Principal Solutions Architect

Windward; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Windward is seeking a Principal Solutions Architect to design and deliver advanced software, data, and AI solutions for critical U.S. Government customers in the Washington, DC area.

This senior, hands-on role leads technical discovery, solution design, demonstrations, and early deployments, while guiding customers to integrate Windward’s data, analytics, and AI capabilities into mission workflows. You’ll collaborate with Sales, Product, Engineering, and Delivery teams, translate requirements

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in solutions architecture, sales engineering, forward-deployed engineering, or similar technical customer-facing role.
• Experience delivering enterprise software, data, analytics, or AI solutions to U.S. Government customers.
• Strong technical depth across APIs, data integration, cloud architecture, data pipelines, analytics, and modern AI technologies.
• Practical experience with LLMs, generative AI, agentic architectures, retrieval and grounding approaches, tool use, and AI application integration.
• Familiarity with emerging AI interoperability standards and architectures, including MCP, agent-to-tool integration, and connecting enterprise data sources into LLM-driven applications.
• The ability to build credible demonstrations, integrations, and technical solutions yourself — not just design them.
• Understanding of defense, intelligence, homeland security, or law enforcement customers and their operational environments.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to work effectively with technical teams, mission users, program leaders, and senior government stakeholders.
• A practical, collaborative approach and comfort operating in an environment where both the technology and customer use cases are evolving quickly.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical solution design for strategic U.S. Government opportunities, from early discovery through evaluation, proposal, and deployment.
• Build and deliver compelling demonstrations, workshops, and technical evaluations around customer use cases.
• Work directly with analysts, operators, engineers, and program teams to understand requirements and translate them into practical solution designs.
• Design integration and deployment approaches across customer data, APIs, cloud environments, GovCloud, and classified environments.
• Develop reusable solution assets including demo environments, reference architectures, integration patterns, MCP-based connectors, and evaluation frameworks.
• Partner closely with Product and Engineering to bring customer requirements, technical feedback, and emerging AI use cases into the product roadmap.
• Lead technical content for RFIs, RFPs, proposals, and discussions with primes and systems integrators.
• Serve as a senior technical resource and mentor for the broader U.S. solutions team.

Skills

Solutions architecture

Customer-facing

Enterprise software delivery

AI technologies

APIs & data integration

Cloud architecture

LLMs & agentic AI

Defense/Gov domain knowledge

Tools

MCP

Job description

Windward is looking for a Principal Solutions Architect to help design and deliver advanced software, data, and AI solutions for some of our most important U.S. Government customers.

You’ll work closely with our Sales, Product, Engineering, and Delivery teams to understand customer requirements, design the right technical approach, and demonstrate how Windward’s proprietary data, analytics, AI, and emerging agentic capabilities can support real-world operational workflows.

This is a senior, hands-on, customer-facing role. You’ll lead technical discovery, solution design, demonstrations, evaluations, and early deployments while helping customers integrate Windward into their existing data, software, and mission environments.

What You’ll Do

• Lead technical solution design for strategic U.S. Government opportunities, from early discovery through evaluation, proposal, and deployment.
• Build and deliver compelling demonstrations, workshops, and technical evaluations around customer use cases.
• Work directly with analysts, operators, engineers, and program teams to understand requirements and translate them into practical solution designs.
• Design integration and deployment approaches across customer data, APIs, cloud environments, GovCloud, and classified environments.
• Develop reusable solution assets including demo environments, reference architectures, integration patterns, MCP-based connectors, and evaluation frameworks.
• Partner closely with Product and Engineering to bring customer requirements, technical feedback, and emerging AI use cases into the product roadmap.
• Lead technical content for RFIs, RFPs, proposals, and discussions with primes and systems integrators.
• Serve as a senior technical resource and mentor for the broader U.S. solutions team.

Areas You’ll Work Across

Windward combines proprietary maritime data, advanced analytics, and AI to help customers understand activity at sea, identify what matters, and make better operational decisions. Solutions may include:

• Maritime domain awareness and behavioral analytics
• Multi-source data fusion across AIS, satellite imagery, RF, open-source, and customer data
• Indications and warning and operational decision support
• Sanctions enforcement, illicit activity, dark fleets, and deceptive shipping practices
• Data, API, and platform integration into customer applications and analytic environments
• Agentic workflows that combine models, data, APIs, and external tools to support more complex analytical and operational tasks
• MCP and other emerging integration patterns that allow AI applications and agents to securely access Windward data, tools, and capabilities
• AI-enabled workflows that help users move from large volumes of data to relevant insight, analysis, and action

What You Bring

• 10+ years of experience in solutions architecture, sales engineering, forward-deployed engineering, or a similar technical customer-facing role.
• Experience delivering enterprise software, data, analytics, or AI solutions to U.S. Government customers.
• Strong technical depth across APIs, data integration, cloud architecture, data pipelines, analytics, and modern AI technologies.
• Practical experience with LLMs, generative AI, agentic architectures, retrieval and grounding approaches, tool use, and AI application integration.
• Familiarity with emerging AI interoperability standards and architectures, including MCP, agent-to-tool integration, and connecting enterprise data sources into LLM-driven applications.
• The ability to build credible demonstrations, integrations, and technical solutions yourself — not just design them.
• Understanding of defense, intelligence, homeland security, or law enforcement customers and their operational environments.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to work effectively with technical teams, mission users, program leaders, and senior government stakeholders.
• A practical, collaborative approach and comfort operating in an environment where both the technology and customer use cases are evolving quickly.

Clearance, Location, and Travel

Active TS/SCI is preferred. An existing clearance or demonstrated clearance eligibility is a strong plus.

U.S. citizenship is required.

Windward is an equal opportunity employer.