Solutions Architect

Role Overview

• Lead the technical vision for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as it merges and modernizes its enterprise knowledge and data systems into a single, AI-driven platform, reducing manual effort, improving data accuracy, and enhancing transparency for stakeholders.
• Own the architecture. Design a robust, modern enterprise architecture built on AWS, guided by the AWS Well-Architected Framework, the USDS playbook, and Twelve-Factor App principles, while minimizing on-premises footprint and maintaining strong disaster recovery.
• Steer a seamless, low-risk transition and ongoing operations, meeting infrastructure and application availability SLAs without disrupting CMS’s core business.
• Merge two systems without breaking either. Apply patterns like strangler-fig and cyclomatic-complexity analysis to identify, prioritize, and sequence refactor, integration, and modernization opportunities.
• Design for change. Build modular systems using containerization, infrastructure as code, and CI/CD so the platform can flex with CMS’s evolving strategies and new initiatives.
• Partner with the AI Lead to identify and architect automation opportunities, including LLM-driven and automated data-collection strategies.
• Establish observability and insight. Work with the team to stand up continuous monitoring (CloudWatch, New Relic, Splunk) and turn performance, health, and cost data into decisions.
• Be the bridge between technology and business. Translate stakeholder needs into technical direction and explain technical trade-offs to non-technical audiences with clarity.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship. Set engineering standards, guide the development team, and grow the technical capability of the people around you.

Requirements

• A bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience in solutions architecture, software engineering, or systems engineering, including significant time architecting AWS cloud environments.
• Deep expertise in AWS services, cloud architecture patterns, and modern best practices.
• Strong command of modern engineering practices
• microservices, containerization (Docker), infrastructure as code (Terraform, Ansible), and CI/CD (Jenkins, GitLab CI).
• A track record of leading the technical direction of complex, distributed systems and guiding engineering teams.
• Proficiency in one or more programming/scripting languages (e.g., Python, Bash, Go) and the credibility that comes from having built things yourself.
• Excellent communication skills, with a real talent for presenting complex technical concepts to both engineers and stakeholders.

Tech Stack

• Ansible
• AWS
• Cloud
• Distributed Systems
• Docker
• Jenkins
• Microservices
• Python
• Splunk
• Terraform
• Go

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision insurance (fully paid for employees)
• 15 days of paid leave
• 7 days of sick leave
• 2 days bereavement leave
• 11 paid Federal holidays
• Up to 40 hours for jury duty
• 401K with 4% employer contribution (and no vesting period)
• Up to 4 weeks of paid paternity and maternity leave
• Company provided laptop
• $5,000 per year for professional development
• $600 per year for technical supplies and equipment
• $2,000 referral bonus
• Life and disability insurance
• HSA and FSA
• Legal Shield and ID Shield Voluntary Benefits
• Opportunity to work in a collaborative, motivated team focused on modernizing government services with cutting-edge technology and innovative solutions. Who says government work can't be exciting!