Lead​/Principal Enterprise Architect

Lead / Principal Enterprise Architect

Location:

Rockville, MD

Work Arrangement:
Hybrid( 3 days onsite minimum)

Clearance:
Must be able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust clearance

Sponsorship:
No sponsorship assistance is available for this position now or in the future.

Position Summary:

The Lead / Principal Enterprise Architect is responsible for defining and driving the technology roadmap for a complex, mission-critical application portfolio that includes long-standing custom-built Java and .NET applications (10+ years in production), commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products, Oracle database platforms, and a hybrid mix of on-premises data centers and cloud infrastructure.

The primary focus of this role is enterprise application and solution architecture, with particular emphasis on Java-based applications, COTS products, application modernization, integration, and hybrid cloud solutions.

This role bridges business strategy and technical execution: partnering with executive stakeholders to understand business drivers, working with vendors to evaluate and integrate commercial products, and collaborating closely with existing development teams to translate architectural vision into effective, buildable designs.

The successful candidate will bring strong architectural and technical credibility across legacy and modern technology stacks, with demonstrated experience working with Java-based enterprise applications and familiarity with .NET environments. The role does not require day-to-day hands-on application development; however, the architect must be technically proficient enough to evaluate solutions, challenge technical approaches, guide development teams, and translate architectural concepts into implementable designs.

The successful candidate will also demonstrate sound judgment about when to modernize versus stabilize and possess the communication skills to align diverse stakeholders around a shared, phased modernization strategy.

The current application portfolio consists primarily of custom Java and .NET applications that have been in production for a decade or more, a number of COTS/vendor products layered into core business processes, and Oracle as the primary enterprise database platform.

Java represents a significant portion of the application modernization environment, while .NET represents a smaller portion of the existing application portfolio.

Infrastructure is a hybrid combination of on-premises data center capacity and cloud services, with active initiatives underway to rationalize workloads across both.

The organization is seeking to modernize deliberately, without disrupting mission-critical operations, and needs an architect who can operate comfortably across legacy systems, vendor products, and modern cloud-native patterns simultaneously.

The environment also includes enterprise platforms such as Service Now. Service Now architecture expertise is not a core requirement; however, familiarity with Service Now, CMDB concepts, enterprise workflow platforms, and their integration within a broader technology ecosystem is beneficial.

• Develop, maintain, and communicate a multi-year enterprise architecture roadmap that aligns technology investments with business strategy and modernization goals.
• Assess the current-state architecture across custom Java/.NET applications, COTS products, Oracle databases, and on-prem/cloud infrastructure to identify technical debt, risk, and modernization opportunities.
• Define target-state architectures and phased modernization approaches (rehost, replatform, refactor, replace, or retire) for legacy systems, prioritized by business value, risk, and cost.
• Evaluate existing technology stacks and recommend whether applications should remain on current technologies or transition to newer platforms, architectures, or technology patterns as part of modernization efforts.
• Build and maintain a technology and application inventory, including lifecycle status, dependencies, and risk ratings, to support roadmap and investment decisions.
• Evaluate emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and AI-enabled capabilities, and identify practical opportunities for their responsible adoption within the enterprise technology roadmap.

• Produce effective, pragmatic architecture designs and solution blueprints that developers and vendors can execute against, balancing ideal-state architecture with real-world constraints.
• Establish and maintain architecture standards, patterns, and reference architectures spanning application, integration, data, and infrastructure domains.
• Participate in solution design and code/design reviews with development teams to ensure new work aligns with enterprise standards and the long-term roadmap.
• Provide solution-level architectural guidance across technologies without replacing the hands-on developers, engineers, database specialists, security professionals, or other technical…