Overview:

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $940 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.   

Georgia Tech's Mission and Values

Georgia Tech's mission is to develop leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition. The Institute has nine key values that are foundational to everything we do: 

1. Students are our top priority.
2. We strive for excellence.
3. We thrive on diversity.
4. We celebrate collaboration.
5. We champion innovation.
6. We safeguard freedom of inquiry and expression.
7. We nurture the wellbeing of our community.
8. We act ethically.
9. We are responsible stewards.

Over the next decade, Georgia Tech will become an example of inclusive innovation, a leading technological research university of unmatched scale, relentlessly committed to serving the public good; breaking new ground in addressing the biggest local, national, and global challenges and opportunities of our time; making technology broadly accessible; and developing exceptional, principled leaders from all backgrounds ready to produce novel ideas and create solutions with real human impact.

Project/Unit Description

The Secure Information Systems (SIS) Division of the CIPHER Laboratory is seeking an individual to serve as a Solutions Architect for the Secure Web Services portfolio within the Agile Special Project Enterprise mission. This position will be responsible for serving as the primary liaison with Sponsors, the DoD community, and Defense Industrial Base with regards to technical interchanges and coordination. Secondary tasks include, but are not limited to, assisting with program management and procurement activities, as needed.

This position requires a highly motivated individual with excellent leadership and technical ability. Prior experience or familiarity with DoD IT architectures, data models, and systems is a huge plus. The position will require top tier written and verbal communication skills

The successful candidate will be responsible for leading and coordinating both strategic and tactical thrusts in support of the customer, as well as, internal team organization, dynamics, and improvement.

Job Purpose

The Solution Architect defines, conceptualizes, describes, and manages an engineering solution specific to the enterprise system. Responsible for understanding the architecture, design, and development of software built for sponsors and running on secure cloud computing networks, specifically focusing on fully automated deployments. Additional responsibilities include understanding how integration with third-party software vendors will impact the system and providing guidance on impact to the enterprise. This position will interact with government sponsors and government technical experts to translate business requirements into technical requirements and provide guidance to technical teams for execution of requirements.

Key Responsibilities

• All of Level 3 Plus -Defines, conceptualizes, describes and manages an engineering solutions to the enterprise system.
• Understands technologies, systems, and standards and how they apply to the enterprise.
• Understand interoperability requirements and is able to work with development team to communicate requirements and implementation needs.
• Ability to analyze the sponsor enterprise system and provide recommendations impacted by technical solution.
• Validates security control configuration on systems, ensure all systems are configured to to necessary controls, such as STIGS, CMMC, and other similar requirements.
• Creates documentation outlining software installation, configuration, and dataflows
• Actively collaborates with sponsors and external teams, derives tasks from detailed requirements. Provides tasking to other team members, based off of derived tasks.
• Provides software and merge request code reviews. Acts as the primary gatekeeper for software merges.
• Ensures software adheres to coding standards and practices and satisfies sponsor needs

Additional Responsibilities

Clearly understand and communicate customer requirements and integration points in the context of the statement of work and evangelize how those capabilities build long-term value for the customer

Play a critical role in the delivery process with key contributors to scope and prepare change requests, including tasks, project artifacts, project phase gates, resources, and estimated costs

Creative problem-solving skills, including the ability to understand the impact of technical & process changes and to articulate high-level technical solutions to address business problem

Build and leverage relationships to solve very complex customer problems, including working with product teams to enhance solutions

Be accountable for foundational activities of the program from inception to closure, including solid governance, communication, and organizational change within customer and internal teams

Lead regular communication with both the customer and internal teams and tie back our execution to customer expectations

Achieve customer satisfaction through successful product delivery within a defined program scope

Be accountable for collating customer requests, deployment issues, and feedback into the core product communication channels

Serve as one of the critical touch points throughout the program's life, including support for contractual changes and onboarding of additional staff and technical teams for new work tracks or projects

Facilitate capturing and communicating experiences in formal post-mortem, feeding lessons learned, best practices and resources back to both customer and internal teams

