Project Design Authority

Location:

Arlington, United States of America

Thales people architect solutions that are relied upon to deliver operational advantage at every decisive moment throughout the mission. Defence and armed forces customers rely on us to deliver the full range of defensive systems for land, sea, and air. From early warning, to threat neutralisation, our platforms cover all levels from very short-range systems, to extended protection across the entire battle-space including Airspace Mobility Solutions, Vehicles and Tactical Systems and Missile Defence, Optronics, and Radar.

Knowing what Thales does today, means asking where technology is taking us tomorrow. We are creating the waves of digital transformation that will cary our customers into the future. Where these transformations intersect and interfere is where the most interesting and innovative tomorrows are being built. Thales operates at the intersection of these technologies to find every tomorrow.

ATC Systems Architect

Syracuse, NY or Arlington, VA, USA (Hybrid)

Position Summary

Thales is seeking a System Architect in Arlington, VA or Syracuse, NY. The System Architecture role is responsible for defining, governing, and maintaining end-to-end solution architectures that align internal and external stakeholder needs with business strategy, technical feasibility, and lifecycle objectives. The role leads architectural definition from bid and concept phases through design, development, integration, validation, customer acceptance, and in-service support, ensuring solutions meet performance, cost, risk, schedule, and regulatory requirements.

Acting as a key technical authority, the System Architect drives informed trade-offs, ensures compliance with engineering governance and product policies, and safeguards the long-term viability, scalability, and sustainability of solutions across their full lifecycle.

Key Areas of Responsibility

* Serve as the primary technical interface with customers (or Product Line Management for product-based solutions) on solution architecture, design, performance, and lifecycle considerations.

* Lead and oversee the architecting of software solutions in alignment with the approved technology roadmap, agile development strategy, and sprint planning cycles.

* Proactively anticipate, analyze, and translate customer and stakeholder needs into a structured and traceable initial requirements baseline.

* Develop and evolve the solution architecture by fully understanding operational context, stakeholder expectations, and system constraints.

* Define and drive the development strategy for advanced algorithms, software applications, and enabling technologies required to deliver the solution.

* Formalize solution requirements and ensure alignment with business objectives, technical feasibility, and lifecycle constraints.

* Prepare, review, and sign Design Validation (DVa) documentation at each applicable bid and project milestone, ensuring formal approval by the Design Authority (DA).

* Review and approve the completion of integration, verification, validation, and qualification (IVVQ) activities, ensuring compliance with architectural intent and requirements traceability.

* Develop, stabilize, and maintain solution architectures for bids and projects across the full lifecycle, in close cooperation with the SEM.

* Define and propose candidate architectures at the solution or solution-element level that meet stakeholder expectations while complying with standardization, reuse policies, technology roadmaps, and business strategy.

* Establish solution architectures through structured trade-offs among stakeholder expectations, technical and technological options, cost, risk, and schedule; document architectural rationale through formal artifacts (e.g., D&JF, PBS, SSDD); and approve resulting lower-level specifications.

Minimum Qualifications

* Bachelor's degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline, with a minimum of 9 years of relevant professional experience, or 10+ years of experience leading multidisciplinary engineering teams, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

* Demonstrated experience…