System Architect – SME (Storage)

Overview

Senior technical leadership role providing enterprise infrastructure architecture and modernization in support of the SEC ISS contract, with a focus on enterprise storage (SAN/NAS, virtualization, backup and recovery).

What you'll do

• Architect and manage enterprise IT systems across server, platform, storage, and cloud domains.
• Translate functional and operational requirements into technical architectures, integration patterns, and implementation roadmaps.
• Define scalable, resilient target-state designs and transitional architectures for hybrid environments.
• Develop and maintain architecture documentation, standards, and technical decision artifacts.
• Design, implement, and maintain enterprise SAN/NAS and storage virtualization solutions for mission-critical systems.
• Develop storage strategies, standards, and policies aligned with organizational and federal compliance requirements.
• Lead complex storage projects, including migrations, upgrades, and integration with cloud and on-premises environments.
• Ensure storage platforms are engineered for high availability, data integrity, and scalability.
• Identify, assess, and recommend technologies that meet defined technical and business requirements.
• Lead and execute proofs of concept (POCs), pilots, and demos to validate feasibility, risk, and operational fit.
• Guide modernization efforts across virtualization, cloud integration, and enterprise infrastructure transformation.
• Drive adoption of advanced technologies that improve efficiency, interoperability, and long-term maintainability.
• Provide technical leadership to multi-discipline server and system operations teams.
• Establish architecture requirements for monitoring, alerting, incident response, and operational visibility.
• Support root-cause analysis, corrective actions, and continuous improvement tied to SLA and performance objectives.
• Ensure designs are supportable in 24x7x365 operations, including change/release coordination and lifecycle management.
• Lead storage workstreams for migrations, technology refreshes, and modernization with minimal operational disruption.
• Collaborate with infrastructure, network, security, virtualization, and cloud teams to integrate storage services end-to-end.
• Conduct risk assessments and recommend remediation strategies for storage resiliency, security, and operational risk.
• Mentor junior engineers and serve as the storage SME for incident response, strategic planning, and continuous improvement.
• Administer and optimize large-scale enterprise storage environments, including proactive monitoring and health management.
• Perform capacity planning and forecasting to maintain service continuity and prevent resource constraints.
• Troubleshoot and resolve advanced storage incidents, including latency, throughput, replication, and platform stability issues.
• Establish and track operational metrics and trend analysis to support service-level performance.
• Provide technical leadership for system integration, scalability, and security architecture across multi-vendor platforms.
• Embed security controls and compliance requirements into infrastructure and platform designs.
• Ensure architectural approaches support FISMA-aligned controls, vulnerability remediation, and secure configuration baselines.
• Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders to align technical solutions with SEC policy, risk, and operational governance.
• Architect and maintain enterprise backup and recovery strategies to protect mission-critical data.
• Implement and validate disaster recovery and business continuity storage controls, including cross-site replication and recovery readiness.
• Ensure retention, recovery, and data protection practices meet organizational policy and federal compliance requirements.
• Support audit readiness by maintaining storage documentation, configuration baselines, and implementation evidence.

What you'll need

• Must meet contract citizenship/work authorization requirements.
• Ability to obtain and maintain SEC Public Trust (or higher if required) clearance.
• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field.
• 12+ years of experience in engineering and architecting enterprise IT storage systems.
• Proven experience managing multi-discipline server and system operations teams.
• Demonstrated experience translating functional requirements into enterprise technical solutions and leading integration/scalability efforts.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to collaborate effectively across cross-functional teams.
• Hands-on experience with enterprise storage platforms and large-scale storage administration.
• Expertise with SAN/NAS technologies, storage virtualization, and enterprise backup/recovery solutions.
• Experience leading complex storage migrations, upgrades, and integration with cloud and on-premises environments.
• Experience supporting storage compliance, audit readiness, and documentation in federal IT environments.
• Advanced expertise in storage performance tuning, capacity planning, risk assessment, and disaster recovery strategies.
• Must have experience working with Clustered Data ONTAP software.
• Technical skills: enterprise infrastructure design and architecture; multi-vendor server operating systems; virtualization and cloud integration architecture; system integration and scalability architecture; security architecture for enterprise platforms; technology evaluation, POC/pilot execution, and solution validation; cross-functional technical leadership and stakeholder communication; enterprise SAN/NAS platforms and storage virtualization; enterprise backup/recovery, replication, and disaster recovery operations; storage performance monitoring, tuning, and capacity management; advanced troubleshooting of mission-critical storage issues and operational risk assessment.

Nice to have

• Experience supporting U.S. federal IT environments with FISMA/NIST/OMB compliance requirements.
• Experience architecting or supporting observability platforms and enterprise monitoring integrations in large environments.
• Hands-on experience with container platforms and automation frameworks (e.g., OpenShift, Kubernetes, Ansible, GitOps toolchains).
• Experience leading architecture initiatives in 24x7x365 enterprise operations organizations.
• Prior support to SEC or similarly regulated financial-sector federal agencies.
• NetApp Certified Data Administrator Certification (NCDA) or equivalent.
• Proficiency in Ansible, Python, BASH.
• Experience developing and enforcing storage standards, policies, and operational best practices.

Details

• Location: Remote / Telework (US).
• Interview requires camera to remain on, and the interviewer will take a photo for identification if an offer is extended.
• May require participation in on-call or surge support depending on operational needs.
• Pay range: $107,900.00 - $195,050.00 (general guideline only).