Federal Solutions Architect: Cloud, AI & Strategy Lead

ICF; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 191,339 - 325,277; Full time

Job summary

ICF, a global advisory and technology services provider, seeks a Principal Solutions Architect for our federal portfolio in the Washington, DC area, hybrid with Reston, VA headquarters. The role focuses on owning end-to-end architectures, guiding secure, compliant, and cost-effective solutions across cloud modernization, data, and AI/ML initiatives.

The ideal candidate will lead technical solutioning for captures and proposals, mentor architects, and build trusted relationships with federal

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field.
• 12+ years of progressive experience in solution architecture, software/systems engineering, or technology consulting, including 5+ years architecting enterprise-scale solutions.
• Demonstrated experience designing and delivering technology solutions for U.S. Federal government agencies.
• Deep expertise in cloud architecture (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• Proven experience leading technical solutioning on competitive federal proposals and capture efforts.
• Working knowledge of FedRAMP, NIST 800-53, ATO processes, and Zero Trust.
• Strong understanding of microservices, APIs, event-driven design, containers, DevSecOps, and infrastructure as code.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for executive audiences.
• U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain/maintain a U.S. Government security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Define and own end-to-end solution architectures for federal programs spanning cloud modernization, data and analytics, application development, and AI/ML.
• Lead technical solutioning for capture and proposal efforts with win themes, technical approaches, architecture diagrams, and staffing models.
• Serve as senior technical advisor to federal clients, building trusted relationships with agency executives and technical stakeholders.
• Establish architecture standards, reference patterns, and governance across the Federal portfolio.
• Guide delivery teams through design decisions, risk mitigation, and trade-off analysis for security and compliance.
• Architect cloud/hybrid solutions on AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, with FedRAMP/ATO/NIST considerations.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and define pragmatic adoption strategies for federal clients.
• Mentor solution architects and engineers, growing ICF's technical community of practice.
• Collaborate with delivery leadership, capture managers, and growth teams to align technical strategy with portfolio goals.

Skills

Leadership

Executive communication

Proposal solutioning

U.S. citizenship

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering/IS

Tools

AWS

Azure

GCP

FedRAMP

NIST 800-53

Zero Trust

DevSecOps

Kubernetes

Job description

ICF, a global advisory and technology services provider, seeks a Principal Solutions Architect for our federal portfolio in the Washington, DC area, hybrid with Reston, VA headquarters. The role focuses on owning end-to-end architectures, guiding secure, compliant, and cost-effective solutions across cloud modernization, data, and AI/ML initiatives.

The ideal candidate will lead technical solutioning for captures and proposals, mentor architects, and build trusted relationships with federal