System Architect

Location:

Syracuse, 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.

Syracuse, NY or Arlington, VA (Hybrid)

The FAA’s Brand-New Air Traffic Control System and other initiatives related to Unmanned Aircraft Systems and Advanced Air Mobility are fueling the growth of Thales’ Airspace Mobility Solutions team. We are expanding our teams in Arlington, Virginia and Syracuse, New York and seek talented individuals who want to be part of these ambitious initiatives shaping the future of aviation. We are looking for people with a passion for aviation and ready to deliver innovative solutions built to the nation’s highest safety and security standards.

America’s aviation moment is now. Thales has the solutions, experience and expertise to execute now. Come join our journey.

Thales is looking for a Systems Architect, who 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, and who 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.

In this position, you will act as a key technical authority, drive informed trade-offs, ensure compliance with engineering governance and product policies, and safeguard the long‑term viability, scalability, and sustainability of solutions across their full lifecycle.

• US - CUI Regulatory Compliance Requirement – Must be a US Person as defined in applicable law.

• Serve as the primary technical interface with customers (or Product Line Management for product‑based solutions) on solution architecture, design, performance, and lifecycle considerations; proactively anticipate, analyze, and translate customer and stakeholder needs into a structured and traceable initial requirements baseline; and formalize solution requirements and ensure alignment with business objectives, technical feasibility, and lifecycle constraints.
• Lead and oversee the architecting of software solutions in alignment with the approved technology roadmap, agile development strategy, and sprint planning cycles; define and drive the development strategy for advanced algorithms, software applications, and enabling technologies required to deliver the solution; and develop, stabilize, and maintain solution architectures for bids and projects across the full lifecycle, in close cooperation with the System Engineering Manager (SEM).
• Develop and evolve the solution architecture by fully understanding operational context, stakeholder expectations, and system constraints; 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; and establish solution architectures through structured trade‑offs among stakeholder expectations, technical and technological options, cost, risk, and schedule, documenting architectural rationale through formal artifacts (e.g., D&JF, PBS, SSDD), and approving resulting lower‑level specifications.
• Lead architectural trade‑off analyses to balance evolving customer requirements with cost, risk, opportunity, schedule, and critical performance objectives throughout project execution; lead requirements allocation, interface definition, performance assessment, and management of critical parameters throughout the…