Salary

• AL, FL, GA, TN Residents:   $126,294 (min) - $167,340 (mid) - $208,385 (max)
• NC Residents: $130,200 (min) - $172,515 (mid) - $214,830 (max)
• DE, MD, PA, TX, VA Residents: $136,710 (min) - $181,141 (mid) - $225,572 (max)
• DC Residents: $153,636 (min) - $203,568 (mid) - $253,500 (max)
• CA & NY Residents: $158,844 (min) - $210,468 (mid) - $262,093 (max)

Location

• Hybrid. The ideal candidate lives within a 75-mile radius of the DC Metro area. This individual may be required to visit customers in-person. 

 

Employment Type

Full-time

What you’ll be doing

We’re looking to change the world by building software with a soul, and we want your help.

The Solution Architect coordinates the technical aspects of all the development, architectural, operational, security, and testing activities for multiple project teams. They help bridge the portfolio’s broader goals with the technical implementation, helping to define, implement, and inspire adherence to the technical direction, processes, and standards for the portfolio. The Solution Architect will guide cross-functional teams, ensure alignment with industry and government standards, and lead the transition to cloud-native solutions, optimizing for security and performance. This position emphasizes high-level architectural decisions and hands-on involvement in technical direction, risk management, and compliance.

We need your Architecture skills! What other skills will help you succeed at Fearless? Glad you asked! We’re excited about candidates who can accomplish the following:

Responsibilities and Contributions 

Organizational and Leadership Role 

• Leads the portfolio’s technical direction, working in close collaboration with the Practice Director(s) and Portfolio Director to align with the portfolio’s strategy and vision.
• Leads the strategy for technical solutions and plans, navigating strict regulatory landscapes and addressing key risks and controls.
• Strengthens strategic relationships with peers, leaders, customers, users, and stakeholders, interfacing directly with our customers as a technical SME.
• Guides the planning and development of new features in collaboration with Designers, Product Managers, and Engineers to ensure alignment with the product vision.
• Through coaching and leadership, grows the technical understanding of the stakeholders in the portfolio.
• Lead the adoption and implementation of DevOps practices and CI/CD pipelines across project teams.
• Maintain a deep understanding of government contracting regulations, including FedRAMP, NIST, and other federal standards, ensuring all solutions are compliant and secure.
• Collaborate with security teams to integrate proactive risk management strategies into the architecture, focusing on early threat detection and comprehensive compliance audits.

Functional Role 

• Sets appropriate high-level architecture decisions, keeping in mind scale, portfolio strategy, and technical reusability. 
• Understands the project’s legacy systems and historical decisions and the impact it may create in the context of future systems and work.
• Skillfully defines project needs, consistently gathering appropriate breadth and depth of relevant data and drawing on a wide array of sources to assess and document the situation for the teams under their jurisdiction.
• Leads and empowers their teams by communicating and documenting the projects’ technical visions.
• Has the technical understanding and domain knowledge needed to be able to swap, with appropriate context, between teams in a portfolio.
• Oversee the implementation of CI/CD pipelines, automation tools, and testing frameworks to support rapid, reliable deployments.
• Architect scalable, resilient cloud solutions across multi-cloud environments, prioritizing cybersecurity and regulatory compliance.
• Develop strategies for transitioning from on-premise solutions to cloud environments, with a focus on minimizing disruption and maximizing interoperability. 
• Design future-proof architectures that allow for easy upgrades and integration with new technologies, aligning with both current and anticipated organizational needs.

Essential Skills, Experience, or Competencies  

Must-Have Skills

• Ability to understand and respond to customer needs and collaborate as part of a cross-functional team.
• Deeply experienced in multiple engineering domains (software, site reliability, data, testing, etc.) with strong supporting knowledge in the others.
• Advanced ability to discuss abstract software development concepts and best practices in areas such as single-responsibility, cohesion, data immutability, and other paradigm-appropriate design patterns.
• Demonstrated experience architecting, building, and deploying technical solutions that use multiple data stores targeting specific application use cases, including multiple technologies including but not limited to RDBMS and noSQL databases.
• Demonstrated experience architecting the transformation and consolidation of major systems with common data stores, system security, API management services, business intelligence tools, reporting and visualization tools, and hosting and infrastructure requirements.
• Experience across the entire development process, from conception to production operations.
• Ability to operate and manage work, strategically reason, build relationships, and influence others.
• Demonstrated ability to us appropriate breadth and depth of context and data to make sensible and timely decisions, and displays sound judgment when faced with opportunities and challenges
• Expertise in designing, implementing, and managing multi-cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP), with a deep understanding of cloud infrastructure, services, and best practices for government and regulated industries.
• Familiarity with tools like Jenkins, Terraform, Docker, and Kubernetes, with the ability to oversee and implement automated deployment pipelines and operational improvements.
• Comprehensive knowledge of security frameworks, such as FedRAMP, NIST, and ISO standards, with experience embedding these requirements into architectural designs. 
• Strong ability to make high-level architectural decisions that balance technical requirements, project constraints, and strategic goals.

Highly Desired Skills and Experience

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

• BS/MS/M.Eng. in Computer Science, Information Systems, Information Technology, Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or similar technology-related degree.
• Experience working with Government or large industry clients.
• Understanding of Enterprise Integration Patterns.
• Holds a current AWS Certified Developer Associate, Solutions Architecture Associate, or Solutions Architect Professional, or similar certification in another cloud platform.
• Holds a current CISSP, Security+, or other information security certification.  
• Holds relevant certifications, such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect, CISSP, or Security+, showcasing expertise in cloud architecture and security compliance for regulated industries.
• Previous experience working on government or large public-sector projects, with an understanding of unique regulatory requirements, risk management, and security needs that accompany such projects. 
• Familiarity with government contracting processes, systems, and regulations. Knowledge of the compliance landscape specific to federal contracts and experience in designing solutions that meet stringent security and reporting requirements.