Senior Platform Architect & Technical Lead - AI/Cloud

Defense Unicorns; Washington (District of Columbia); Remote; USD 149,000 - 201,000; Full time

Job summary

Defense Unicorns is seeking a senior Technical Lead / Platform Solution Architect to embed with a government team and serve as the go-to technical SME across the platform architecture.

The role spans Kubernetes/OpenShift, GitLab and CI/CD, AI/agent infrastructure, enterprise data services, cloud infrastructure, and security tooling, guiding decisions and ensuring a smooth move from prototype to operational capability.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in systems engineering, platform engineering, cloud architecture, DevSecOps, or solution architecture.
• Deep hands-on understanding of Kubernetes and enterprise container platforms, preferably Red Hat OpenShift.
• Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure, CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, GitOps, APIs, networking, identity, secrets, and observability.
• Familiarity with NIST 800-53, RMF, ATO/C-ATO, zero-trust architecture, software supply-chain security, and continuous authorization.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end technical architecture and serve as the primary technical SME across the platform ecosystem.
• Become a trusted technology advisor to the mission hero, translating mission objectives into pragmatic technical choices and providing clear recommendations, tradeoffs, and risk assessments.
• Lead technical integration across commercial and government technologies, including Kubernetes/OpenShift, GitLab, AI/ML services, enterprise data platforms, and supporting security tooling.
• Guide engineering teams in establishing repeatable patterns for deployment, configuration, observability, identity, secrets, APIs, data access, and lifecycle management.
• Work directly with OEM engineering and professional services teams to resolve cross-platform issues and ensure vendor solutions fit the overall architecture.
• Evaluate emerging AI, agentic, cloud-native, and platform technologies and advise the government team on practical adoption, integration, and sequencing.
• Partner with DevSecOps engineer to identify security and compliance risks early, incorporating NIST 800-53/RMF and ATO considerations into architecture and engineering decisions.
• Produce and maintain architecture diagrams, ADRs, technical standards, integration patterns, and concise decision briefs for government leadership.

Skills

Kubernetes/OpenShift

GitLab

CI/CD

Cloud infrastructure

Security controls

Integration patterns

Tools

GitLab CI/CD

Job description

Defense Unicorns is seeking a senior Technical Lead / Platform Solution Architect to embed with a government team and serve as the go-to technical SME across the platform architecture.

The role spans Kubernetes/OpenShift, GitLab and CI/CD, AI/agent infrastructure, enterprise data services, cloud infrastructure, and security tooling, guiding decisions and ensuring a smooth move from prototype to operational capability.