Technical Lead/Platform Solutions Architect (FedD236)
About The Position
Defense Unicorns is seeking a senior Technical Lead / Platform Solution Architect to embed with a government team and serve as its technical subject matter expert across a complex, multi-vendor AI and software platform. The role connects mission, engineering, security, data, AI, and vendor perspectives into a coherent technical approach, serving as a trusted technology advisor to the mission hero. This hands-on and strategic role spans Kubernetes/OpenShift, GitLab and CI/CD, AI and agent infrastructure, enterprise data services, cloud infrastructure, security controls, and integration patterns. The Technical Lead guides technical decisions, challenges assumptions, identifies architectural risks, and helps move capabilities from prototype to operational use. The position requires moving comfortably between executive-level mission discussions and deep technical work with engineers and OEM teams. The role is intended to help the government team make sound architecture decisions, resolve cross-platform integration challenges, and establish repeatable patterns that accelerate mission delivery. Success means providing a trusted connection between mission goals and engineering execution, addressing integration issues before they become blockers, and enabling faster decisions and more repeatable technical patterns across classifications and mission use cases.
Requirements
- Active TS/SCI clearance.
- Local to the National Capital Region and able to support onsite work at a government facility in Springfield, Virginia, with availability for increasing onsite/SCIF interaction as the program scales.
- At least 8 years of experience in systems engineering, platform engineering, cloud architecture, DevSecOps, or solution architecture, with demonstrated ownership of complex technical environments.
- Deep hands-on understanding of Kubernetes and enterprise container platforms, preferably Red Hat OpenShift.
- Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure, CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, GitOps, APIs, networking, identity, secrets, and observability.
- Familiarity with NIST 800-53, RMF, ATO/C-ATO, zero-trust architecture, software supply-chain security, and continuous authorization.
- Ability to understand and communicate system architecture across application, platform, AI, data, and security boundaries.
- Demonstrated experience leading technical decisions in ambiguous, fast-moving environments with multiple engineering teams and technology vendors.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to brief senior government leaders and collaborate with deeply technical engineers.
- Ability to serve as a technical point of accountability without becoming a bottleneck; comfortable making informed decisions and escalating when needed.
Nice To Haves
- Experience with AI/ML infrastructure, generative AI, agentic systems, model serving, RAG, or AI platform architecture.
- Experience with Red Hat OpenShift AI, NVIDIA AI technologies, GitLab, enterprise data platforms, or comparable commercial technologies.
- Experience integrating multi-vendor platforms where no single vendor owns the complete end-to-end solution.
- Experience supporting Secret or TS/SCI systems and multi-domain or disconnected/air-gapped deployments.
- Experience with UDS, Zarf, Pepr, Iron Bank, or similar secure software delivery and platform engineering technologies.
- Experience creating architecture decision records, reference architectures, technical roadmaps, and executive-level technical briefings.
- Experience advising government customers on technology strategy, modernization, platform adoption, or enterprise architecture.
Responsibilities
- Own the end-to-end technical architecture and serve as the primary technical subject matter expert across the platform ecosystem.
- Advise the mission hero by translating mission objectives into pragmatic technical choices and providing recommendations, tradeoffs, and risk assessments.
- Create and maintain the architectural big picture across application, platform, AI, data, networking, security, identity, and integration layers.
- Lead technical integration across commercial and government technologies, including Kubernetes/OpenShift, GitLab, AI/ML services, enterprise data platforms, and security tooling.
- Identify architectural dependencies, integration risks, bottlenecks, and technical debt early enough to prevent schedule or mission impacts.
- Guide engineering teams in establishing repeatable patterns for deployment, configuration, observability, identity, secrets, APIs, data access, and lifecycle management.
- Work with OEM engineering and professional services teams to resolve cross-platform issues and ensure vendor solutions fit the overall architecture.
- Evaluate emerging AI, agentic, cloud-native, and platform technologies and advise the government team on adoption, integration, and sequencing.
- Help establish technical patterns that can be reproduced across classified environments and support the transition from prototype to operational use.
- Partner with the DevSecOps engineer to identify security and compliance risks and incorporate NIST 800-53, RMF, and ATO considerations into architecture and engineering decisions.
- Partner with the Data Engineer and AI Agentic Engineer to ensure data, models, agents, and applications work together as an operational system.
- Produce and maintain architecture diagrams, ADRs, technical standards, integration patterns, and concise decision briefs for government leadership.
- Identify recurring integration and platform problems that can be standardized, automated, or productized through UDS or other reusable capabilities.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
