Lead Application Architect

Role Description

The Lead Architect is a hands-on technical leader responsible for defining and delivering end-to-end solution architecture for complex client and internal initiatives. The role drives technical direction across teams, ensures solutions are scalable, secure, and maintainable, and guides delivery teams to build high-quality solutions aligned with enterprise modernization goals. Lead Architects stay close to the code and runtime by validating key architectural decisions, contributing where needed on critical paths, establishing engineering guardrails, and leading design reviews. Success is measured by both architectural quality and production outcomes, with the role remaining primarily focused on hands-on solution engineering and minimal delivery support. Occasional travel may be required, such as for engagement kickoffs.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree /4-year college degree in Computer Science, or equivalent work experience
• 15+ years of software development experience
• 12+ years of strong hands-on experience in Java
• 5+ years of hands-on experience designing, migrating, and operating production workloads on Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
• 5+ years of experience in a consultative, client-facing Lead Architect or Practice Architect role, with a proven track record of influencing executive stakeholders

Requirements

• Serve as a Client CTO Partner: Advise client executive leadership (CTOs, VPs of Engineering, Enterprise Architects and Technology Architects) on technical strategy, cloud economics, and long-term modernization roadmaps aligned with business goals
• Drive Legacy Modernization Strategy: Assess legacy application portfolios (monoliths, traditional tiered applications) and define pragmatic migration and re-architecting strategies (Refactor, Replatform, Rearchitect) for GCP
• Own End-to-End GCP Architecture: Define and govern scalable, secure, and highly available distributed system architectures, including integrations, API strategies, data flows, and non-functional requirements
• Lead Technical Governance: Conduct architecture and design reviews; document key decisions, trade-offs, technical debt mitigation strategies, and engineering guardrails
• Stay Hands-On: Mitigate delivery risk by writing code for prototypes, proof-of-concepts (PoCs), and reference implementations of modern cloud patterns. Continuously evaluate and adopt new technologies and patterns
• Establish Engineering Standards: Define and enforce practices across API design (e.g., gRPC, REST), automated testing, CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and secure-by-default blueprints
• Embed Operability by Design: Ensure cloud workloads are built with production-readiness in mind, including deep observability, resilience, automated recovery, and incident response readiness
• Support Practice Growth: Partner with pre-sales and account teams to shape modernization proposals, define solution boundaries, and provide accurate effort estimations
• Mentor and Scale Talent: Mentor senior engineers, emerging architects, and client technical teams to foster a culture of engineering excellence

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Vision
• Critical Illness, Accident, and Hospital
• 401(k) Retirement Plan – Pre-tax and Roth post-tax contributions available
• Life Insurance (Voluntary Life and AD&D for employee and dependents)
• Short and Long-Term Disability
• Health Spending Account (HSA)
• Transportation Benefits
• Employee Assistance Program
• Time Off/Leave (PTO, Vacation or Sick Leave)

Job Type & Location

This is a Permanent position based out of Hanover, MD.

Pay and Benefits

The pay range for this position is $160,000.00 - $225,000.00/yr. Additional earnings may be available through incentive programs like annual bonuses, profit sharing, etc.

Application Deadline

This position is anticipated to close on Aug 13, 2026.