Lead defense enterprise architecture, technology strategy and capture solutions across cloud, AI, cybersecurity and mission systems. Fairfax hybrid.
Role: Defense Enterprise Chief Architect
Location: Fairfax, VA — Hybrid
Job Description:
The Defense Enterprise Chief Architect for the Defense Enterprise Account is the senior technical architect, sales engineering leader, and technology strategist for a portfolio supporting Department of Defense Fourth Estate agencies and Combatant Commands.
Reporting to the Defense Enterprise Account Portfolio Leader, the Defense Enterprise Chief Architect operates across growth and delivery, engaging customers, prospective customers, partners, capture teams, and program organizations. The Defense Enterprise Chief Architect translates mission challenges into differentiated, secure, and executable solutions across:
Cloud modernization and operations
Data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning
Autonomous systems and mission autonomy
Mission Partner Environments and secure information sharing
Enterprise IT modernization and cybersecurity
This is a highly visible, hands-on leadership role. The Defense Enterprise Chief Architect must be equally effective advising senior customers, shaping a strategic pursuit, developing a solution architecture, presenting at competitive orals, and helping delivery teams resolve complex technical challenges. The successful candidate will combine mission focus, commercial awareness, technical credibility, collaborative leadership, and extreme ownership.
Key Responsibilities:
Account Technology Strategy:
Develop and execute the account technology strategy in alignment with customer missions, market priorities, growth objectives, and company capabilities.
Maintain an informed view of Fourth Estate and Combatant Command missions, architectures, acquisition priorities, and operational challenges.
Translate emerging technologies and customer demand signals into offerings, technical roadmaps, qualified opportunities, and investment recommendations.
Advise the Account Portfolio Leader on technology priorities, capability gaps, partnerships, and technical talent.
Connect corporate capabilities, intellectual property, solution accelerators, and subject-matter experts to account needs.
Growth, Capture, and Sales Engineering:
Serve as the senior sales engineer and technical leader for strategic pursuits.
Partner with growth, business development, capture, and proposal teams to shape opportunities before solicitation release.
Engage customers to understand mission outcomes, constraints, technical requirements, and acquisition considerations.
Lead solution architecture, technical volumes, staffing and estimation inputs, demonstrations, white papers, transition strategies, and oral presentations.
Develop credible discriminators that strengthen competitive positioning and improve win probability.
Ensure proposed solutions are secure, compliant, scalable, supportable, competitively priced, and executable.
Evaluate technology and teaming partners based on mission value, technical fit, maturity, interoperability, and risk.
Portfolio Technical Leadership:
Provide technical leadership across the account, partnering with program managers, chief engineers, architects, and delivery teams.
Conduct reviews of strategic programs to assess architecture, security, performance, scalability, technical debt, and modernization opportunities.
Support resolution of complex technical issues, recovery of challenged efforts, and execution of major platform transitions.
Maintain continuity between capture and delivery by guiding technical transition from proposed solution through startup and operations.
Promote reuse of architectures, automation, engineering patterns, data products, and lessons learned across programs.
Ensure solutions account for classified, multi-enclave, coalition, tactical, edge, and disconnected operating environments.
Balance innovation with mission resilience, cybersecurity, accreditation, affordability, and operational sustainment.
Architecture, Innovation, and Solution Quality:
Establish account standards for solution architecture, technical reviews, engineering documentation, and design assurance.
Develop reusable reference architectures across cloud, Data and AI, autonomy, Mission Partner Environments, Zero Trust, and enterprise IT.
Ensure solutions address interoperability, data governance, identity, cybersecurity, observability, resiliency, continuity of operations, and lifecycle support.
Identify technical, cost, schedule, security, and integration risks early enough to influence pursuit and delivery decisions.
Translate emerging capabilities—including generative AI, agentic systems, edge computing, digital engineering, autonomous platforms, and secure mission networking—into practical mission solutions.
Sponsor prototypes, demonstrations, and accelerators that can transition into accredited, scalable production environments.
Develop technical points of view and market-facing content that strengthen the company's position in priority Defense Enterprise markets.
Customer and Industry Engagement:
Build trusted relationships with government technology leaders, mission owners, program executives, chief architects, chief engineers, and operational stakeholders.
Lead technical exchanges, architecture workshops, solution sessions, demonstrations, and modernization discussions.
Represent the account at customer forums, partner meetings, industry events, and executive briefings.
Build relationships across the technology ecosystem, including cloud providers, software companies, original equipment manufacturers, systems integrators, research organizations, and nontraditional partners.
Communicate complex technical issues clearly to executive, acquisition, operational, and engineering audiences while remaining credible with Warfighters and technical practitioners.
Technical Talent Leadership:
Build a connected account community of architects, engineers, data scientists, AI specialists, cybersecurity professionals, and mission technologists.
Identify technical workforce needs and support recruiting, succession planning, professional development, and retention.
Mentor chief engineers, solution architects, and emerging technical leaders.
Maintain visibility into account expertise and rapidly mobilize qualified talent for customer needs, delivery challenges, and priority captures.
Promote disciplined engineering, knowledge sharing, intellectual curiosity, transparency, and delivery excellence across a matrixed organization.
Leadership Relationships:
The Defense Enterprise Chief Architect reports to the Defense Enterprise Account Portfolio Leader and serves on the account leadership team. The role works closely with growth and capture leaders, program directors, corporate technology organizations, chief engineers, functional leaders, and strategic partners.
The Defense Enterprise Chief Architect leads primarily through influence, technical credibility, and matrixed coordination. The position does not own corporate IT operations but coordinates with corporate technology and security organizations when their capabilities affect account growth or customer delivery.
Measures of Success:
Success will be measured by:
Contribution to account bookings, revenue growth, and qualified pipeline
Technical win rate and quality of strategic pursuit solutions
Early customer shaping and strength of technical market positioning
Successful transition of proposed architectures into delivery
Improved technical performance and reduced delivery risk across the portfolio
Development and reuse of offerings, reference architectures, and accelerators
Customer confidence and recognition as a trusted mission-technology partner
Recruitment, development, and retention of critical technical talent
Growth of strategic technology and industry partnerships
Requirements: