Technical Solutions Architect

Senior Solution Architect Location: Remote / Occasional Visit Employment Type: Full-Time Client: Federal Government Job Summary: We are seeking an experienced Senior Solution Architect to lead the technical architecture and design of a modular, cloud-native, open-source platform built for long-term government ownership. The ideal candidate will bring deep expertise in AWS architecture, microservices, API design, cloud security, and scalable infrastructure, with a strong focus on security, interoperability, resilience, and minimizing vendor lock-in. This role will drive architecture decisions that support secure, mission-critical federal systems while ensuring the platform remains maintainable, extensible, and transferable to government ownership. Key Responsibilities Solution Architecture: Define and lead end-to-end solution architecture for cloud-native platforms hosted on AWS GovCloud, including microservices, APIs, event-driven systems, and data architectures. Cloud Infrastructure: Design scalable, resilient, and highly available cloud environments using AWS services, containers, Kubernetes, and infrastructure as code (IaC). Security & Compliance: Implement Zero Trust principles, least-privilege access, encryption standards, identity and access management (IAM), and secure network architectures. API & Integration Design: Establish standards for RESTful APIs, event-driven integrations, service interoperability, and secure data exchange. Architecture Governance: Maintain architecture diagrams, technical documentation, design standards, and architecture decision records. Lead technical design reviews and guide engineering teams on implementation. Technology Evaluation: Assess and approve architectural components, frameworks, and open-source technologies that support portability, interoperability, sustainability, and reduced vendor dependency. Performance & Resilience: Design for high availability, peak workloads, fault tolerance, disaster recovery, and operational resilience. Data Architecture: Define relational and in-memory data strategies, including data access patterns, performance optimization, scalability, and security. Transition & Knowledge Transfer: Develop architecture and transition plans that enable long-term government ownership, operational independence, and smooth contractor transition-out. Technical Leadership: Collaborate with development, DevSecOps, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and government stakeholders to align technical solutions with mission and business requirements. Required Qualifications 12+ years of experience in solution architecture, enterprise architecture, or a closely related technical leadership role. Strong hands-on experience designing and implementing cloud-native architectures on AWS; AWS GovCloud experience is highly preferred. Demonstrated expertise in microservices, distributed systems, REST APIs, and event-driven architecture. Experience with containerization technologies and Kubernetes-based platforms. Strong understanding of AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), Zero Trust security, least privilege, encryption, CDN, and Web Application Firewall (WAF) technologies. Experience designing relational database and in-memory data architectures. Proficiency with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and automated infrastructure provisioning. Active AWS Certified Solutions Architect certification. Strong knowledge of cloud security, system resilience, scalability, availability, and architectural best practices. Excellent technical documentation, design review, problem-solving, and stakeholder communication skills. Preferred Qualifications Experience supporting U.S. federal government technology programs. Experience designing, implementing, or maintaining systems subject to FISMA Moderate security requirements. Experience with open-source-first architecture and reducing proprietary technology dependencies. Knowledge of federal cybersecurity requirements, cloud governance, and secure software development practices. Experience developing platform transition plans, knowledge-transfer documentation, and solutions designed for long-term government ownership. Familiarity with DevSecOps, CI/CD pipelines, automated security testing, and cloud-native operational practices. Key Success Factors Design secure, modular, and scalable architectures for complex federal systems. Make sound architectural decisions that balance security, performance, cost, and maintainability. Promote open standards, reusable components, and minimal vendor lock-in. Translate mission and business requirements into practical technical solutions. Enable government teams to independently operate, maintain, and evolve the platform over time. Ideal Candidate: A senior-level architect with deep AWS expertise, strong cloud security fundamentals, proven microservices and API architecture experience, and a commitment to building secure, scalable, open-source-first solutions for federal government ownership. Oran