Cloud Compute/Storage Architect

At Leidos, we deliver innovative solutions through the efforts of our diverse and talented people who are dedicated to our customers’ mission success. We empower our teams, contribute to our communities, and operate sustainable practices. Our Mission, Vision, and Values guide the way we do business. Our workforce enjoys career enrichment opportunities available through mobility and development, while experiencing rewarding relationships with supportive supervisors and talented colleagues and customers. Your most important work is ahead.

If this sounds like the kind of environment where you can thrive, then keep reading because Leidos is seeking a qualified Cloud & Compute/Storage Architect to support a proposed large-scale, transformational IT infrastructure program.

A successful candidate thrives on designing resilient, cost-effective, multi-cloud environments alongside modernized on-premise compute and storage. An individual understands how to balance a hybrid cloud/on-prem footprint and bring the technical credibility to serve as the trusted architecture authority for a high-visibility federal infrastructure transformation program.

*This position is onsite /hybrid remote. Candidates will need to be located within the DMV, preferably near Bethesda, MD, and Gaithersburg MD.

Key Responsibilities:

• Serve as the senior technical architect for end-to-end Compute, Storage, and Backup Services, spanning dedicated/shared physical compute, virtual compute, hybrid compute, and compute containers across FDA's data centers and cloud environments.

• Own the distributed server strategy (e.g., VMware or high-availability system clusters), including policies, architecture, standards, and requirements for server operations across Windows and Linux environments.

• Architect storage and data management solutions spanning Backup & Archive, Distributed Storage, File & Object Storage, and Networked Storage (SAN/NAS), including capacity planning, tuning, and hyperconverged compute/network/storage capabilities.

• Own backup and recovery architecture across FDA's hybrid environment, ensuring solutions meet FDA retention, archive, and disaster-recovery requirements, and align with NIST 800-88/FIPS 200 media sanitization guidance.

• Serve as the lead architect for FDA's Container-as-a-Service (CaaS) environment (Docker Enterprise Edition, Red Hat OpenShift, Kubernetes, Docker Swarm, NeuVector, Portworx), ensuring high availability, secure container images, and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC).

• Architect and own FDA's Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) approach across AWS, Azure, and GCP landing zones, ensuring consistency, interoperability, and integrity between public/private cloud and on-premise CaaS environments.

• Provide architecture guidance and support to development and product teams deploying applications to AWS, Azure, and GCP, leveraging DevSecOps best practices including infrastructure-as-code (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation).

• Own the technical design of FDA's cloud governance model, entitlements/administrative role access to CSP accounts, and the Dedicated Master Payer Account structure across each CSP.

• Support the Cloud Business Service Management function by architecting the technical underpinnings of the Cloud Service Catalog, metering/chargeback, cost forecasting, and tagging/allocation activities across AWS, Azure, and GCP.

• Drive continuous service improvement, including modernizing technical capabilities, reducing vendor management costs, and identifying opportunities for simplification, consolidation, automation, and deduplication across compute, storage, and cloud services.

• Ensure compute, storage, and cloud services adhere to Federal mandates, security standards (e.g., NIST SP 800-117), and FDA internal policies, and support FDA Server Security Assessments and Audits.

  • Participate in FDA Change Control Board (CCB) meetings related to server, storage, and cloud infrastructure changes; coordinate with application server groups and other Task Area leads as required.

• Mentor and provide technical direction to Cloud Engineers, Server/Storage Administrators, and CaaS platform staff; provide Tier 3 subject-matter-expert support for complex incidents, problems, and change requests.

• Support the Transition Manager and Program Manager during the three-phase transition (Transition Planning, Transition, Cutover to Managed Services) by validating the as-is compute/storage/cloud architecture and informing the technical migration plan.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelors degree and 8+ years of progressive experience in program/operations management and/or service delivery management on large federal IT infrastructure or managed-services contracts. Additional years of experience may be considered in lieu of degree.

• A minimum of 3-5 years in a senior architect or technical lead role on large, enterprise-scale federal or commercial IT environments.

• Demonstrated hands-on architecture experience across multi-cloud environments (AWS, Azure, and/or Google Cloud Platform), including IaaS provisioning, infrastructure-as-code (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation), and DevSecOps practices.

• Strong working knowledge of enterprise compute environments (physical, virtual, hybrid) and server virtualization platforms (e.g., VMware).

• Experience architecting enterprise storage and backup solutions (SAN/NAS, file & object storage, backup/recovery/disaster recovery) at scale.

• Hands-on experience with container orchestration and Container-as-a-Service platforms (e.g., Kubernetes, Red Hat OpenShift, Docker Enterprise Edition, Docker Swarm).

• Familiarity with cloud cost management/chargeback concepts (metering, tagging/allocation, cost forecasting) across multiple CSPs.

• Excellent collaboration and communication skills, with demonstrated ability to coordinate across cross-functional technical teams, subcontractors, and hyperscale cloud providers.

• U.S. Citizenship required.

• Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Additional Professional-level certifications across a second or third cloud provider (AWS, Azure, and/or GCP), reflecting genuine multi-cloud depth.

• Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) or equivalent container-platform certification.

• TIL Foundation certification (or higher).

• Prior experience directly supporting FDA, another HHS operating division, or a comparable federal health/regulatory science agency.

• Experience with FedRAMP-authorized cloud service offerings and Authority to Operate (ATO) processes.

• Familiarity with ServiceNow or comparable enterprise ITSM/service-catalog platforms.

• Experience supporting large-scale, phased cloud migrations for a federal civilian agency.

If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo - because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 - and moving faster than anyone else dares.

Original Posting:

For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.

Pay Range:

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.