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Lead Software Architect — SKY WATCH Platform

Reston, VA

Lead Software Architect — SKY WATCH Platform

Location: Reston, VA (Hybrid Remote Available)

Clearance Preferred: Secret (or eligibility to obtain)

Employment Type: Full Time

 

About the Role

Blue Sky Innovators is seeking a Lead Software Architect to spearhead the architecture and technical design of SKY WATCH  our nextgeneration, AI driven, multisensor anomaly detection platform. SKY WATCH fuses realtime video analytics, BLE/RSSI detection, audio transcript analysis, and predictive anomaly alerting to secure operational and critical infrastructure environments.

As the Lead Architect, you will be responsible for designing and documenting the entire system architecture — from microservices and Kafka pipelines to database design, scalable realtime processing, and secure API integration. You will work closely with Product Management, Data Science, Backend, and Security teams to ensure SKY WATCH is scalable, faulttolerant, and ready for operational deployment.

This is a career defining opportunity to architect an innovative platform in a high growth environment supporting national security, critical infrastructure, and private sector clients.

 

Responsibilities

  • Lead the system architecture for SKY WATCH, including microservices, messaging pipelines, databases, APIs, and cloud/onpremise deployment models.
  • Produce formal architecture artifacts, including:
  • UML Diagrams: Component, Deployment, Class, Sequence Diagrams.
  • System Context and Data Flow Diagrams.
  • API Design Specifications (OpenAPI/Swagger standards).
  • Own the scalability and fault tolerance strategy across the platform (e.g., Kafka partitioning, database replication, service load balancing).
  • Design realtime data ingestion and processing pipelines for BLE, video, and audio sensor data.
  • Define and enforce DevSecOps best practices for secure microservice delivery, including CI/CD, containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), and secure authentication flows (Keycloak, OAuth2).
  • Collaborate with Machine Learning, DevOps, and Frontend teams to ensure seamless integration of inference services and realtime visualization dashboards.
  • Create and maintain Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) documenting critical system design choices.
  • Guide system integration efforts and ensure technical documentation is accurate, complete, and operationally usable.
  • Serve as a technical mentor for the engineering team and participate in code and design reviews.

Requirements

  • 5–10 years of software architecture experience designing distributed, real time platforms.
  • Expertise in designing microservice architectures using .NET Core, Python (FastAPI), or equivalent frameworks.
  • Deep handson knowledge of Kafka or equivalent message streaming systems (Kafka Streams, Faust, MQTT optional).
  • Proficient in creating and interpreting UML models (Component, Deployment, Class, Sequence).
  • Experience designing event driven architectures with real time processing guarantees (e.g., sensor alerting, streaming pipelines).
  • Strong understanding of database design for hybrid architectures (InfluxDB for time series, PostgreSQL or SQL Server for relational data, Redis for caching).
  • Proven track record building secure, scalable, fault tolerant systems deployed in cloud (AWS, Azure) or hybrid environments.
  • Familiarity with DevSecOps pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab, Jenkins) and containerized deployments (Docker, Kubernetes).
  • Understanding of security architectures: token based authentication (OAuth2, OpenID Connect), TLS, secrets management.
  • Excellent communication skills, able to produce architectural documentation and clearly explain designs to stakeholders, engineers, and leadership.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Prior experience supporting DoD, IC, or critical infrastructure security projects.
  • Familiarity with AI/ML model integration (ONNX, TorchScript, TensorFlow Serving).
  • Knowledge of monitoring and logging stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack).
  • Exposure to anomaly detection, BLE/RSSI sensing, video analytics, or real time audio analysis applications.
  • Clearance (Secret or higher) or eligibility to obtain clearance is highly preferred.

Blue Sky Innovators, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law. If you are a qualified job seeker with a disability or a disabled veteran, you have the right to request an accommodation if you are unable or limited in your ability to use or access http://www.blueskyinnovators.com as a result of your disability. To request an accommodation, please email us at careers@blueskyinnovators.com and provide your name and contact information. Please note: this is only for job seekers with disabilities requesting an accommodation.

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