Systems Architect

Guidehouse; Rockville (MD); On-site; USD 130,000 - 216,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Rx, Dental & Vision Insurance

401(k) Retirement Plan

Paid Holidays

Job summary

Guidehouse is seeking a System Architect to lead the technical architecture, modernization, and continuous improvement of the Grants.gov platform and related solutions. You will collaborate with federal stakeholders, product teams, engineers, security specialists, and operations personnel to design scalable, secure, and highly available services for millions of users across the federal grants ecosystem.

You will provide architectural leadership for cloud-based services, integrations, security

Qualifications

• Design and implement enterprise-scale system architectures.
• Experience with cloud-hosted solutions, preferably AWS.
• Proficiency with APIs, web services, and microservices architectures.
• Knowledge of security, compliance, and operating in federal environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development and maintenance of enterprise, solution, and platform architectures.
• Design scalable, highly available, secure, and resilient solutions supporting mission-critical services.
• Define architecture roadmaps and modernization strategies to improve performance and cost efficiency.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure architecture alignment and governance.

Skills

Enterprise architecture

AWS cloud

APIs & microservices

Security & compliance

Communication skills

Documentation

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

Job Family:

Systems Engineering

Travel Required:

Up to 10%

Clearance Required:

Ability to Obtain Public Trust

As a System Architect, you will lead the technical architecture, modernization, and continuous improvement of the Grants.gov platform and related solutions supporting federal grant-making operations. You will collaborate with federal stakeholders, product teams, engineers, security specialists, and operations personnel to design scalable, secure, and highly available solutions that support mission-critical services for millions of users across the federal grants ecosystem. You will provide architectural leadership for system enhancements, platform modernization, cloud-based services, integrations, security compliance, and operational excellence while supporting the consolidation objectives between Grants.gov and GrantSolutions.

• Lead the development and maintenance of enterprise, solution, application, integration, and platform architectures supporting Grants.gov and related services.
• Design scalable, highly available, secure, and resilient application and infrastructure solutions that support continuous operations and disaster recovery requirements.
• Define architecture roadmaps, modernization strategies, and technical recommendations that improve system performance, availability, maintainability, and cost efficiency.
• Collaborate with development, operations, security, and cloud teams to ensure architectural alignment across platforms, applications, databases, integrations, and hosting environments.
• Evaluate and recommend emerging technologies, automation capabilities, cloud services, AI-enabled solutions, and operational improvements.
• Provide technical oversight for system-to-system integrations, APIs, data exchanges, forms processing, and application workflows.
• Support architecture governance processes, solution reviews, technical documentation, and compliance with federal architecture standards and HHS Enterprise Performance Life Cycle (EPLC) requirements.
• Participate in incident investigations, root cause analyses, capacity planning, performance optimization, and technology risk assessments.
• Support cybersecurity and privacy initiatives, including Authority to Operate (ATO) activities, security documentation, POA&M management, incident response, and compliance requirements.
• Present technical concepts, architecture recommendations, alternatives, and modernization plans to executive, business, and technical stakeholders.
• Develop architecture artifacts, technical management plans, system documentation, and executive-ready presentations that support operational and strategic decision-making.

What You Will Need:

• Bachelor’s degree . Additional Four(4) years of exp needed in lieu of degree.
• Eight(8) to Ten(10)+ years of experience designing, developing, and supporting enterprise-scale application architectures.
• Experience architecting cloud-hosted solutions, preferably within AWS environments.
• Experience with enterprise application integration, APIs, web services, and service-oriented or microservices architectures.
• Experience designing highly available, secure, and scalable systems supporting public-facing applications.
• Knowledge of application lifecycle management, DevSecOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, configuration management, and release management.
• Experience supporting federal IT systems and compliance frameworks.
• Strong understanding of:
• Experience developing technical documentation, architecture diagrams, operational procedures, and executive briefings.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Must be able to OBTAIN and MAINTAIN a Federal or DoD “PUBLIC TRUST”; candidates must obtain approved adjudication of their PUBLIC TRUST prior to onboarding with Guidehouse. Candidates with an ACTIVE PUBLIC TRUST or SUITABILITY are preferred.

What Would Be Nice To Have:

• Experience supporting federal grants management systems, shared service platforms, or large public-facing government applications.
• Experience with Grants.gov
• Experience with HHS, ACF, CMS, HRSA, NIH, or other federal grant-making agencies.
• Knowledge of HHS Enterprise Performance Life Cycle (EPLC), federal IT governance, ATO processes, security assessment activities, and compliance-driven delivery environments.
• Experience with Grants.gov-like capabilities, including public-facing web applications, applicant submissions, grantor user management, S2S integrations, forms processing, chatbot support, helpdesk escalations, or system status communications.
• Experience supporting cloud-hosted applications, AWS environments, application platform security, certificate management, account management, logging, monitoring, backup validation, or disaster recovery planning.
• Experience supporting modernization, consolidation, transition-in, or multi-vendor integration initiatives involving multiple applications and stakeholder organizations.
• Relevant certifications or credentials such as:

The annual salary range for this position is $130,000.00-$216,000.00. Compensation decisions depend on a wide range of factors, including but not limited to skill sets, experience and training, security clearances, licensure and certifications, and other business and organizational needs.

What We Offer:

Guidehouse offers a comprehensive, total rewards package that includes competitive compensation and a flexible benefits package that reflects our commitment to creating a diverse and supportive workplace.

Benefits include:

• Medical, Rx, Dental & Vision Insurance
• Personal and Family Sick Time & Company Paid Holidays
• Parental Leave
• 401(k) Retirement Plan
• Group Term Life and Travel Assistance
• Voluntary Life and AD&D Insurance
• Health Savings Account, Health Care & Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
• Transit and Parking Commuter Benefits
• Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
• Tuition Reimbursement, Personal Development, Certifications & Learning Opportunities
• Employee Referral Program
• Corporate Sponsored Events & Community Outreach
• Care.com annual membership
• Employee Assistance Program
• Supplemental Benefits via Corestream (Critical Care, Hospital Indemnity, Accident Insurance, Legal Assistance and ID theft protection, etc.)
• Position may be eligible for a discretionary variable incentive bonus

About Guidehouse

Guidehouse is an Equal Opportunity Employer–Protected Veterans, Individuals with Disabilities or any other basis protected by law, ordinance, or regulation.

Guidehouse will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable law or ordinance including the Fair Chance Ordinance of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

If you have visited our website for information about employment opportunities, or to apply for a position, and you require an accommodation, please contact Guidehouse Recruiting at 1-571-633-1711 or via email at [e-mail]. All information you provide will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodation.

All communication regarding recruitment for a Guidehouse position will be sent from Guidehouse email domains including @guidehouse.com or [e-mail]. Correspondence received by an applicant from any other domain should be considered unauthorized and will not be honored by Guidehouse. Note that Guidehouse will never charge a fee or require a money transfer at any stage of the recruitment process and does not collect fees from educational institutions for participation in a recruitment event. Never provide your banking information to a third party purporting to need that information to proceed in the hiring process.