Lead Data Architect

Peraton is seeking an experienced Lead Data Architect to join our team of qualified and diverse individuals.

This position supports Peratons federal customer as part of an application transformation and modernization initiative.

This program is driving a large-scale transformation of systems into a data-centric cloud-native ecosystem capable of supporting high-volume near real-time data processing and advanced analytics. The work includes modernization of legacy applications development of new cloud-native solutions and implementation of DevSecOps and scaled Agile practices across the organization.

As a Lead Data Architect at Peraton you will define and drive enterprise data architecture strategy governance and implementation across a large-scale federal modernization program.

You will lead architecture efforts spanning data platforms pipelines governance frameworks analytics ecosystems AI/ML integration and large-scale distributed processing environments. You will work across multiple systems teams vendors and contractors to ensure data is structured governed secured integrated and operationalized effectively across the enterprise.

Location: Suitland MD (Hybrid)

• Provide technical leadership across enterprise data architecture efforts within a large-scale modernization program
• Design and govern scalable data ecosystems including data lakes lakehouse architectures data warehouses marts and distributed processing platforms
• Define and implement enterprise data models schemas standards retention strategies and lifecycle management approaches
• Oversee data management integration quality lineage storage retention and governance processes across systems
• Establish metadata management data catalogs data dictionaries and lineage frameworks supporting governance and traceability requirements
• Design and manage large-scale data ingestion ETL/ELT pipelines transformation workflows analytics and dissemination capabilities
• Support real-time and streaming architectures using event-driven processing and distributed messaging systems
• Design and oversee APIs system interconnections interface management processes and Interface Control Documents (ICDs)
• Support AI/ML-enabled architectures including ML pipelines MLOps processes model deployment and AI governance frameworks such as the NIST AI RMF
• Collaborate with application architects engineers data scientists SMEs and external vendors to deliver secure scalable and high-performing data solutions
• Ensure compliance with federal data management privacy and security requirements including NIST FedRAMP Zero Trust ATO processes encryption access control and data sharing standards
• Lead architecture efforts supporting system-of-systems (SoS) integrations across multiple contractors vendors and interdependent platforms
• Implement FinOps and cloud optimization strategies including cost monitoring tagging performance tuning and operational efficiency improvements
• Support operational management of enterprise data platforms including monitoring maintenance performance optimization and lifecycle management (O&M)
• Establish and enforce architecture governance standards and best practices across Agile and SAFe delivery teams
• Mentor architects and engineering teams while promoting consistency governance and technical excellence

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelors degree and 12 years of experience or an Associates degree and 14 years of experience or a High School diploma/equivalent and 16 years of experience
• Must be a U.S. Citizen with the ability to obtain a Public Trust clearance
• 10 years of experience in data architecture enterprise data engineering or large-scale modernization initiatives
• Proven experience designing enterprise data architectures for large-scale distributed systems environments
• Experience operating within Agile and SAFe/scaled Agile delivery frameworks
• Strong experience designing enterprise data ecosystems including data lakes warehouses marts and distributed data platforms
• Experience with large-scale data ingestion ETL/ELT pipelines analytics dissemination and real-time processing architectures
• Experience implementing metadata management lineage catalogs and governance frameworks
• Experience with system-of-systems integration APIs interface management and distributed architectures
• Experience supporting AI/ML-enabled environments including MLOps ML pipelines model deployment and AI governance
• Experience with open-source and modern data stack technologies including Spark Kafka Airflow Databricks and Snowflake
• Experience implementing data governance data quality data classification tagging privacy and enterprise sharing frameworks
• Experience with cloud-native data services across AWS and Azure environments
• Experience implementing DevSecOps practices CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure automation
• Strong understanding of federal security and compliance frameworks including NIST FedRAMP Zero Trust encryption access controls and ATO support
• Experience with FinOps cloud cost optimization and performance tuning of enterprise data platforms
• Experience supporting operational monitoring maintenance and lifecycle management of enterprise data systems

Preferred Qualifications:

• Certifications in cloud data platforms big data technologies or enterprise architecture frameworks
• Experience supporting statistical and similarly large-scale federal modernization programs
• Experience with large-scale real-time analytics or event-streaming environments
• Experience implementing enterprise AI governance or advanced analytics frameworks
• Experience supporting DataOps or platform engineering initiatives

Peraton is a next-generation national security company that drives missions of consequence spanning the globe and extending to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. As the worlds leading mission capability integrator and transformative enterprise IT provider we deliver trusted highly differentiated solutions and technologies to protect our nation and allies. Peraton operates at the critical nexus between traditional and nontraditional threats across all domains: land sea space air and cyberspace. The company serves as a valued partner to essential government agencies and supports every branch of the U.S. armed forces. Each day our employees do the cant be done by solving the most daunting challenges facing our customers. Visit to learn how were keeping people around the world safe and secure.