Cloud Data Architect

Founded in 2007, Initiate Government Solutions (IGS) is a Woman-Owned Small Business and a fully remote IT services provider supporting federal partners nationwide. We deliver innovative Enterprise IT and Health Services solutions with a strong focus on data analytics, health informatics, cloud migration, AI, and the modernization of federal information systems.

Our vision is to be a health IT trendsetter, continuing to solve the nation’s most challenging healthcare IT issues by conceiving, designing, and building solid, creative, and innovative open-source solutions. 

Our mission is to innovate, design, and deliver tailored solutions that balance technical advancement with cost-awareness while providing exceptional service.

IGS is currently recruiting a remote Cloud Data Architect to support our work with a federal customer.

Assignment of Work and Travel:

This is a remote access assignment. The Candidate will work remotely daily and will remotely access customer systems and therein use approved customer provided communications systems. Travel is not required; however, the candidate may be required to attend onsite client meetings as requested.

The Cloud Data Architect will serve as a technical leader responsible for designing, governing, and evolving enterprise-scale cloud data architectures while ensuring security, compliance, interoperability, and operational excellence. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience designing and implementing Azure-based data platforms, developing enterprise architecture artifacts, defining security and compliance frameworks, supporting DevSecOps initiatives, and guiding the migration of complex data ecosystems into modern cloud environments.

Responsibilities and Duties (Included but not limited to):

• Lead the design, development, and maintenance of enterprise cloud data architectures supporting customer initiatives.
• Develop and maintain Enterprise Reference Architectures, technology roadmaps, standards, and architectural governance processes.
• Establish architecture patterns and guardrails for cloud-native data platforms, analytics, AI/ML, and Lakehouse environments.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend enhancements to improve scalability, interoperability, security, and operational efficiency.
• Design and implement Azure-based data solutions utilizing services such as Azure Data Lake, Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Databricks, Azure Machine Learning, Azure SQL, Azure Data Factory, Azure Event Hubs, and Azure AI Services.
• Architect secure and scalable Lakehouse, Data Warehouse, and Data Mesh solutions.
• Design high-performance data ingestion, transformation, and integration frameworks supporting operational, analytical, and AI workloads.
• Support Authority to Operate (ATO) activities, Security Impact Assessments (SIA), and compliance and security documentation.
• Guide engineering teams in implementing scalable data ingestion, transformation, and analytics pipelines.
• Support modernization and migration of legacy data platforms, including Corporate Data Warehouse (CDW) workloads, into Azure cloud environments.
• Develop migration strategies and interoperability frameworks supporting hybrid and cloud-native architectures.
• Define and implement cloud infrastructure automation using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools.
• Design and govern secure CI/CD and DevSecOps pipelines. 
• Establish reusable patterns for AI/ML development, deployment, monitoring, and governance.
• Ensure AI/ML architectures align with security, compliance, and trustworthy AI principles.
• Other duties as assigned

• 10+ years of experience designing enterprise data architectures and cloud-based solutions. 
• Hands-on experience architecting solutions within Microsoft Azure environments. 
• Demonstrated expertise documenting and managing enterprise architecture, technical governance, security frameworks, and compliance strategies. 
• Experience designing enterprise-scale data platforms, Lakehouse architectures, data warehouses, and analytics ecosystems. 
• Strong understanding of cloud networking, identity management, security architecture, and Zero Trust principles. 
• Experience with DevSecOps, CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code, and cloud automation. 
• Strong knowledge of data governance, metadata management, lineage, and data quality frameworks. 
• Excellent communication, documentation, stakeholder management, and presentation skills.

Preferred Qualifications and Core Competencies:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Data Science, or related field highly desired 
• Expertise with Azure Government (Azure Gov) environments. 
• Experience with Authority to Operate (ATO), RMF, FedRAMP, FISMA, and NIST compliance requirements. 
• Experience with Databricks, Synapse Analytics, Unity Catalog, Microsoft Purview, Immuta, Starburst, or similar enterprise platforms. 
• Experience modernizing legacy data warehouse environments and migrating workloads to cloud-native architectures. 
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Azure Data Engineer Associate, or related certifications highly desired.
• TOGAF, AWS Solutions Architect, CISSP, CISM, or equivalent certifications preferred.

Successful IGS employees embody the following Core Values:

• Integrity, Honesty, and Ethics: We conduct our business with the highest level of ethics. Doing things like being accountable for mistakes, accepting helpful criticism, and following through on commitments to ourselves, each other, and our customers. 
• Empathy, Emotional Intelligence: How we interact with others including peers, colleagues, stakeholders, and customers’ matters. We take collective responsibility to create an environment where colleagues and customers feel valued, included, and respected. We work within a diverse, integrated, and collaborative team to drive towards accomplishing the larger mission. We conscientiously and meticulously learn about our customers’ and end-users’ business drivers and challenges to ensure solutions meet not only technical needs but also support their mission.
• Strong Work Ethic (Reliability, Dedication, Productivity): We are driven by a strong, self-motivated, and results-driven work ethic. We are reliable, accountable, proactive, and tenacious and will do what it takes to get the job done. 
• Life-Long Learner (Curious, Perspective, Goal Oriented): We challenge ourselves to continually learn and improve ourselves. We strive to be an expert in our field, continuously honing our craft, and finding solutions where others see problems.  
• Compensation: There are a host of factors that can influence final salary, including, but not limited to, geographic location, Federal Government contract labor categories and contract wage rates, relevant prior work experience, specific skills and competencies, education, and certifications.

Benefits: Initiate Government Solutions offers competitive compensation and a robust benefits package, including comprehensive medical, dental, and vision care, matching 401K and profit sharing, paid time off, training time for personal development, flexible spending accounts, employer-paid life insurance, employer-paid short and long term disability coverage, an education assistance program with potential merit increases for obtaining a work-related certification, employee recognition, and referral programs, spot bonuses, and other benefits that help provide financial protection for the employee and their family.

Initiate Government Solutions participates in the Electronic Employment Verification Program.