Responsibilities

About The Role

The Defense Mission and Health Solutions team, Benefits, Claims & Integrity Solutions Operating Unit seeks a Lead System Architect to support our Health and Human Services (HHS) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) customer delivery and be part of the leadership for CMS Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) initiatives.  The Lead System Architect will support mission‑critical programs within a fast‑paced, highly collaborative environment. In this role, you will define and guide the architectural vision for complex enterprise systems, ensuring alignment with customer objectives, program leadership, and corporate technology strategies. This position works closely with the IT Director to drive modernization initiatives, strengthen architecture governance, and ensure end‑to‑end technical integrity across the enterprise.

 

What you’ll do:

• Lead the development, documentation, and communication of enterprise‑level system architectures that meet mission, functional, and technical requirements
• Partner with program leadership, engineering teams, and the IT Director to translate mission needs into scalable, secure, and resilient solutions
• Collaborate with the IT Director on technology roadmaps, infrastructure strategy, cybersecurity controls, and system modernization priorities
• Define architecture baselines, integration strategies, and interface specifications
• Conduct architecture analyses, trade studies, modeling, and simulation to guide technical decisions
• Provide systems engineering leadership including requirements decomposition, allocation, and verification strategy
• Ensure alignment with program standards, cybersecurity requirements, and enterprise architecture guidelines
• Guide implementation teams in applying architecture patterns, cloud adoption approaches, and data‑centric design
• Lead technical reviews and manage engineering change processes
• Support proposals, technical whitepapers, and stakeholder presentations as a senior technical authority
• Mentor systems engineers and strengthen architecture discipline across the program

Qualifications

Required Skills:

• Bachelor’s degree in IT engineering, computer science, or related field
• 8+ years of architect experience of complex enterprise or mission systems within federal, defense, or intelligence environments
• Experience creating and managing enterprise architecture artifacts using industry‑standard architecture frameworks and modeling methodologies.
• Strong background in systems engineering, solution design, and multi‑domain integration
• Hands‑on familiarity with cloud architectures, microservices, data engineering, and cybersecurity principles
• Proven ability to partner with senior leaders, including IT Directors, CIO organizations, and program executives

• US Citizen and the ability to obtain a Public Trust clearance.

 

Preferred Qualifications:

• Active public trust clearance
• Master’s Degree
• PMP, ITIL, SAFe, or cloud certifications

Target Salary Range$135,000 - $216,000. This represents the typical salary range for this position. Salary is determined by various factors, including but not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the position, the individual’s experience, education, knowledge, skills, and competencies, as well as geographic location and business and contract considerations. Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay.