Job Description

Solutions Architect Lead

Are you ready to enhance your skills and build your career in a rapidly evolving business climate? Are you looking for a career where professional development is embedded in your employer's core culture? If so, Chenega Military, Intelligence & Operations Support (MIOS) could be the place for you! Join our team of professionals who support large-scale government operations by leveraging cutting-edge technology and take your career to the next level! The Solutions Architect Lead will serve as a senior technical leader supporting DARPA's IT modernization, Zero Trust, cloud adoption, and advanced networking initiatives. In addition to direct technical contributions, this role is responsible for leading and mentoring a team of solutions architects and engineers, ensuring alignment with mission priorities and architectural standards.

Responsibilities include:

• Lead design of secure, scalable architectures spanning AWS, Azure, and on-premises systems in IL2-IL6+ / air-gapped environments.
• Manage, mentor, and develop a team of solutions architects, setting priorities, reviewing designs, and ensuring quality across deliverables.
• Develop reusable architectural patterns for multi-cloud integration, hybrid connectivity, and workload migration.
• Maintain architectural alignment with NIST, DoD, and IC compliance frameworks.
• Produce high-fidelity diagrams and design documentation for technical and non-technical audiences.
• Review and approve solution designs from engineering teams to ensure technical consistency and mission alignment.
• Architect Zero Trust implementations for network, identity, application, and data layers.
• Translate Zero Trust principles into actionable design and configuration standards.
• Partner with cybersecurity teams to embed controls into cloud and on-premise environments from inception.
• Conduct architecture reviews to assess risk posture and recommend mitigations.
• Ensure security compliance is maintained across evolving multi-cloud deployments.
• Design and implement secure CI/CD pipelines with GitLab Enterprise, Terraform, and Kubernetes.
• Define and enforce branching, promotion, and release management standards (dev ? stage ? prod).
• Integrate automated compliance checks and security scans into the delivery pipeline.
• Provide reference templates for infrastructure-as-code deployments in classified environments.
• Mentor engineering teams on DevSecOps practices and toolchain optimization.
• Modernize AWS/Azure and cross-cloud routing architectures.
• Work with network operations to troubleshoot complex hybrid routing scenarios.
• Maintain documentation of network topologies and interconnect dependencies.
• Guide adoption of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) for secure in-house data analysis.
• Recommend open-source and commercial AI tools aligned to portability and compliance needs.
• Collaborate with research teams on architecture for secure model hosting and data ingestion.
• Design and advise on vector database integrations for mission datasets.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies for classified and unclassified environments.
• Brief DARPA leadership on technology tradeoffs and modernization strategies.
• Facilitate technical workshops with cross-directorate stakeholders.
• Coordinate with vendors and integrators to align project deliverables with DARPA mission goals.
• Represent DARPA technical interests in interagency or partner discussions.
• Document and communicate architectural decisions to both technical and executive audiences.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications include:

• High school diploma or GED equivalent
• 10+ years in enterprise architecture, cloud solutioning, or related senior technical roles.
• Proven expertise in Cloud, IaC, Application Development, and/or enterprise networking.
• Experience designing solutions in classified DoD or IC environments.
• Strong understanding of Zero Trust architecture and NIST/DoD cybersecurity frameworks.
• Active TS/SCI clearance (or ability to obtain).

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Exceptional communication skills with the ability to influence senior stakeholders.
• Experience with hybrid IL2-IL6+ cloud architectures and cross-domain solutions.
• Knowledge of AI/ML platform design, vector search technologies, and secure data lakes.
• Familiarity with DARPA's mission, research culture, and operational constraints.
• Proven ability to lead multi-disciplinary technical teams in high-stakes environments.
• Proven ability to lead and grow a high-performing architecture team in mission-critical environments.
• Experience integrating emerging technologies into secure, regulated operational contexts.
• Strong vendor management and partner engagement skills within government or defense sectors.

How you'll grow:

At Chenega MIOS, our professional development plan focuses on helping our team members at every level of their careers to identify and use their strengths to do their best work every day. From entry-level employees to senior leaders, we believe there's always room to learn. We offer opportunities to help sharpen skills in addition to hands-on experience in the global, fast-changing business world. From on-the-job learning experiences to formal development programs, our professionals have a variety of opportunities to continue to grow throughout their careers.

Benefits:

At Chenega MIOS, we know that great people make a great organization. We value our team members and offer them a broad range of benefits. Learn more about what working at Chenega MIOS can mean for you.

Chenega MIOS's culture:

Our positive and supportive culture encourages our team members to do their best work every day. We celebrate individuals by recognizing their uniqueness and offering them the flexibility to make daily choices that can help them be healthy, centered, confident, and aware. We offer well-being programs and continuously look for new ways to maintain a culture where we excel and lead healthy, happy lives.

Corporate citizenship:

Chenega MIOS is led by a purpose to make an impact that matters. This purpose defines who we are and extends to relationships with our clients, our team members, and our communities. We believe that business has the power to inspire and transform. We focus on education, giving, skill-based volunteerism, and leadership to help drive positive social impact in our communities. Learn more about Chenega's impact on the world.

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