Lead / Principal Enterprise Architect

Job Description Title: Lead / Principal Enterprise Architect

Location: Rockville, MD

Work Arrangement: Hybrid( 3 days onsite minimum)
Clearance: Must be able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust clearance

Sponsorship: No sponsorship assistance is available for this position now or in the future.

Position Summary: The Lead / Principal Enterprise Architect is responsible for defining and driving the technology roadmap for a complex, mission-critical application portfolio that includes long-standing custom-built Java and .NET applications (10+ years in production), commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products, Oracle database platforms, and a hybrid mix of on-premises data centers and cloud infrastructure.

The primary focus of this role is enterprise application and solution architecture, with particular emphasis on Java-based applications, COTS products, application modernization, integration, and hybrid cloud solutions.

This role bridges business strategy and technical execution: partnering with executive stakeholders to understand business drivers, working with vendors to evaluate and integrate commercial products, and collaborating closely with existing development teams to translate architectural vision into effective, buildable designs.

The successful candidate will bring strong architectural and technical credibility across legacy and modern technology stacks, with demonstrated experience working with Java-based enterprise applications and familiarity with .NET environments. The role does not require day-to-day hands-on application development; however, the architect must be technically proficient enough to evaluate solutions, challenge technical approaches, guide development teams, and translate architectural concepts into implementable designs.

The successful candidate will also demonstrate sound judgment about when to modernize versus stabilize and possess the communication skills to align diverse stakeholders around a shared, phased modernization strategy.

Environment You'll Be Working In

The current application portfolio consists primarily of custom Java and .NET applications that have been in production for a decade or more, a number of COTS/vendor products layered into core business processes, and Oracle as the primary enterprise database platform.

Java represents a significant portion of the application modernization environment, while .NET represents a smaller portion of the existing application portfolio.

Infrastructure is a hybrid combination of on-premises data center capacity and cloud services, with active initiatives underway to rationalize workloads across both.

The organization is seeking to modernize deliberately, without disrupting mission-critical operations, and needs an architect who can operate comfortably across legacy systems, vendor products, and modern cloud-native patterns simultaneously.

The environment also includes enterprise platforms such as ServiceNow. ServiceNow architecture expertise is not a core requirement; however, familiarity with ServiceNow, CMDB concepts, enterprise workflow platforms, and their integration within a broader technology ecosystem is beneficial.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy & Roadmap

• Develop, maintain, and communicate a multi-year enterprise architecture roadmap that aligns technology investments with business strategy and modernization goals.
• Assess the current-state architecture across custom Java/.NET applications, COTS products, Oracle databases, and on-prem/cloud infrastructure to identify technical debt, risk, and modernization opportunities.
• Define target-state architectures and phased modernization approaches (rehost, replatform, refactor, replace, or retire) for legacy systems, prioritized by business value, risk, and cost.
• Evaluate existing technology stacks and recommend whether applications should remain on current technologies or transition to newer platforms, architectures, or technology patterns as part of modernization efforts.
• Build and maintain a technology and application inventory, including lifecycle status, dependencies, and risk ratings, to support roadmap and investment decisions.
• Evaluate emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and AI-enabled capabilities, and identify practical opportunities for their responsible adoption within the enterprise technology roadmap.

Design & Delivery

• Produce effective, pragmatic architecture designs and solution blueprints that developers and vendors can execute against, balancing ideal-state architecture with real-world constraints.
• Establish and maintain architecture standards, patterns, and reference architectures spanning application, integration, data, and infrastructure domains.
• Participate in solution design and code/design reviews with development teams to ensure new work aligns with enterprise standards and the long-term roadmap.
• Provide solution-level architectural guidance across technologies without replacing the hands-on developers, engineers, database specialists, security professionals, or other technical SMEs responsible for implementation.
• Lead architecture efforts for integrating on-premises systems with cloud services, and for migrating workloads to the cloud where it makes sense.
• Provide architectural guidance on Oracle database modernization, including options for cloud database migration, replatforming, or consolidation.
• Evaluate technology options and proposed solutions across the application portfolio and provide architectural recommendations regarding integration, scalability, maintainability, security, modernization, and long-term viability.
• Provide architectural guidance for AI-enabled solutions and evaluate how AI capabilities can be incorporated into application modernization, enterprise platforms, business processes, and future-state architectures where appropriate.

