Basic Qualifications
Education:
- Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related technical discipline. Equivalent combination of education and directly relevant experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
Experience:
- Minimum of ten (18) years of progressive IT experience, with at least five (5) years in a solutions architecture, enterprise architecture, or senior technical design role.
- Demonstrated experience leading the end-to-end design and implementation of enterprise-scale solutions, from requirements through deployment and operational hand-off.
- Experience developing architectural standards, reference architectures, and technology roadmaps for a large enterprise or government customer.
- Prior experience serving as the lead architect on programs with budgets of $5M or greater.
- Prior experience with State Government and/or Federal Health Agencies.
Technical Expertise:
- Hands-on architecture experience across two or more of the following domains:
- Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP), including migration strategy, cloud management, and automated provisioning.
- Data center virtualization (VMware ESXi or equivalent) and private/hybrid cloud infrastructure.
- Enterprise networking (Cisco routing/switching, firewalls, load balancers, VPN, SD-WAN).
- Server, storage, database (MS SQL or equivalent), and unified communications (SIP/VoIP) platforms.
- Experience designing solutions that integrate with IT Service Management platforms (ServiceNow preferred) and multi-vendor service delivery models (e.g., MSI).
- Demonstrated ability to balance cost, performance, security, and operational requirements to deliver best-value solutions.
Governance, Security & Standards:
- Working knowledge of security and compliance frameworks such as NIST 800-53, PCI-DSS, SOX, or state equivalents (e.g., Commonwealth of Virginia SEC 501/525).
- Familiarity with ITIL service management practices, including service catalog, capacity/availability, and disaster recovery/business continuity design.
Leadership & Communication:
- Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams of architects and engineers through design and implementation phases.
- Experience collaborating with executive leadership, customers, suppliers, and governance bodies; able to translate complex technical concepts for non-technical audiences.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including preparation of technical proposals, design documents, and briefings.
Certifications (one or more required):
- Cloud certification such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect, AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect, or Google Cloud Professional equivalent.
- ITIL Foundation (v3 or v4) certification.
Clearance / Eligibility:
- Must be a U.S. Citizen.
- Must be able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust or higher clearance as required by the customer engagement.
Desired Requirements
Strategic Advisory:
- Experience serving as a trusted technical advisor to executives, conducting market/opportunity analysis, and evaluating technology investments or R&D proposals.
- Recognized thought leadership in internal or external technology forums.
Enterprise Transformation:
- Track record of leading large-scale legacy-to-modern migrations, including emergency or compressed-timeline deployments (e.g., 30-day surge deliveries).
- Experience architecting rapid capacity scale-up solutions for continuity of operations events.
- Success consolidating and virtualizing physical environments to achieve measurable cost and uptime improvements.
Financial & Vendor Governance:
- Familiarity with IT financial management concepts — chargeback/showback, invoicing transparency, real-time cost monitoring — and automated vendor/contract governance platforms.
- Ability to apply utility vs. warranty trade-off analysis to IT investment decisions.
Team Development:
- Demonstrated success building diverse, high-performing technical teams from the ground up.
- Experience mentoring mid- and junior-level engineers and architects as a player-coach.
Operational Excellence:
- Experience implementing ITIL-based incident/problem management processes with measurable service improvements (e.g., significant ticket volume reduction).
- Hands-on experience validating live-replication and real-time failover DR strategies.
Regulated & Mission-Critical Environments:
- Delivery experience in highly regulated environments (state government, financial services, payment processing, or similar) with a track record of clean external audit outcomes.
Cross-Industry Perspective:
- Career exposure across multiple sectors (public sector, banking/financial services, payment processing, commercial IT services) supporting large, geographically distributed environments.
- Comfort interfacing directly with Fortune 500 or senior government leadership.
Recognition & Innovation:
- Industry or organizational recognition for technical innovation (e.g., innovation awards, technical fellowship, or comparable distinction).
Preferred Credentials & Background:
- Master's degree in Information Technology, Cybersecurity, Computer Science, or a related field.
- Additional certifications such as CISSP, TOGAF, or advanced cloud architect credentials.
- Prior experience supporting state and local government customers (VITA or comparable).
- Prior U.S. military service or federal government experience.
Personal Attributes:
- Bias toward action under compressed timelines; systems thinker who balances architecture, security, cost, and user experience; adaptable communicator across technical and executive audiences.