Solutions Architect/Lead, Top Secret

General Dynamics Information Technology • Arlington, TX

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Solutions Architect leads technical architecture and engineering for a modernized cyber command center supporting national cyber defense across Critical Infrastructure, SLTT, and Federal Civilian partners. The role owns end-to-end technical design for ingesting, normalizing, correlating, and delivering infrastructure, operational, and threat data to operators, and serves as the primary technical interface to government leadership. It directs data engineering, cloud platform and authorization, and application delivery teams to ensure technical coherence and alignment.

The architect defines data-flow and integration patterns, data models and standards, cloud hosting and authorization approaches, and application interfaces. The role guides deployment and release architecture, technical governance, engineering priorities, risk management, and integration with government partners, vendors, and third-party providers.

This is a hybrid position based in Arlington, Virginia, with 40 scheduled weekly hours and less than 10% travel. The role requires U.S. citizenship and an active Top Secret clearance; the posting also lists interim Secret as the clearance currently required and Top Secret/SCI as a clearance that must be obtainable.

Requirements

• Experience as a lead or principal architect on enterprise systems integrating multiple data sources.
• Demonstrated cloud architecture experience in regulated environments.
• Experience with data integration and normalization to open standards.
• Working knowledge of RMF and architecture decisions shaping an authorization boundary.
• Experience directing engineering teams across multiple disciplines.
• Ability to present technical decisions to senior government stakeholders.
• Bachelor’s degree and at least 8 years of relevant experience.
• U.S. citizenship required.
• Active Top Secret clearance required; the posting states Interim Secret must currently be possessed and Top Secret/SCI must be obtainable.

Nice To Haves

• Experience supporting national-level cyber programs.
• Experience in advanced data modeling or graph-based architecture.
• Experience linking entities across heterogeneous sources at scale.
• Familiarity with ICS/OT data and critical infrastructure modeling.
• Experience designing or deploying analytics or machine learning in accredited environments.
• Experience leading a system through initial ATO.
• Certifications such as CISSP or advanced cloud architecture.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end architecture, including data flow, integration patterns, and processing-layer boundaries.
• Define and maintain integration designs across data sources, analytics, and operator applications.
• Set interface and schema standards for the operator application.
• Make and document architecture decisions affecting the authorization boundary, hosting model, and sustainment posture.
• Establish technical standards, design reviews, and governance.
• Direct the unified data model for infrastructure, operational, and threat information.
• Set normalization and correlation approaches aligned with open standards.
• Oversee ingestion and enrichment pipelines, including onboarding, data quality, and lineage.
• Direct analytic service design and controls governing analytic outputs.
• Own cloud architecture, including hosting, network, identity, orchestration, and infrastructure-as-code.
• Define approaches for handling data of varying sensitivity.
• Drive architecture decisions supporting ATO, including boundary definition, inheritance, and monitoring.
• Work with security and authorization teams to ensure a defensible architecture.
• Establish deployment, environment, and release architecture.
• Direct application technical design and its interface to the underlying data and event layer.
• Ensure operator experience aligns with mission needs rather than data structures.
• Own integration contracts and ensure traceability to requirements.
• Lead technical delivery teams, set priorities, resolve dependencies, and maintain design coherence.
• Provide technical direction and mentorship across data, platform, and application engineering.
• Align technical sequencing with operational milestones.
• Identify and mitigate technical risks, including integration and authorization risks.
• Serve as the primary technical interface to government leadership and present architecture and trade-offs.
• Support technical exchanges, demonstrations, and design reviews.
• Coordinate integration with partners, vendors, and third-party providers.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits and wellness packages.
• 401(k) with company match.
• Competitive pay and paid time off.
• Medical plan options, some with Health Savings Accounts.
• Dental plan options.
• Vision plan.
• Full flex work weeks where possible.
• Paid vacation, sick and personal time, and holidays.
• Paid parental, military, bereavement, and jury duty leave.
• Short- and long-term disability benefits.
• Life, accidental death and dismemberment, personal accident, critical illness, and business travel and accident insurance are provided or available.
• Growth and learning opportunities through an AI-powered career tool.
• Internal mobility support for career goals.

What This Job Offers

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