Required Minimum Qualifications

• Ability to obtain and maintain a Top Secret security clearance
• 5+ years of proven experience leading customer-facing client implementation projects in a consulting and/or technology professional services organization, including delivering enterprise-scale implementation
• Entrepreneurial thinker, skilled in anticipating future needs and proactively acting on solution
• Strong verbal, presentation, and written communication skills
• Excellent problem-solving skills, with a demonstrated ability to lead teams identifying issues, solve them quickly (and well), and rely on internal resources to assist, when needed
• Strong conflict resolution and negotiating skills
• Professional demeanor, ability to interact with and lead matrixed teams and communication with senior members of the DoD and US Government
• Superb organizational skills to coordinate complicated programs with multiple projects at a business or solution level
• Skill in leading teams and ensuring delivery quality through delegation and inspection
• Exceptional team building and team leadership skills, with proven experience running virtual and dispersed teams

Preferred Qualifications

• Active TS/SCI Clearance
• Advanced degree or MBA
• Strong Agile experience using KANBAN or Scrum
• Experience working systems with considerations for scalability, resiliency, and performance
• Working knowledge of Enterprise Frameworks, Applications, and Integration Patterns
• Experience successfully working with Developers, Architects, and Product Owners in order to translate strategic and technical from Business Stakeholders down to Development, and back
• Understanding of object-oriented programming

Travel Requirements

<10% travel

Education and Length of Experience

This position vacancy is an open-rank announcement. The final job offer will be dependent on candidate qualifications in alignment with Research Faculty Extension Professional ranks as outlined in section 3.2.1 of the Georgia Tech Faculty Handbook

• 9 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related degree
• 7 years of related experience with a Masters’ degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related degree
• 4 years of related experience with a Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related degree

U.S. Citizenship Requirements

Due to our research contracts with the U.S. federal government, candidates for this position must be U.S. Citizens.

Clearance Type Required

Candidates must be able to obtain and maintain an active security clearance.

Benefits at GTRI

Comprehensive information on currently offered GTRI benefits, including Health & Welfare, Retirement Plans, Tuition Reimbursement, Time Off, and Professional Development, can be found through this link: https://benefits.hr.gatech.edu/.

Equal Employment Opportunity

The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. The University is committed to maintaining a fair and respectful environment for all. To that end, and in accordance with federal and state law, Board of Regents policy, and University policy, Georgia Tech provides equal opportunity to all faculty, staff, students, and all other members of the Georgia Tech community, including applicants for admission and/or employment, contractors, volunteers, and participants in institutional programs, activities, or services.  Georgia Tech complies with all applicable laws and regulations governing equal opportunity in the workplace and in educational activities.

Georgia Tech prohibits discrimination, including discriminatory harassment, on the basis of race, ethnicity, ancestry, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, disability, genetics, or veteran status in its programs, activities, employment, and admissions.  This prohibition applies to faculty, staff, students, and all other members of the Georgia Tech community, including affiliates, invitees, and guests. Further, Georgia Tech prohibits citizenship status, immigration status, and national origin discrimination in hiring, firing, and recruitment, except where such restrictions are required in order to comply with law, regulation, executive order, or Attorney General directive, or where they are required by Federal, State, or local government contract.

USG Core Values Statement

The University System of Georgia is comprised of our 26 institutions of higher education and learning as well as the System Office. Our USG Statement of Core Values are Integrity, Excellence, Accountability, and Respect. These values serve as the foundation for all that we do as an organization, and each USG community member is responsible for demonstrating and upholding these standards. More details on the USG Statement of Core Values and Code of Conduct are available in USG Board Policy 8.2.18.1.2 and can be found on-line at https://www.usg.edu/policymanual/section8/C224/#p8.2.18_personnel_conduct.

Additionally, USG supports Freedom of Expression as stated in Board Policy 6.5 Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom found on-line at https://www.usg.edu/policymanual/section6/C2653.