Chief Platform Architect
ECS Corporate Services

ECS is seeking a Chief Platform Architect to work in our Colorado, CO office. Please Note: This position is contingent upon [contract award].

Job Description:

As a Platform Architect, you will be a senior technical leader responsible for designing and overseeing the implementation of our technology platform, ensuring scalability, reliability, and alignment with business and space mission goals. The ideal candidate should have a strong technical foundation in product ownership, software development, and cloud technologies to include Kubernetes, Istio, and Docker containers. You will lead and collaborate with cross-functional teams, providing guidance and mentorship to help guide technical decisions and platform strategy.

Responsibilities include:

• Develop and articulate the overall architecture and design of the technology platform, ensuring alignment with mission systems and customer objectives.
• Define and document platform components, interfaces, and dependencies.
• Design the platform to scale horizontally and vertically to meet current and future performance requirements.
• Design systems that meet rigorous requirements for availability, resiliency and performance.
• Establish hardware-based solutions and on-prem networking and access requirements for distributed workforce
• Implement strategies for load balancing, caching, and optimization to drive platform performance and resilience.
• Ensure the platform is designed for high availability, fault tolerance, and disaster recovery.
• Proactively implement monitoring, alerting, and automated recovery mechanisms.
• Design interfaces and APIs to enable seamless integration with internal and external systems.
• Collaborate with other architects and development teams to ensure interoperability.
• Implement and oversee security measures, including encryption, authentication, and authorization.
• Stay updated on security best practices and proactively address potential vulnerabilities.
• Evaluate and select appropriate technologies, frameworks, and tools for the platform.
• Stay informed about emerging technologies and assess their potential impact on the platform.
• Collaborate with software development teams to ensure that platform architecture is effectively implemented.
• Provide technical guidance and support to development teams.
• Create and maintain comprehensive documentation for the platform architecture, design decisions, and guidelines.
• Provide training and knowledge transfer to development teams.
• Monitor platform performance and conduct performance tuning to optimize resource utilization.
• Implement best practices for database performance, caching, and data storage.
• Initiates, supervises, and/or develops requirements from a project's inception to conclusion for complex to extremely complex programs
• Provides strategic advice, technical guidance and expertise to program and project staff
• Provides detailed analysis, evaluation and recommendations for improvements, optimization development, and/or maintenance efforts for client-specific or mission critical challenges/issues
• Consults with client to define need or problem supervises studies and leads surveys to collect and analyze data to provide advice and recommend solutions.
• Manage enterprise requirements and priorities across a diverse range of users and mission spaces.
• Own the technical roadmap and provide strategic technical vision.
• Communicate the technical roadmap and strategic technical vision to internal and external stakeholders and teams.
• Leads and/or participates in discussions, meetings, conference, committees, or special IT projects as a senior technical advisor.
• Analyzes areas of concern, identifies problems, and resolves conflicts through persuasive discussions with management and user representatives.
• Propose, test, evaluate, and down select technical solutions to meet the technical roadmap and strategic technical vision.
• Conduct periodic, comprehensive architectural assessments and evaluations of capability-based goals/objectives.
• Conduct secure code reviews to ensure STIG compliance

Salary Range: $175,000-$235,000

General Description of Benefits

Required Skills:

• Must be a US Citizen per contract.
• Must have an Active Top-Secret Clearance.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or similar experience.
• Proven experience as a Platform Architect or in a similar role.
• Change agent that inspires a project team to achieve solutions within the DoD.
• Strong proficiency in system architecture, design patterns, and software engineering principles.
• 'Hands-on' architect - able to write code, stand-in for dev team members as needed; experienced practitioner.
• Experience with Azure cloud platform and working knowledge of other platforms (e.g., AWS, GCP).
• Proven experience designing scalable and high-performance platforms.
• In-depth understanding of security best practices and experience implementing security measures.
• Experience designing and implementing interfaces and APIs for seamless integration.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills to work effectively with cross-functional teams.
• Ability to balance conflicting and changing demands through prioritization and a pragmatic approach.

Desired Skills:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field.
• 10+ years of relevant experience (ex. product owner, software development, DevOps engineer, cloud architecture).
• Experience with both lean startup principles and agile software project management.
• Experience working with cyber compliance SMEs for adherence to DoD system requirements.
• Familiarity with Tanzu TKGS Kubernetes, vSphere, MinIO container, Harbor, Nimble storage, Blade Servers, Networking, Switches, Firewalls.
• Familiarity with Virtual Networks, Linux VMs, Cloud Server configurations, and storage arrays.
• Familiarity with operational availability, MMTR, ArgoCD, Jira, Confluence, Google Workspace Mattermost, RBAC, MFA, ICAM and Kafka.
• Familiarity with C, C++, Java and FORTRAN.
• Familiarity with Trivy, SonarQube, GitLeaks, OWASP and SD Elements.
• Understanding of Threat Modeling and Risk Assessment, Identity and Access Management, Network Security, Cloud Security, Compliance and Auditing, and Security Architecture and Design.

ECS is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate or allow discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, genetic information, registered domestic partner status, marital status, status as a crime victim, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. ECS promotes affirmative action for minorities, women, disabled persons, and veterans.

ECS is a leading mid-sized provider of technology services to the United States Federal Government. We are focused on people, values and purpose. Every day, our 3800+ employees focus on providing their technical talent to support the Federal Agencies and Departments of the US Government to serve, protect and defend the American People.

General Description of Benefits

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