Platform Architect (back end lead)

Cav; Tysons (VA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Cav in Tysons, Virginia, is seeking a hands-on technical leader to drive architectural clarity across federal and AI-native products. The ideal candidate has over 8 years of software engineering experience, strong backend expertise, and a proven capability to make critical architectural decisions. Responsibilities include defining long-term technical architecture, mentoring engineers, and improving developer productivity through tooling and automation. Experience in cybersecurity platforms and cloud-native architectures is highly desired.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in software engineering, preferably in startup or high-growth settings.
• Proven track record of designing and scaling complex distributed systems.
• Strong backend engineering expertise in APIs, microservices, and platform architecture.

Responsibilities

• Drive architectural clarity across multiple products.
• Define long-term technical architecture and guide AI product development.
• Ensure performance and security compliance in a federal environment.

Skills

Software engineering

Backend engineering expertise

Cloud-native architectures

Communication skills

AI/ML integration

Job description

The Role

This is a hands‑on technical leadership role, not a people management position (at least initially). You will operate as a force multiplier for engineering, working across both legacy and greenfield systems to shape the foundation of Cav’s future platform.

You will:

• Drive architectural clarity across a stable but complex federal product and a fast‑moving AI‑native product
• Identify and extract reusable platform components (e.g., evidence ingestion, control mapping, AI primitives)
• Prevent architectural drift and reduce long‑term technical debt while enabling rapid iteration
• Partner closely with Engineering, Product, and Security teams to align on scalable system design
• Write production‑grade code and lead by example in system design and implementation
• Mentor senior engineers and elevate technical decision‑making across the organization
• Establish best practices for leveraging AI tools and automation to improve engineering velocity
• This role is expected to evolve into a broader leadership position (e.g., Head of Engineering), but the immediate priority is execution and architectural ownership

Key Responsibilities

• Define and drive the long‑term technical architecture across multiple products
• Build and extract shared services and platform capabilities across systems
• Ensure scalability, performance, and security in a highly regulated (federal) environment
• Partner with cybersecurity and compliance teams to align with frameworks such as FedRAMP and NIST
• Reduce system complexity and improve maintainability of the legacy platform
• Guide the AI product toward transparent, scalable, and production‑ready architecture
• Make high‑impact technical decisions in ambiguous, fast‑changing environments

Improve developer productivity through tooling, automation, and AI‑assisted workflows

Maintainability Enhancements

Act as a trusted advisor to executive leadership on technical strategy and trade‑offs

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in software engineering, with significant time in startup or high‑growth environments
• Proven track record of designing and scaling complex distributed systems
• Strong backend engineering expertise (APIs, data pipelines, microservices, or platform architecture)
• Experience working across both legacy systems and greenfield development
• Solid understanding of cloud‑native architectures (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
• Experience working in or alongside cybersecurity, compliance, or regulated environments
• Demonstrated ability to make and own high‑stakes architectural decisions
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to influence senior technical and business stakeholders
• Willingness to be hands‑on and deeply involved in implementation

Desired Experience

• Background in cybersecurity platforms or compliance‑driven products (e.g., FedRAMP, NIST, SOC 2)
• Experience integrating or building AI/ML‑driven features or platforms
• Familiarity with data modeling for complex regulatory or security frameworks
• Experience building internal platforms or shared services across multiple products
• Prior experience navigating product convergence or platform unification
• Exposure to Zero Trust architectures and modern security design principles
• Experience mentoring senior engineers or acting as a technical lead across teams