Chief Defense Systems Architect

About the role

You will join a defense technology company as its chief systems architect, the technical authority for how the entire portfolio fits together and the final word on decisions that are expensive to reverse. Every major program, product line, and technology investment crosses your desk for architectural judgment, and your vision sets what the organization becomes capable of building over the next decade. You compound your impact through others: reference architectures and standards that programs adopt willingly, governance that aligns without slowing delivery, and chief engineers you develop into enterprise technical leaders.

What you will achieve

• Define the company-wide system-of-systems architecture, with interface standards and reference designs adopted across all major programs within two years.
• Set the technology strategy that guides R&D investment, killing pursuits that do not fit and doubling down on the three bets that matter.
• Serve as final design authority on programs above a defined threshold, with your reviews catching architectural flaws before they become expensive.
• Build trusted relationships with senior customer technical leaders, shaping requirements conversations years before competitions are announced.
• Establish an architecture governance process that keeps programs aligned without slowing them down, measured by adoption and program feedback.

What you will bring

Must-haves

• You bring 15 or more years of defense systems engineering with recognized authority across multiple major programs.
• You have defined architectures that multiple programs successfully built against, and you can point to the results.
• You think at portfolio scale: product lines, platform strategies, and technology investments that pay off over a decade.
• You engage credibly with the most senior customer and government technical leaders as a peer.
• You make architectural decisions that stick, because your reasoning is rigorous and your communication is clear.
• You develop chief engineers and technical fellows, leaving the organization stronger than you found it.
• You have defined a product line or platform strategy that delivered measurable reuse across programs.

Nice-to-haves

• You have led architecture for a program of record or equivalent major acquisition.
• You bring a graduate degree in systems engineering or a related discipline.
• You have shaped industry standards or reference architectures.
• You hold an active security clearance at an appropriate level.
• You have advised government or industry boards on technology strategy or acquisition approach.