Technical Lead/Platform Solutions Architect (FedD236)

The role

The Technical Lead / Platform Solution Architect serves as the technical authority across a multi-vendor AI and software platform. This person will guide technical decisions, resolve integration challenges, and translate mission objectives into technical choices.

What you will do

• Own the end-to-end technical architecture and serve as the primary technical SME across the platform ecosystem.
• Translate mission objectives into pragmatic technical choices and provide recommendations, tradeoffs, and risk assessments.
• Create and maintain the architectural big picture across application, platform, AI, data, networking, security, identity, and integration layers.
• Lead technical integration across commercial and government technologies.
• Identify architectural dependencies, integration risks, bottlenecks, and technical debt.
• Guide engineering teams in establishing repeatable patterns for deployment, configuration, observability, identity, secrets, APIs, data access, and lifecycle management.
• Work with OEM engineering and professional services teams to resolve cross-platform issues.
• Evaluate emerging AI, agentic, cloud-native, and platform technologies.
• Partner with DevSecOps, Data, and AI Agentic engineers to ensure systems work together.
• Produce and maintain architecture diagrams, ADRs, technical standards, and decision briefs.

Required qualifications

• Active TS/SCI clearance.
• Local to the National Capital Region and able to support onsite work at a government facility in Springfield, Virginia.
• 8+ years of experience in systems engineering, platform engineering, cloud architecture, DevSecOps, or solution architecture.
• Deep hands-on understanding of Kubernetes and enterprise container platforms.
• Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure, CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, GitOps, APIs, networking, identity, secrets, and observability.
• Familiarity with NIST 800-53, RMF, ATO/C-ATO, zero-trust architecture, software supply-chain security, and continuous authorization.
• Ability to understand and communicate system architecture across application, platform, AI, data, and security boundaries.
• Demonstrated experience leading technical decisions in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

Nice to have

• Experience with AI/ML infrastructure, generative AI, agentic systems, model serving, RAG, or AI platform architecture.
• Experience with Red Hat OpenShift AI, NVIDIA AI technologies, GitLab, enterprise data platforms, or comparable commercial technologies.
• Experience integrating multi-vendor platforms where no single vendor owns the complete end-to-end solution.
• Experience supporting Secret or TS/SCI systems and multi-domain or disconnected/air-gapped deployments.
• Experience with UDS, Zarf, Pepr, Iron Bank, or similar secure software delivery and platform engineering technologies.
• Experience creating architecture decision records, reference architectures, technical roadmaps, and executive-level technical briefings.
• Experience advising government customers on technology strategy, modernization, platform adoption, or enterprise architecture.

Benefits

• Medical/Dental/Vision
• Premiums are 100% Company Paid
• Health Savings Account
• Life Insurance
• Disability Insurance
• 401k Retirement Plan
• Company Stock Options
• Home Office Budget
• Flexible Time Off (FTO) plus all Federal Holidays, one week for Thanksgiving, and two weeks for Christmas and New Year’s
• Paid Parental Leave
• Reimbursement for approved trainings/subscriptions
• Conferences (travel, lodging, and fees)

About the company

Defense Unicorns delivers mission value by streamlining software delivery so customers can focus on the most important challenges. They create and deliver secure solutions for continuous software integration and delivery.