Senior Platform Architect

Responsibilities:

Platform Strategy & Integration

- Own the FSDS platform roadmap across its component systems, aligning priorities with NTIA program goals, application team needs, and security requirements.

- Define target-state architecture and integration patterns that connect FSDS applications, data services, and external federal systems.

- Lead architecture as the platform matures and expands to new environments.

- Weigh architecture tradeoffs across cost, security, operability, and the constraints of federal environments.

- Lead technical planning for new FSDS capabilities, migrations, and environment expansions, including scope, dependencies, sequencing, and estimates.

- Serve as the platform’s technical lead with NTIA and partner government teams, presenting architecture options, tradeoffs, and recommendations.

- Coordinate with Expression application, data, and security teams so platform decisions support delivery across all parts of FSDS.

- Document architecture decisions and design rationale so teams and stakeholders understand why the platform works the way it does.

Platform Architecture

- Define the Azure platform architecture for unclassified and classified FSDS environments.

- Set direction for shared platform services, including networking, identity, secrets management, container platforms, and configuration management.

- Establish platform standards for consistency, scalability, security, and cost across development, test, and production.

- Review Infrastructure as Code and Kubernetes designs with DevOps engineers so implementations stay aligned with the target architecture.

Cross-Team Collaboration

- Work closely with DevOps engineers on delivery pipelines, deployment patterns, and restricted-environment constraints, giving architecture direction rather than doing day-to-day implementation.

- Partner with security teams so Commerce, NTIA, and federal requirements shape the architecture from the start, and give design input to RMF and ATO activities.

- Support operations teams on observability, resilience, and recovery approaches, and give architecture guidance during major incidents.

- Work with developers and data engineers to identify delivery bottlenecks and prioritize platform improvements.

Technical Leadership

- Maintain architecture diagrams, design documents, and platform lifecycle plans.

- Guide platform upgrades, capacity planning, and production transitions.

- Mentor engineers and communicate technical tradeoffs to stakeholders.

Technology Environment

- Data lakehouse: Apache Iceberg, Apache Polaris, and Trino on Azure Data Lake Storage.

- Data and metadata services: PostgreSQL, OpenMetadata, and Elasticsearch.

- Processing and orchestration: Azure Data Factory, containerized Spark jobs, and Python Azure Functions.

- Identity and security: Microsoft Entra ID, managed identities, Azure Key Vault, and private networking.

- Delivery: Bicep with Azure Verified Modules, GitLab CI, and hardened container images with vulnerability scanning and SBOMs.

- Analytics: Tableau.

Qualifications:

- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field and five or more years of relevant platform, DevOps, or cloud engineering experience, or eight or more years of relevant experience in lieu of a degree.

- Experience defining architecture for multi-component platforms or programs, including integration patterns, target-state designs, and technical roadmaps.

- Experience working directly with government customers or program stakeholders to gather requirements, present technical options, and drive decisions.

- Experience designing infrastructure in Azure Commercial and Azure Government.

- Experience with platforms in classified or similarly restricted federal environments.

- Working knowledge of Infrastructure as Code, Kubernetes, and CI/CD practices, enough to guide and review DevOps implementations.

- Working knowledge of cloud networking, identity and access management, secrets management, and observability.

- Ability to make sound architecture decisions, document solutions, and collaborate with developers, DevOps engineers, security personnel, and customer stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications:

- Experience operating Azure Government Secret platforms.

- Experience building internal developer platforms or self-service provisioning portals.

- Familiarity with NIST SP 800-53 controls, RMF, ATO processes, and STIG implementation.

- Familiarity with platform security tools such as Nessus, SonarQube, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Aqua Security, or comparable products.

- Hands-on experience with Terraform, Bicep, Docker, Kubernetes, or Helm.

- Experience with data lakehouse architectures using Apache Iceberg, Trino, or comparable table formats and query engines.

- Experience with data catalog and governance tools such as OpenMetadata.

- Experience designing for disconnected or air-gapped deployments.

- Experience with Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Application Insights, Prometheus, or Grafana.

- Experience supporting shared database or search services such as SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Elasticsearch, or OpenSearch.

- Experience enabling data engineering or machine learning workloads on platforms such as Apache Spark, Azure Data Factory, or related technologies.

- Experience with GitOps, policy as code, Kubernetes operators, or service mesh technologies.

- Relevant Azure, Kubernetes, or cloud security certifications.