NIRA is seeking an experienced Solution Architect to support the U.S. Department of Justice Digital Evidence Review Platform program. The Solution Architect will define and govern the end-to-end technical architecture for a secure, scalable, cloud-based digital evidence platform supporting users across U.S. Attorneys' Offices. The role will work closely with the Development Manager, software engineers, data engineers, cloud integrators, cybersecurity personnel, product vendors, and Government stakeholders to translate mission and technical requirements into implementable solution designs.
Key Responsibilities- Provide architecture leadership across application, integration, data, identity and access management, cloud infrastructure, security, operations, and DevSecOps.
- Guide configuration and integration of commercial and Government platforms and design thin, open-standard services and APIs where custom development is required.
- Develop and maintain architecture diagrams, interface specifications, technical baselines, standards, and implementation roadmaps.
- Evaluate design alternatives and identify architectural risks, dependencies, scalability concerns, and security constraints.
- Support Agile planning, technical reviews, backlog refinement, testing, deployment, and transition to operations.
- Ensure traceability from requirements through design, implementation, testing, deployment, and operations.
- Support integration with enterprise identity, provisioning, security monitoring, service management, eDiscovery, and other Government systems.
- Define common data and metadata models, open-format interfaces, system partitioning and access-control patterns, deployment environments, CI/CD practices, resilience, and scalability.
- Operate effectively in a regulated federal environment where security, auditability, chain of custody, system availability, and controlled change management are essential.
Minimum Qualifications- Bachelor's degree in information technology, computer science, engineering, mathematics, science, or a closely related technical field.
- At least 10 years of relevant solution architecture, systems architecture, application architecture, or enterprise integration experience.
- A master's degree may substitute for two years of required experience; a PhD may substitute for four years.
- Experience designing and integrating enterprise applications, cloud platforms, APIs, data services, identity services, and commercial or Government software products.
- Experience developing architecture artifacts, interface specifications, technical standards, deployment models, and implementation roadmaps.
- Experience supporting software development through the full system development life cycle in Agile and DevSecOps environments.
- Experience identifying and managing technical dependencies, architecture risks, scalability concerns, security requirements, and integration constraints.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex technical concepts to technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
- S. citizenship and ability to meet DOJ residency and personnel-security requirements.
- Ability to obtain and maintain a High-Risk Public Trust investigation and PIV credential.
Preferred Qualifications- Experience supporting DOJ, law enforcement, litigation, digital evidence, eDiscovery, case management, or other federal mission systems.
- Experience with AWS GovCloud, Azure Government, FedRAMP-authorized SaaS, or hybrid federal cloud environments.
- Experience with SAML, OIDC, PIV/CAC authentication, RBAC, ABAC, identity governance, and zero-trust architecture.
- Experience with cloud-native services, microservices, containerized applications, APIs, CI/CD, and Infrastructure as Code.
- Experience with data-intensive platforms, knowledge graphs, AI/LLM-enabled applications, or human-in-the-loop analytics.
- Architecture certification such as TOGAF, AWS, Azure, or an equivalent credential.
