Software Architect at Global C2 Integration Technologies in Reston, VA, USA

Job description

• GC2IT is seeking a Software Architect to lead the architecture, technical evolution, and operational design of a large-scale, globally distributed mission platform deployed across multiple countries and managed remotely from the United States. The role serves as the overall software architecture authority for a modern Linux-based microservices platform supporting real-time processing, distributed data, external integrations, device orchestration, observability, and administration.

Responsibilities

• · Own the overall software architecture for a distributed microservices platform operating across global environments.
• · Maintain and evolve an ecosystem of approximately 25 core Java-based microservices plus supporting and integration services.
• · Define and govern architecture across service boundaries/contracts, data flows/event patterns, control-plane/backplane behavior, node roles/deployment topologies, observability, fault tolerance, and service recovery.
• · Lead architecture for a platform using RHEL/Rocky Linux, Java (JDK 21+), Vue.js 3, MongoDB, Elasticsearch/Logstash, RabbitMQ, Consul, Nomad, and Vault.
• · Architect deployment patterns for server, data, arbiter, and workstation/user-facing nodes.
• · Guide technical design of transactional processing, rules/screening/correlation, authorization/access control, reference/master data, internationalization, health/status, and biometric/matching services.
• · Oversee architecture for peripheral/device services and external standards-based or partner-system interfaces.
• · Ensure the platform remains remotely observable, supportable, and maintainable across all deployments.
• · Partner with cloud, network, security, data, field engineering, and operations teams to align architecture with deployment realities.
• · Review and guide software design decisions, technical-debt reduction, modernization priorities, roadmap sequencing, design/readiness reviews, problem resolution, and major incident analysis.

Requirements

• · Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical field; four additional years of experience may substitute for a degree.
• · Twelve or more years of software engineering experience, including significant software architecture experience with distributed or mission-critical systems.
• · Five or more years architecting microservices-based platforms in production.
• · Demonstrated ability to serve as technical authority over a multi-service software ecosystem.
• · Experience guiding multiple development teams and reviewing architecture across service boundaries.
• · Strong written and verbal communication skills, including development of design artifacts and presentation of architecture decisions.
• · Experience balancing long-term architecture quality with delivery constraints and operational realities.
• · Deep hands-on expertise with modern Java, Linux-based production environments, and distributed service design/operations.
• · Strong experience with MongoDB, Elasticsearch/Logstash, RabbitMQ or equivalent messaging, and service discovery/orchestration/secrets technologies such as Consul, Nomad, Vault, Kubernetes, or similar.
• · Experience designing systems that operate across constrained edge environments, centralized/cloud-heavy environments, and globally distributed deployments with intermittent or variable connectivity.
• · Proven ability to architect for resilience/graceful degradation, observability/diagnosability, secure service-to-service communication, multi-role user administration/authorization, and remote support/lifecycle management.
• · Active Top Secret/SCI security clearance.
• · Master's degree in Data Engineering, Computer Science, Analytics, or a related field.
• · Experience with Vue.js 3 and modern frontend architecture patterns for administrative or operational interfaces.
• · Experience with hybrid cloud/cloud-heavy deployments where backend services are centralized and edge nodes are thin.
• · Experience integrating with standards-based government, identity, travel, or partner ecosystems and with peripheral devices such as scanners, readers, imaging devices, or kiosks.
• · Production experience with Nomad, Consul, and Vault.
• · Experience architecting zero/low-downtime upgrade paths, advanced search use cases on Elasticsearch, event replay/reconciliation/offline-sync patterns, and large-scale modernization of legacy monoliths.
• · Experience working with field engineering or remote deployment teams, open-source biometric/matching/search/image-processing components, multilingual/internationalized systems, operational analytics/reporting services, and CI/CD pipelines for multi-service distributed systems.

Skills

Required

• Java (JDK 21+)
• Linux (RHEL/Rocky Linux)
• MongoDB
• Elasticsearch/Logstash
• RabbitMQ or equivalent messaging
• Microservices architecture
• Distributed systems design
• Service-to-service communication
• Observability and diagnosability
• Resilience and graceful degradation
• Remote support and lifecycle management
• Strong written and verbal communication

Preferred

• Vue.js 3
• Hybrid cloud/cloud-heavy deployments
• Zero/low-downtime upgrade paths
• Multilingual/internationalized systems
• Operational analytics/reporting services