Introducing Vlad semak, Coforma's new VP of Federal Engineering. A longtime Disney fan, one of his favorite quotes is, "It's kind of fun to do the impossible." Coforma StaffAugust 11, 2026 "The way I see it, this represents a great mix of ambition and optimism," he shares. "Many difficult transformations initially seem impossible. But if you have the right people, clear goals, and a practical path forward, everything is achievable - the sky is the limit." As Coforma's new VP of Federal Engineering, Vlad will help steer the company toward our next big achievements. We recently had the opportunity to catch up with him and learn more about his background, new role, approach to leadership, thoughts on innovation, and more. Can you tell us a bit about your professional background? I've spent more than 25 years working at the intersection of engineering, business strategy, and large-scale transformation across both the public and private sectors. I started as an architect and developer, and later co-founded technology companies. Eventually, I moved into executive roles leading engineering organizations on a much larger scale for enterprise modernization programs. Along the way, I've worked across both the federal government and the private sector, including large enterprises in healthcare, financial services, retail, and other industries. Most recently - and this is what I'm very pumped up about - my work has been focused heavily on AI, cloud modernization, and the enterprise architecture needed to support it. And responsible adoption, because all this makes no difference if you cannot use emerging technology with guardrails. What drew you to Coforma? Coforma's mission, values, and people were the biggest draw for me. This is a company that genuinely cares about the people who use the services we build and is willing to make decisions based on its principles. I was also attracted to our multidisciplinary approach. The best solutions happen when engineering, design, product, research, delivery, and growth work together around a shared mission. Coforma understands that. Tell us about your new role. What do you hope to accomplish in the next year and in the longer term? My role is to create the conditions for our engineers and delivery teams to do their best work for our federal partners. That includes developing our people, strengthening technical leadership and engineering practices, improving collaboration across programs, and connecting technology decisions more directly to mission and user outcomes. Over the next year, I want to bring greater clarity and consistency to Federal Engineering. That means clearer ownership, stronger career paths and technical leadership, better knowledge-sharing across projects, and more deliberate reuse of the tools, patterns, and lessons we develop. Longer term, I want Coforma to be recognized for helping advance how federal technology is built: secure, responsible, sustainable, and centered on the people it serves. Which three words best describe your leadership style? My leadership style is clear, pragmatic, and human. Clear, because people do their best work when they understand the goal, their role, and how decisions are made. Pragmatic, because progress comes from focusing on the most important problem and finding a practical path forward. Human, because leadership starts with trust, empathy, and understanding what people need to succeed. I want to build Coforma's engineering culture centered on trust, craftsmanship, collaboration, and accountability. That means people understand what is expected of them, feel trusted to make thoughtful decisions, and know when to seek guidance. I want teams to take pride in the quality of what they deliver, share knowledge freely, and see one another's success as part of their own. What does "innovation" mean to you? What does it look like when done right? Innovation is finding a meaningfully better way to solve a real problem. Done right, innovation begins with a clear understanding of the mission, the people we are serving, and the environment in which the solution must operate. It starts small enough to learn, uses evidence to guide what happens next, and has a clear path from experimentation to sustainable delivery. In federal work, innovation also has to account for security, accessibility, policy, maintainability, and public trust. A pilot may demonstrate possibility, but the real measure of innovation is whether it can responsibly produce value at scale. What do you enjoy doing outside of work to recharge? I enjoy spending time with my family, following soccer, learning about emerging technology, and keeping up with personal finance and investing. And, of course, I spend plenty of time with Princess and Cassini, our two very opinionated pugs. They are very good at making sure work does not become the only priority. If your pugs could set one engineering policy at Coforma, what would it be? No silent failures! When Princess and Cassini need something, they make sure everyone knows - usually well before it becomes a critical incident.

Coforma welcomes Josh Seckel as Lead Solutions Architect. Josh brings technical expertise, business acumen, and a systems-thinking mindset to his new role. Coforma StaffMarch 16, 2026 How does the discipline of taekwondo support the mind of a systems architect? For Coforma's new Lead Solutions Architect (and second-dan black belt), Josh Seckel, it helps him stay focused on solving the issues, even when it takes time. For decades, Josh's version of "solving the issues" has meant improving government IT. In his tenure as a Division Chief at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), he developed a nuanced understanding of the federal ecosystem and what it takes to implement institutional change in a complex environment. As a Specialist Leader at Deloitte, he gained experience on the enterprise business side of contracting, learning how to best lean in while still being productive and transformative in government agencies. "A retreat called Integral Agile Wizardry really pushed my journey to broader organizational and systems thinking in a cohesive way," Josh shared in a recent chat about his new role. Excellent white beard notwithstanding, as a former Agile coach for the Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN), Josh is something of an Agile wizard himself. We asked him to share more about his career, his new position at Coforma, and the impact he hopes to have. Q: what does a solutions architect do? A solutions architect takes a systemic view of the solution as a whole. We look at the entire proposal or solution we are creating, and make sure we cover all bases and that everything works together. It's not just handing over technical architecture diagrams. It's knowing that, based on those plans, we need a specific number of people to deliver, or we need these particular processes to achieve our goals. Solutions architects are systems solvers. We survey the systems we're interfacing with - whether those are technical systems or human systems - evaluate what we know about them, and determine how that impacts what we're creating as a solution. Q: how did your systems-thinking mindset evolve throughout your career? I started my career as a developer and tester, working across the full software development lifecycle after earning my undergraduate degree in Computer Science. My early work included Y2K testing and various technical projects. Later, I pursued an MBA to better understand the business side of the industry. Following my MBA, I transitioned into business analysis, program management, and product management. Eventually, I became an Agile coach, which really solidified my approach to systems thinking. In my view, effective Agile coaches must take a systemic perspective. For example, you need to understand the individual functions that make up a team, as well as: * How the team functions as a single entity * How that team integrates within a "team of teams" * How that entire structure operates within the broader organization I applied this mindset as an Agile coach for several Department of Homeland Security programs, including HSIN, where we delivered high-quality results at pace. I then joined the federal government at USCIS and leaned further into systemic transformation. My team at USCIS wrote and implemented policies to drive agency-wide change. When building the systems to support those policies, we looked beyond technical solutions to consider the ripple effects on programs, people, and policy outcomes. Throughout my career, I kept adding layers of systemic thinking. Since leaving federal service, I've moved more into consulting, helping other organizations and leaders adopt the same systemic way of thinking. Q: what drew you to Coforma? I've known and worked with Imogen Thomas over my last decade in civic tech, and she initially bent my ear about the role. But a big part of what made me say yes was Coforma's focus on its mission and the company's values. Knowing that we won't pursue work if it doesn't align with our principles really resonated with me. Q: what will you do here? As Coforma's Lead Solutions Architect, my job is to take the forest view rather than the tree view. That doesn't mean I can't count every pine needle of a particular tree. But in general, I take that forest view and make sure everything is integrated and makes sense together. Part of that comes into play before we ever get an RFP. My job and my team's job is to discover where a potential or current client's pain points are and what's not working for them when we're talking to them about their issues. What are they trying to do that they can't do? How do we help them do it in a way that truly makes sense for them? And it's absolutely a team sport. In taking the systemic view, there are areas where I lack depth. In those instances, I call in any and all help on proposals. The same is true for the other solution architects I'll be working with here. How can we help? If you have a challenge we could help solve, we'd love to hear from you.