Principal Architect

COGENT Infotech; Baltimore (MD); Remote; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible work hours

Professional development opportunities

Job summary

A leading tech consulting firm is seeking a Principal Architect to oversee architectural solutions in the rail transportation sector. The ideal candidate will have strong IT and Railway Technical expertise, including experience with rail operations systems and real-time event architectures. You will be responsible for translating technical concepts to various stakeholders and ensuring the scalability and security of products. This contract role is suitable for individuals with a mid-senior level experience who are focused on innovation and efficiency in technology solutions.

Qualifications

• Must have IT and Railway Technical & Domain Expertise.
• Experience in railroad or broader transportation logistics.
• Ability to architect system-of-systems integrations.

Responsibilities

• Design and oversee implementation of architectural solutions for business problems.
• Translate complex technical ideas for stakeholders.
• Ensure products are scalable, secure, and maintainable.

Skills

Strong understanding of rail operations systems

Deep knowledge of real-time event architectures

Experience designing Ops Command UI solutions

Hands‑on capability for API design

Knowledge of IT, OT, domain and business architecture

Tools

AWS

Azure

Databricks

Job description

Sr. Delivery Head -Recruitment & Delivery - SLED-(VMS | MSP | Direct Clients | Government Agencies - State, County)

At Cogent Infotech, we believe in creating opportunities that empower individuals and transform organizations. With over 21 years of excellence in consulting and talent solutions, we pride ourselves on building inclusive workplaces and driving innovation in everything we do. Our diverse teams bring unique perspectives to help deliver cutting-edge solutions to global clients across both public and private sectors.

Job Title: Principal Architect

Washington DC-Baltimore Area/Remote

stem-of-systems integrations across dispatch, passenger, yard, crew, maintenance.

IT and Railway Technical & Domain Expertise (Must Have)

• Strong understanding of rail operations systems: dispatching, crew, yard, fleet/EAM, RTTP feeds, PIS, GTFS-RT, service disruption workflows.
• Deep knowledge of real-time event architectures (Kafka/MSK, streaming APIs, telemetry ingestion).
• Familiarity with lakehouse platforms (Databricks) and semantic modeling for operational data.
• Experience designing Ops Command UI / single pane of glass solutions across multiple domains
• Knowledge of IT, OT, domain and business architecture
• Experience in railroad or broader transportation logistics, including operational workflows for dispatch, scheduling, movement planning, capacity management, and asset management.
• Ability to architect system-of-systems integrations across dispatch, PIS, yard, crew, maintenance.
• Skilled in designing canonical real-time data models (train state, consist state, crew state, fleet readiness).
• Hands‑on capability for API design, interface mapping, and message normalization.
• Experience implementing digital twin, predictive models, or operational decision support is a strong plus.
• Understands safety, reliability, and regulatory constraints around rail mission‑critical systems.

Responsibilities

• Design, govern, and oversee the implementation of robust, scalable, and efficient architectural solutions for cross domain business problems.
• Translate complex technical ideas into digestible concepts for both technical teams and non-technical stakeholders. Act as a liaison between engineering and business teams to ensure alignment and understanding.
• Ensure products are scalable, secure, performant, and maintainable within their domain
• Ensure the reference architectures, standards, and guidelines of the organization's technology is safe, secure, stable and compliant with industry standards.
• Industry knowledge of services/transport/rail sector.
• Deep understanding of railroad or broader transportation logistics, including operational workflows for dispatch, scheduling, movement planning, capacity management, and asset management.
• Expertise in cloud (AWS, Azure) and hybrid stack, data-driven solutions, devops and continuous delivery.
• Network, Cloud Computing expertise.
• Work closely with Solution Architects and engineering leads to translating requirements into robust technical designs
• Assist in the architectural design and implementation of software components, modules, or features for specific projects, ensuring adherence to established architectural principles.
• Ensure products are scalable, secure, performant, and maintainable within their domain

Cogent Infotech is a leading tech consulting firm headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, offering cutting-edge digital transformation solutions in Cloud, Cybersecurity, Data Analytics and AI. ISO-certified and CMMI Level 3 appraised, we proudly partner with 70+ Fortune 500 companies and 150+ government agencies. Cogent is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate based on any protected status under applicable law.

Seniority level

Mid-Senior level

Employment type

Contract

Job function

Information Technology

Industries: Rail Transportation