Principal System Architect

Orchard LLC; Huntsville (AL); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Orchard LLC in Huntsville, AL is seeking a Principal System Architect with an active Top Secret clearance to drive enterprise architecture, modernization strategies, and system design for a major federal transformation program. You will lead cross-functional teams across engineering, cloud, DevSecOps, and security to define patterns, standards, and governance.

The role emphasizes architecture governance, end-to-end solution design, and alignment with cloud-native and secure design principles,

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required; 12+ years in enterprise architecture, software engineering, or system design.
• Experience architecting large scale, cloud-enabled systems.
• Expertise across application, integration, data, cloud, and security domains.
• Hands-on with modern frameworks, microservices, distributed systems, and API design.

Responsibilities

• Develop and lead the technical architecture vision, strategy, and roadmap for large-scale modernization.
• Define system-wide patterns, standards, integration approaches, and modernization frameworks.
• Ensure architectures align with cloud-native, microservices, and security-forward design principles.
• Architect end-to-end solutions across application, data, security, and cloud layers.
• Lead refactoring, legacy decomposition, and modernization of mission workloads.
• Provide architectural governance, design reviews, and decision frameworks.
• Collaborate with engineers, cloud, migration, DevSecOps, QA, and product leads.
• Support CI/CD, cloud deployments, and platform operations.
• Provide guidance during sprint planning and release readiness.
• Ensure designs meet security and compliance standards.
• Produce architecture diagrams, models, specifications, and decision records.

Skills

Enterprise architecture leadership

System design

Cloud architecture

Security architecture

DevSecOps

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

CI/CD tooling

Job description

Principal Systems Architect Huntsville, AL US Citizenship Required. Must have an Active Top Secret Clearance Required @Orchard is seeking a Principal System Architect to provide overarching technical leadership, architecture direction, and modernization strategy for a major federal transformation program in Huntsville, AL. This senior level role drives system wide technical design, integration decisions, cloud alignment, modernization patterns, and enterprise architectural governance. The Principal System Architect partners across engineering, cloud, migration, DevSecOps, security, and product teams to architect resilient, scalable, and secure mission critical systems. This is a fantastic opportunity to contribute to a high-impact National Security mission, while getting hands-on experience with cutting-edge technology.

Responsibilities

Enterprise Architecture Leadership

• Develop and lead the technical architecture vision, strategy, and roadmap for large scale modernization
• Define system wide patterns, standards, integration approaches, and modernization frameworks
• Ensure architectures align with cloud native, microservice, and security forward design principles

System Design & Modernization Strategy

• Architect end to end solutions across application, data, security, and cloud layers
• Guide refactoring efforts, legacy system decomposition, and modernization of mission workloads
• Lead development of API architectures, interface definitions, platform integration points, and service boundaries

Technical Governance & Oversight

• Establish architecture standards, guardrails, and decision frameworks for engineering teams
• Conduct design reviews, validate technical approaches, and ensure alignment across workstreams
• Provide authoritative direction for engineering decisions impacting scalability, performance, security, and reliability

Cross Workstream Collaboration

• Partner with Full Stack Engineers, Cloud Engineers, Data Engineers, DevSecOps teams, QA Automation, and Product Leads
• Support integration with CI/CD pipelines, cloud deployments, and platform operations
• Provide technical leadership during sprint planning, backlog refinement, PI planning, and release readiness

Performance, Security & Compliance

• Ensure all system designs meet federal security standards, operational constraints, and compliance requirements
• Lead architectural risk identification and mitigation strategies
• Drive performance optimization efforts across system components and cloud infrastructures

Documentation & Technical Artifacts

• Produce architecture diagrams, system models, technical specifications, integration matrices, and decision records
• Maintain architecture documentation supporting audits, engineering continuity, and future enhancements
• Present architectural guidance to leadership

Requirements

• Must have an Active Top Secret Security Clearance U.S. Citizenship Bachelor's degree and 12+ years of experience in enterprise architecture, software engineering, or system design
• Extensive experience architecting large scale, complex, cloud enabled systems
• Expertise across application, integration, data, cloud, and security architecture domains
• Hands on experience with modern frameworks, microservices, distributed systems, and API design
• Strong understanding of DevSecOps, CI/CD, and cloud platform engineering (AWS preferred)
• Exceptional communication and leadership skills for guiding multi team technical direction

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting federal modernization or national security programs
• Deep knowledge of cloud native architectures, containerization (Docker), orchestration (Kubernetes), or serverless
• Familiarity with large scale data pipelines, ETL frameworks, and legacy modernization patterns
• Experience producing technical approaches for program deliverables (Transition In, RTM, CVM, design artifacts)

Established in 2010, @Orchard LLC has an exceptional reputation, providing staffing solutions to time-sensitive talent scarcity issues to deliver better talent management ROI. Our specialty lies in the critical area of program talent acquisition and resource management, not in one narrow skillset, but across many areas of technical and functional delivery. To learn more about our other exciting opportunities, visit our Jobs Page at www.atOrchard.com.