VP of Architecture - Oddball Labs

Oddball•Washington, DC

30d•Hybrid

About The Position

Oddball believes that the best products are built when companies understand and value the things they are working on. We value learning and growth and the ability to make a big impact at a small company. We believe that we can make big changes happen and improve the daily lives of millions of people by bringing quality software to the federal space. We are seeking a VP of Architecture to join our Oddball labs team to lead our technical vision, set architecture standards, and ensure Oddball delivers scalable, reliable, and future-proof systems. This is a senior technical leadership position for someone who picks the best tool for the job, hands-on when needed, and also has experience with AI/ML enough to know when it makes sense to use it. This is a highly visible, hands-on role where you’ll define Oddball lab’s technical vision, support growth and sales efforts, implement ideas through agile experimentation and delivery cycles.

Requirements

7+ years of experience in software engineering / systems architecture / technical leadership roles.
Proven ability to set and communicate enterprise-wide technical vision and influence senior leadership.
Deep understanding of architecture concerns: performance, scalability, security, reliability, observability.
Strong experience across multiple technologies (polyglot): cloud platforms (e.g., AWS / Azure / GCP), containerization, microservices, distributed systems.
Hands-on experience or practical knowledge in AI/ML: recognizing when to employ these tools and integrating them into systems.
Experience with infrastructure as code, CI/CD, and deployment pipelines.
Experience in deploying application to production environments
Excellent communication skills — able to explain architectural trade-offs to engineers, product stakeholders, sometimes leadership.
Business alignment mindset: able to translate strategic objectives into actionable technical roadmaps.
Experience leading engineers and helping raise technical maturity.
Strong problem-solving skills and ability to make decisions in ambiguous or rapidly changing situations.
Track record of mentoring and developing senior engineers and architects.
Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States.
In alignment with federal contract requirements, certain roles may also require U.S. citizenship and the ability to obtain and maintain a federal background investigation and/or a security clearance.
Candidates must be located in the DMV area (DC, Maryland, Virginia) and able to participate in occasional in-office collaboration.

Nice To Haves

Prior experience designing and securing federal systems (FedRAMP, ATO, zero-trust).
Certifications or background in architecture frameworks (TOGAF, etc.).
Experience working with vendor partners, CSP (AWS, GCP, Azure, Anthropic, OpenAI).
Experience with multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud strategies for portability and resilience.
Experience designing systems that incorporate both AI/ML and non-ML components.
Direct experience delivering AI/ML systems in production at scale with focus on trust and explainability
Prior experience in startups or fast-moving environments where you build and iterate quickly.
Prior experience working with Government, either contractor or federal.