Senior Platform Architect (Azure)

Location: Washington, DC; hybrid with 3 days per week on-site at the Expression office or customer site

Company

Expression provides data fusion, data analytics, software engineering, information technology, and electromagnetic spectrum management solutions for the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of State, and national security community.

What you will do

• Own the FSDS platform roadmap and define target-state architecture, integration patterns, dependencies, sequencing, and estimates.
• Architect shared Azure platform services across unclassified and classified environments, including networking, identity, secrets management, container platforms, and configuration management.
• Set standards for scalability, security, operability, and cost across development, test, and production environments.
• Guide DevOps, security, operations, application, and data engineering teams on delivery pipelines, restricted environments, observability, resilience, recovery, and major incidents.
• Present architecture options and tradeoffs to NTIA and government stakeholders, document design decisions, and support RMF and ATO activities.
• Guide upgrades, capacity planning, production transitions, and engineer development.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field plus 5+ years of relevant platform, DevOps, or cloud engineering experience, or 8+ years of relevant experience in lieu of a degree.
• Experience defining architecture for multi-component platforms or programs, including integration patterns, target-state designs, and technical roadmaps.
• Experience working directly with government customers or program stakeholders to gather requirements, present technical options, and drive decisions.
• Experience designing infrastructure in Azure Commercial and Azure Government, including classified or similarly restricted federal environments.
• Active Secret clearance or higher is required.
• Working knowledge of Infrastructure as Code, Kubernetes, CI/CD, cloud networking, identity and access management, secrets management, and observability.
• Ability to make architecture decisions, document solutions, and collaborate with developers, DevOps engineers, security personnel, and customer stakeholders.

Nice to have

• Experience operating Azure Government Secret platforms or building internal developer platforms and self-service provisioning portals.
• Familiarity with NIST SP 800-53, RMF, ATO processes, STIG implementation, and platform security tools.
• Hands-on experience with Terraform, Bicep, Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, GitOps, policy as code, Kubernetes operators, or service mesh technologies.
• Experience with data lakehouse architectures, Apache Iceberg, Trino, OpenMetadata, Apache Spark, Azure Data Factory, or machine learning workloads.
• Experience with disconnected or air-gapped deployments, Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Application Insights, Prometheus, Grafana, PostgreSQL, Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, or SQL Server.
• Relevant Azure, Kubernetes, or cloud security certifications.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time position supporting federal spectrum management modernization and national security missions.
• Competitive salary and benefits.
• 401k matching and PPO or HDHP medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Education reimbursement, complimentary life insurance, generous PTO, and holiday leave.
• Onsite office gym access and a commuter benefits plan.