Stakeholder & Vendor Engagement

• Partner with business and IT stakeholders to translate business needs and pain points into architecture requirements and roadmap priorities.
• Present architecture strategies, roadmaps, and business cases to executive leadership and governance bodies in clear, business-relevant terms.
• Evaluate COTS and vendor products, including participation in RFP/RFI processes, technical due diligence, and contract or statement-of-work review from an architecture perspective.
• Lead or participate in technology evaluations and option analyses, helping stakeholders determine whether to build, buy, integrate, modernize, or replace existing solutions.
• Manage ongoing architectural relationships with key technology vendors and system integrators, holding them accountable to agreed designs and standards.
• Act as a trusted advisor and connective tissue between business stakeholders, vendors, and internal development teams throughout the project lifecycle.

Governance & Mentorship

• Establish and facilitate architecture governance processes (e.g., an architecture review board) to ensure new initiatives align with enterprise direction.
• Maintain a risk register and technical debt inventory tied directly to the modernization roadmap, with mitigation and remediation plans.
• Mentor architects, senior developers, and technical leads, building internal architecture capability and modernization know-how over time.
• Review significant technology proposals, solution approaches, and modernization recommendations to ensure alignment with enterprise architecture standards and strategic direction.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• 10+ years of progressive IT experience, including at least 5 years in an enterprise or solution architecture role.
• Deep, hands-on background with Java and .NET application design and development, sufficient to assess and guide modernization of long-lived, complex codebases.
• Experience working with Oracle database platforms in an enterprise setting (schema design, performance, migration, or modernization).
• Experience integrating, customizing, or governing COTS/vendor products within a broader enterprise architecture.
• Demonstrated experience architecting and operating in hybrid environments spanning on-premises infrastructure and one or more public cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or OCI).
• Track record of developing technology roadmaps and leading multi-year modernization initiatives.
• Strong stakeholder and vendor management skills, with the ability to influence without direct authority.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to move fluidly between deep technical detail and executive-level messaging.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working within a government, public-sector, or other highly regulated environment.
• Familiarity with established enterprise architecture frameworks (e.g., TOGAF, Zachman) and modernization patterns (e.g., strangler-fig, API-led integration, microservices decomposition).
• Experience with DevSecOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, and containerization/orchestration technologies as modernization targets.
• Relevant industry certifications (architecture, cloud platform, or database) are a plus but not required.
• Prior experience leading or participating in a formal cloud migration or data center consolidation effort.
• Certifications - (having one of these certifications would be a strong plus):
• TOGAF Enterprise Architecture Practitioner / TOGAF Certified
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert
• Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Architect Professional
• Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)

What Success Looks Like

• A clear, stakeholder-endorsed modernization roadmap with defined phases, dependencies, and business justification.
• Reduced architectural risk and technical debt across the legacy Java, .NET, and COTS portfolio, tracked against a living risk register.
• Strong working relationships with vendors and internal development teams, resulting in designs that are both architecturally sound and practical to build.
• Increased organizational confidence in IT's ability to modernize deliberately without disrupting critical business operations.

Compensation and Benefits

The projected compensation range for this position is $160,000 to $185,000 per year benchmarked in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The salary range provided is a good faith estimate representative of all experience levels. Salary at LCG is determined by various factors, including but not limited to role, location, education/training, knowledge, skills, competencies, certifications, and experience.

LCG offers a competitive, comprehensive benefits package which includes health insurance options (medical, dental, vision), life and disability insurance, retirement plan contributions, paid leave, federal holidays, professional development, and lifestyle benefits.