Principal Software Systems Architect

Our client is seeking a Principal Software Systems Architect to provide technical leadership and define the architecture for a complex, mission-focused software platform operating in a secure environment. This role is ideal for a hands-on architect who can move comfortably between high-level system design, software development, cloud architecture, and stakeholder discussions. The ideal candidate will bring deep experience building distributed production systems while establishing the technical standards, architectural patterns, and engineering practices that enable teams to deliver secure, scalable, and reliable solutions.

This role is a hybrid model in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Principal Software Systems Architect Responsibilities

• Define and own the end-to-end architecture of a complex software platform, including services, data flows, system interfaces, integrations, and technical boundaries.
• Establish architectural standards and technical direction to ensure solutions are modular, scalable, observable, secure, maintainable, and adaptable to evolving requirements.
• Design and oversee AWS cloud architecture, including identity and access management, security controls, secrets management, infrastructure automation, scalability, and cost considerations.
• Translate complex or ambiguous operational and business requirements into structured system designs, technical roadmaps, and executable engineering plans.
• Architect the integration of machine learning models, data and training pipelines, model serving capabilities, and AI-driven outputs within production applications.
• Partner with machine learning and infrastructure engineers to establish integration patterns, monitoring strategies, data governance practices, and operational safeguards.
• Design solutions that meet security, compliance, access-control, and audit requirements within restricted or regulated technical environments.
• Maintain architecture documentation and decision records, including technical trade-off analyses and build-versus-buy recommendations.
• Serve as a senior technical resource in stakeholder discussions, solution demonstrations, requirements refinement, and architecture reviews.
• Lead technical design and code reviews while establishing development, infrastructure, and delivery standards across the engineering team.
• Decompose complex technical initiatives, identify dependencies, and coordinate engineering activities to maintain alignment with program milestones and business objectives.
• Mentor engineers and strengthen architectural thinking, engineering practices, and technical capabilities across the team.
• Develop solution designs, reference architectures, technical documentation, and roadmaps that support both ongoing delivery and future platform development.
• Contribute technical expertise to solution development, proposals, and other customer-facing initiatives as needed.

• Active Secret or TS/SCI security clearance.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 10+ years of experience designing and developing software systems, including at least 4 years in an architecture, technical lead, or comparable senior engineering capacity.
• Demonstrated experience architecting and delivering complex, distributed, production-grade software systems.
• Deep AWS architecture experience, including cloud security, infrastructure as code, CI/CD, and production deployment practices.
• Experience designing production systems that incorporate machine learning or artificial intelligence components.
• Strong understanding of modern software architecture, system integration, scalability, observability, security, and reliability principles.
• Proven ability to establish technical standards and influence architectural decisions across engineering teams and disciplines.
• Strong technical leadership skills with the ability to mentor engineers, facilitate technical decisions, and coordinate work across multiple technical functions.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to present complex technical concepts appropriately to engineering, business, and operational audiences.

Preferred:

• AWS Solutions Architect - Professional certification or comparable cloud architecture credentials.
• Experience supporting federal government, defense, aerospace, or other highly regulated technical environments.
• Familiarity with security and compliance considerations associated with FedRAMP, ITAR, classified systems, or similar controlled environments.
• Experience with satellite operations, ground systems, space systems, telemetry, or related aerospace technologies.
• Production experience with containerization and orchestration technologies such as Docker, Kubernetes, ECS, or EKS.
• Previous experience supporting Air Force, Space Force, or related defense programs in a technical or contractor capacity.
• Background in consulting, professional services, solution architecture, or other environments requiring delivery across multiple stakeholders or customers.