By Light Professional IT Services LLC readies warfighters and federal agencies with technology and systems engineered to connect, protect, and prepare individuals and teams for whatever comes next. Headquartered in McLean, VA, By Light supports defense, civilian, and commercial IT customers worldwide.

The Solution Architect will be a part of a multifaceted, matrixed, and integrated innovations team, supporting a large, complex, and innovative AWS cloud-based solution.

The Solution Architect will establish strategic solution vision and design and create complex solution architectures, define requirements, and author design documentation and related technical artifacts that drive current and future program results, improving efficiency within the program and delivering improvements to service delivery to the customer, while working closely with the Chief Architect, engineering leads, and customer stakeholders.  The Solution Architect will own solution design, engaging with all technical teams on the program, establish logical and physical architectures, lead technical designs, determine priorities, scope additional work, and oversee the planning and development of capabilities, and will lead the resolution of complex technical challenges as they arise.

The Solution Architect will support new business development activities, such as engaging with stakeholders and leadership to shape new business opportunities, authoring whitepapers and RFI responses, and conducting trade studies and analyses of alternatives, while proposing new and innovative solutions that align with strategic objectives. As needed, the Solution Architect will respond to requests to estimate cost, timeline, and effort, and refine scope of work by developing relevant artifacts. The Solution Architect will communicate regularly with individuals across roles and levels, including executive leadership.

This position is primarily remote; however, travel to GSM-O sites is required when necessary and candidates must be within commuting distance to Scott AFB, IL.

Architecture and Design

• Own the solution architecture of a large, cloud-based operations support system platform, responsible for the architecture and design, and accountable for creating and implementing innovative technical solutions for the GSM-O program.  
• Lead architectural design and technical planning, including roadmap development and implementation of modern techniques and technologies such as Cloud (AWS), Software Defined Networking (SDN), AIOps, AI/ML, Elasticsearch, and Kafka.
• Develop and maintain complex solution architectures and design documentation, ensure alignment with strategic objectives and program goals, integrate new technologies into architectures, and evaluate tools for high-quality delivery. Maintain a forward-looking perspective on industry trends and emerging technologies.
• Support innovation planning, analytical research, architecture, and design development across the innovations portfolio, and analyze government customer requirements to develop system requirements specifications.
• Perform data gathering, requirements definition and analysis, use case development, gap analysis, dependency analysis and management, develop functional and design specifications, and provide measurable input to new solutions, processes, or standards to achieve functional/project objectives.
• Facilitate problem-solving to manage risk, remove impediments, drive program-level continuous improvement, validate system characteristics, properties and behaviors, and enable early feedback.
• Own the resolution of complex technical challenges as they arise, leveraging technical expertise and problem-solving skills.
• Perform technical planning, system integration, verification and validation, cost/risk, and supportability effectiveness analyzes for systems across the DISN and GSM-O. 
• Support evaluation of new technologies, platforms or enhancements which could expand or enhance the GSMO-II program.
• Support the design, implementation, and execution of test cases and testing framework for the instantiation of infrastructure as code in environment to verify the quality of deployed code. Author and execute User Acceptance strategies, plans and scripts for the innovation’s deployment.

Collaboration

• Collaborate with stakeholders, including customers, vendors, and government personnel, to define technical solutions, resolve dependencies, and drive positive change within the program.
• Work with the team leadership to define technical priorities, establish logical and physical architectures, and lead technical designs.
• Conduct senior-level customer presentations and demonstrations, and interface with government customers to brief technical solutions, status, and issues.
• Communicate regularly with individuals across roles and levels, including executive leadership, to ensure alignment and coordination.
• Collaborate with colleagues, process owners, technical leads, and other process stakeholders to monitor and report technical variances and facilitate resolution of technical issues.
• Negotiate and manage project scope, timelines, and budgets, and resolve challenges through planning adjustments.
• Guide government customers in formulating functional, hardware, and/or software requirements, advises alternative approaches, and conducts feasibility studies.

Growth

• Perform analysis of alternatives, trade studies, and cost-benefit analysis to identify engineering risks, efficiencies, and improved ways of delivering services to customers.
• Support proposal development and cost estimation for new GSMO-II capabilities and ongoing enhancements.
• Engage with stakeholders and leadership to support new business development, including authoring whitepapers and RFI responses, and conducting trade studies and analyses of alternatives.
• Estimate cost, timeline, and effort for proposed solutions and refine scope of work to ensure feasibility and alignment with customer requirements.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure solutions are designed and implemented in accordance with industry best practices and standards.

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience and 12+ years of prior relevant experience or Masters with 8+ years or prior relevant experience. Experience may be accepted in lieu of degree.
• Experience leading strategy development, architecture creation, design, development, and delivery of data driven capabilities, within a DoD environment.
• Demonstrated ability to drive technological innovation and serve as an agent of change within an organization.
• Strong technical breadth and depth in support of the government markets, particularly in government network design, implementation, operations, and modernization.
• Familiarity with networking fundamentals, and experience designing network-based solutions.
• Experience architecting large scale cloud native architecture design utilizing industry security standards.
• Experience with data architectures and pipelines for structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data across various data repositories and data lakes.
• Experience with front-end technologies, UI/UX design, and Agile DevSecOps tools, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Experienced professional in contract performance with demonstrated technical lead and customer relationship building in the performance and growth of contracts.
• Demonstrated leadership skills and attention to detail.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills are required to collaborate with customer representatives, domain experts, systems engineers, and architects.
• Ability to collaborate with people from a variety of disciplines with varying degrees of technical experience.
• Proficiency in multiple programming languages, cloud computing, distributed systems, and microservices architecture.
• Strong understanding of Agile methodologies, including Scrum ceremonies and experience with Agile work management tools such as JIRA and Confluence.
• Strong communication skills – able to clearly articulate status and present to both customers and Program leadership.
• Ability to prioritize strict deadlines across concurrent activities on a fast-paced project.
• Experience working with Linux operating system, and operating system commands.
• Familiarity with web services and REST APIs

• Familiarity with AI/ML models for processing and analyzing large datasets, AI/ML-based Automation, and AIOps concepts.
• Proven expertise in mission software solutions related to data science, machine learning, or similar technologies.
• Strong proficiency in scalable microservices, UI/UX design, and full-stack development.
• Strong networking experience, including familiarity with BGP, MPLS, IP, and optical networking concepts, tools, and practices, as well as understanding of network routing devices and network device configurations.
• Experience with DISA and DoD Networks and processes, DoD Cybersecurity accreditation processes, DISA operations and Cyber Risk Management Processes,
• Experience architecting cloud-based AWS services, SecDevOps processes, cloud migrations, and cloud enterprise software implementations.
• Experience with DevOps/DevSecOps, Configuration as Code, Infrastructure as Code, and CI/CD implementation.
• Experience architecting solutions for Elastic, Kibana, Kafka, Robotic Process Automation (UiPath), and ServiceNow.
• Completed certifications in system architecture, cloud, or network solutions (e.g., AWS, Cisco, Juniper).
• Experience with cloud-based - specifically AWS - enterprise implementations.
• Experience with big data applications.

• Maintain an active Secret security clearance.
• Ability to travel to customer sites (<15%) when necessary.

• Position may include extended periods of sitting while on a computer or phone and speaking with customers.