Software Architect

Job Description

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At Parsons, you can imagine a career where you thrive, work with exceptional people, and be yourself. Guided by our leadership vision of valuing people, embracing agility, and fostering growth, we cultivate an innovative culture that empowers you to achieve your full potential. Unleash your talent and redefine what's possible.

Job Description:
Parsons is looking for an amazingly talented
Software Architect
to join our team!
In this role you will 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.
This platform supports real-time transaction processing, distributed data management, integration with external government and commercial systems, peripheral/device orchestration, and centralized observability and administration.
The successful candidate will be the overall software architecture authority for a modern Linux-based platform composed of approximately 25 core microservices and a broad set of supporting/integration services. The environment is cloud-heavy, distributed, operationally critical, and deployed in both constrained edge settings and larger centralized/cloud environments.
This role requires someone who can define and govern architecture while remaining grounded in the realities of runtime operations, resilience, fieldability, and maintainability.
What You'll Be Doing:

Own the
overall software architecture
for a distributed microservices platform running across global environments
Maintain and evolve an ecosystem of approximately:
25 core Java-based microservices
a comparable set of supporting and integration services
Define and govern architecture across:
service boundaries and contracts
data flows and event patterns
control plane and backplane behavior
node roles and deployment topologies
observability, fault tolerance, and service recovery
Lead architecture for a platform based on:
RHEL / Rocky Linux
Java (JDK 21+)
Vue.js 3
frontends
MongoDB
for persistent data
Elasticsearch / Logstash
and
RabbitMQ
for ephemeral/search/event data flows
Consul, Nomad, and Vault
for service discovery, orchestration, and secrets management
Architect deployment patterns for multiple node types, including:
server nodes
data nodes
arbiter nodes
workstation/user-facing nodes
Guide the technical design of core operational services responsible for:
transactional processing
rules/screening/correlation workflows
authorization and access control
reference/master data management
language/internationalization support
health/status services
biometric or matching-oriented services built on open-source components
Oversee architecture for peripheral/device services supporting integration with a broad set of external devices and sensors
Lead integration architecture for external standards-based and partner system interfaces, including:
third-party government systems
commercial travel/identity/manifest-style systems
country/customer-specific extensions
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, and roadmap sequencing
Serve as a senior technical authority in design reviews, readiness reviews, problem resolution, and major incident analysis
What Required Skills You'll Bring:

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Engineering, Information Systems, or related technical field. 4 Additional years of experience can substitute for a degree.
12+ years of software engineering experience, including significant time in
software architecture
roles for distributed or mission-critical systems
5+ years architecting
microservices-based platforms
in production
Demonstrated ability to serve as the
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 ability to produce design artifacts and present architecture decisions clearly
Experience balancing long-term architecture quality with delivery constraints and operational realities
Deep hands-on expertise with:
Java
on modern JDKs, preferably
JDK 21+
Linux-based production environments, preferably
RHEL / Rocky Linux
distributed service design and operational patterns
Strong experience with:
MongoDB
Elasticsearch / Logstash
RabbitMQ
or equivalent event/messaging platforms
service discovery/orchestration/secrets technologies such as
Consul, Nomad, Vault
, Kubernetes, or similar
Experience designing systems that operate across:
constrained edge environments
centralized or cloud-heavy environments
globally distributed deployments with intermittent or variable connectivity
Proven ability to architect for:
resilience and graceful degradation
observability and diagnosability
secure service-to-service communication
multi-role user administration and authorization
remote support and lifecycle management
TS/SCI minimum clearance required.
Domestic and/or international project travel may be required.
What Desired Skills You'll Bring:

Master's degree in Data Engineering, Computer Science, Analytics, or related field
Experience with
Vue.js 3
and modern frontend architecture patterns for administrative or operational interfaces
Experience with
hybrid cloud
and cloud-heavy deployments where backend services are centralized and edge nodes are thin
Experience integrating with
external standards-based government, identity, travel, or partner ecosystems
Experience designing platforms that manage or integrate with peripherals/devices such as scanners, readers, imaging devices, kiosks, or other edge hardware
Experience with
Nomad/Consul/Vault
specifically in production
Experience architecting systems with
zero/low downtime upgrade paths
Experience with semantic, cognitive, or advanced search use cases on Elasticsearch
Familiarity with event replay, reconciliation, and offline-sync patterns
Experience working closely with field engineering or remote deployment teams
Experience with large-scale modernization of legacy monoliths to service-oriented or microservices-based platforms
Familiarity with open-source biometric, matching, search, or image processing components
Experience with multilingual/internationalized systems deployed across multiple countries or regions
Experience supporting operational analytics/reporting services built on transaction/event data
Experience with CI/CD pipelines and release discipline for multi-service distributed systems
Security Clearance Requirement:
An active Top Secret SCI security clearance is required for this position.​
This position is part of our Federal Solutions team.
The Federal Solutions segment delivers resources to our US government customers that ensure the success of missions around the globe. Our intelligent employees drive the state of the art as they provide services and solutions in the areas of defense, security, intelligence, infrastructure, and environmental. We promote a culture of excellence and close-knit teams that take pride in delivering, protecting, and sustaining our nation's most critical assets, from Earth to cyberspace. Throughout the company, our people are anticipating what's next to deliver the solutions our customers need now.
Salary Range: $148,300.00 - $266,900.00
We value our employees and want our employees to take care of their overall wellbeing, which is why we offer best-in-class benefits such as medical, dental, vision, paid time off, Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), 401(k), life insurance, flexible work schedules, and holidays to fit your busy lifestyle!
Parsons is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status or any other protected status.
We truly invest and care about our employee's wellbeing and provide endless growth opportunities as the sky is the limit, so aim for the stars! Imagine next and join the Parsons quest-APPLY TODAY!
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https://www.parsons.com/fraudulent-recruitment/
.