Datacenter Architect

*This position will be a W2 Contract for 6 months potential to be extended or converted FTE - Eligibility to obtain Government clearance

JOB SUMMARY:

The Regional Senior Principal Engineer/Enterprise Architect IV serves serves as a customer-facing technical lead for the discovery, architecture, design, and modernization of secure on-premises and hybrid datacenter environments. The role translates mission objectives, business requirements, workload needs, operational constraints, and security obligations into practical, supportable architectures for regulated and mission-critical customers.

The role requires broad, hands-on architecture knowledge across compute, networking, storage, virtualization, containers, automation, cybersecurity, Zero Trust Architecture, AI infrastructure, and Microsoft GCC-High hybrid-cloud solutions. Success requires strong technical judgment, analytical and project-management skills, executive presence, and the ability to communicate effectively with customers, engineers, partners, and sales teams.

SUMMARY OF ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

• Serve as the senior, customer-facing technical lead for datacenter discovery, architecture, design, modernization, and solution shaping engagements.
• Lead structured workshops with executive sponsors, engineering, infrastructure, platform, cybersecurity, compliance, program-management, and application stakeholders.
• Translate mission objectives, user and workload requirements, performance targets, availability goals, growth expectations, recovery objectives, and regulatory constraints into actionable architectures.
• Develop and communicate end-to-end modern datacenter architectures spanning compute, accelerated/GPU compute, network, storage, backup and disaster recovery, virtualization, containers, shared services, observability, and operational management.
• Design hybrid-cloud solutions integrating on-premises environments with Microsoft Azure Government and Microsoft GCC-High while addressing identity, secure connectivity, data protection, workload placement, governance, compliance, and operational boundaries.
• Apply Zero Trust Architecture and defense-in-depth principles across identity, access, segmentation, endpoint and workload protection, encryption, key and certificate management, logging, observability, vulnerability management, and security operations.
• Perform capacity planning, workload placement, performance analysis, resiliency planning, technology evaluation, lifecycle planning, and migration or modernization planning for current and target environments.
• Produce reference architectures, high-level and detailed designs, diagrams, sizing inputs, bills of materials, implementation roadmaps, controls mappings, assumptions, risks, and decision records.
• Present complex technical concepts to technical and non-technical audiences; lead architecture reviews, whiteboarding sessions, demonstrations, proposal responses, statements of work, and executive briefings.

REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Demonstrated experience as a customer-facing technical lead, enterprise architect, solutions architect, principal engineer, or equivalent for complex datacenter or infrastructure modernization initiatives.
• Substantive architecture experience across the modern datacenter stack, including x86 compute, accelerated/GPU compute, servers, HCI or converged infrastructure, switching and routing, storage, backup and disaster recovery, virtualization, containers, management platforms, monitoring, and physical datacenter considerations.
• Strong knowledge of virtualization architecture, including VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, or comparable hypervisor technologies; clustering, high availability, resource management, encryption, lifecycle management, and migration considerations.
• Working knowledge of Kubernetes and enterprise container platforms, including control-plane and worker-node design, registries, namespaces, resource isolation, cluster operations, and platform security.
• Strong networking knowledge, including Ethernet and high-speed datacenter fabrics, VLANs, VRFs, routing, segmentation, out-of-band management, microsegmentation, software-defined networking, and network performance for AI and data-intensive workloads.
• Strong storage and data-protection knowledge across block, file, and object storage; all-flash and scale-out architectures; RAID or erasure coding; performance tiers; backup, replication, disaster recovery, and recovery objectives.
• Practical experience with infrastructure automation and lifecycle management using technologies such as Terraform, Ansible, APIs, configuration-management platforms, CI/CD, GitOps, and policy-driven provisioning.
• Applied knowledge of Zero Trust Architecture, including identity and federation, MFA, RBAC/ABAC, privileged access, microsegmentation, endpoint and workload protection, encryption in transit and at rest, PKI, HSM/KMS concepts, SIEM integration, observability, and vulnerability management.
• Experience designing or integrating hybrid-cloud architectures involving Microsoft Azure Government and Microsoft GCC-High, including secure connectivity, identity, workload placement, data protection, governance, and operational integration with on-premises environments.
• Ability to conduct structured discovery, assess current-state environments, identify gaps and risks, estimate capacity and growth, and convert findings into reference architectures and actionable roadmaps.
• Excellent written, verbal, presentation, facilitation, and technical-diagramming skills, with the ability to communicate effectively with customers, executives, engineers, cybersecurity professionals, program managers, partners, and sales teams.
• Ability to work across multiple technology domains without relying solely on a single-vendor specialty; relevant vendor certifications or equivalent hands-on expertise are desirable.
• Ability to work independently, manage competing priorities, travel to customer or partner locations as needed, and maintain technical credibility throughout the sales, design, and delivery lifecycle.

• Initial 6‑month contract with strong potential for extension and possible conversion to a long-term full-time role.
• No active clearance required at start; however, candidates must be eligible to obtain and maintain a security clearance.
• Hybrid environment with on-site requirements still being finalized.
• Work may be performed at multiple Baltimore-area customer locations, and candidates should be flexible regarding worksite assignment and on-site frequency.

LOCATION: Full Time/ On-Site in Linthicum Heights, MD or Annapolis Junction, MD

CLEARANCE REQUIRMENT:  Eligibility to obtain Government clearance

SALARY RANGE: $185,001 to $198,458.50

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to:

• Remain in a stationary position for extended periods of time.
• Operate a computer, keyboard, and other office equipment using hands and fingers.
• Communicate effectively in person, over the phone, and through electronic means.
• Occasionally move about the office to access files, office equipment, and meeting spaces.
• Lift and/or move up to 15 pounds as needed.
• Maintain specific vision abilities, including close vision and the ability to adjust focus.

Estimated Pay Range 165000 - 185000 USD