zero Trust, modern identity and access management, threat modeling, and alignment with Federal security requirements.
• Ability to apply and enforce approved API standards, integration patterns, interface specifications, non-functional requirements, and technical standards for security, scalability, resiliency, maintainability, and operational excellence.
• Experience conducting implementation-focused design reviews, code reviews, solution assessments, technical quality checks, and architecture compliance reviews.
• Success leading and mentoring technical leads, senior engineers, and developers across multiple Agile teams, vendors, and stakeholder organizations without relying solely on direct authority.
• Hands-on experience with AI-powered coding assistants and agents, including responsible adoption standards, engineering controls, code review practices, and measurable productivity and quality improvements.
• Exceptional ability to translate approved architecture into clear implementation guidance and communicate technical status, deviations, risks, and corrective actions to architects, Federal customers, business stakeholders, and engineering teams.
• Strong problem-solving, collaboration, coaching, and conflict-resolution skills, with the ability to balance delivery needs, architectural integrity, compliance, technical debt, maintainability, and long-term platform sustainability.

Nice To Haves

• Active Public Trust or suitability.
• Advanced degree.
• Experience leading enterprise-scale platform modernization within Federal, regulated, or similarly complex environments.
• Experience supporting Federal IT programs involving legacy modernization, shared services, interoperability, cloud adoption, data governance, phased capability delivery, and formal architecture review processes.
• Experience leading multi-vendor delivery within a common platform architecture and resolving cross-organizational issues involving standards, interfaces, ownership, dependencies, and release readiness.
• Experience defining technology strategy, modernization investment roadmaps, technical operating models, or architecture governance for large programs or portfolios.
• Experience improving user experience, workflow efficiency, operational continuity, adoption, and measurable mission outcomes during complex modernization transitions.
• Professional-level architecture, cloud, agile, or security certification, such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional, AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional, AWS Certified Security – Specialty, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, TOGAF, SAFe, or comparable credentials.
• Experience designing and governing AI-enabled applications using Amazon Bedrock or equivalent platforms, Retrieval-Augmented Generation, AI agents, vector databases, prompt engineering, evaluation frameworks, and responsible AI controls; experience partnering directly with mission users to rapidly prototype and operationalize AI-enabled capabilities is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the senior implementation-focused technical lead for a large-scale platform modernization program delivered through iterative agile execution.
• Work under the integrated architecture team’s direction to refine solution designs, evaluate implementation considerations, and translate approved architecture into actionable technical guidance.
• Communicate approved solution designs, reference architectures, design patterns, data standards, interface contracts, and engineering guardrails to development and vendor teams.
• Provide day-to-day technical leadership to engineers implementing APIs, data exchanges, shared services, workflow automation, cloud-native solutions, DevSecOps capabilities, and incremental migrations.
• Review detailed designs, code, configurations, interfaces, and technical deliverables to verify alignment with approved architecture and engineering standards.
• Establish implementation checkpoints, code and design review practices, technical acceptance criteria, and traceability mechanisms that reinforce architectural compliance.
• Identify architectural deviations, implementation risks, technical debt, and standards violations; coordinate remediation and escalate exceptions to the integrated architecture team for decision and approval.
• Coordinate technical implementation across Scrum teams and vendors to maintain consistency in service boundaries, interfaces, data handling, security controls, reusable components, and shared platform capabilities.
• Resolve complex implementation issues and cross-team dependencies while preserving approved architectural intent and involving architects when design-level decisions are required.
• Mentor technical leads and engineers, strengthen engineering discipline, and promote consistent use of approved patterns, tools, and development practices.
• Report implementation status, risks, compliance concerns, and recommended corrective actions to Enterprise and Data Architects, program leadership, Product Owners, and delivery stakeholders.

Benefits

• Medical, Rx, dental, and vision insurance.
• Personal and family sick time and company-paid holidays.
• Parental leave.
• 401(k) retirement plan.
• Group term life and travel assistance.
• Voluntary life and AD&D insurance.
• Health Savings Account and Health Care and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts.
• Transit and parking commuter benefits.
• Short-term and long-term disability.
• Tuition reimbursement, personal development, certifications, and learning opportunities.
• Employee referral program.
• Corporate-sponsored events and community outreach.
• Care.com annual membership.
• Employee Assistance Program.
• Supplemental benefits via Corestream, including critical care, hospital indemnity, accident insurance, legal assistance, and identity theft protection.
• Position may be eligible for a discretionary variable incentive bonus.
• Competitive compensation and a flexible benefits package.

What This Job Offers

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