Job at a glance
RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: No relocation assistance available CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: No CLEARANCE TYPE: Secret TRAVEL: Yes, 10% of the Time Mission Systems CIDO is seeking a Data Architect to lead the development and governance of the sector’s data strategy. This role will define authoritative data models, standards, and integration frameworks across manufacturing, engineering, quality, supply chain, and program domains—ensuring that sector data is consistent, reusable, and aligned with enterprise platforms and tools.
The Data Architect will partner closely with functional stakeholders and CIDO technical leadership to design scalable, governed data solutions that reduce fragmentation, improve interoperability, and enable mission‑critical analytics and AI capabilities. A hybrid work schedule may be considered for this position; please note that the selected candidate will be required to work on-site 3 days per week at our Linthicum, MD campus.
The Data Architect will lead the architecture and development of the Mission Systems (MS) sector data strategy across functions and programs, aligned to enterprise data strategy and enterprise tools. The role establishes repeatable, scalable frameworks, policies, and data standards; designs authoritative data models and contracts; and ensures reliable, governed data flows that ground AI and analytics.
Working closely with the CIDO Systems Architect and AI Architect, the Data Architect meets with customers to determine the best course of action and delivers sector‑wide solutions that are reproducible and scalable. Key Responsibilities Define and maintain the MS sector data strategy and reference architecture, aligning with enterprise standards and tools (e.g., canonical ontologies, ERP/SAP integration, M365, Palantir Foundry).
Establish repeatable, scalable frameworks for data ingestion, normalization, enrichment, and publication; create reusable patterns and data contracts (APIs, schemas). Design governed data models for key domains (manufacturing, quality/QN, supply chain, engineering) and prevent shadow ontologies by grounding models in the authoritative enterprise ontology. Lead data quality management (DQ rules, profiling, remediation), metadata/catalog adoption, lineage mapping, and auditability; define policies for citation and source traceability in AI use.
Architect secure data pipelines and storage across sovereign, classified, and disconnected environments; implement observability, reliability, and lifecycle management. Partner with the AI Architect to ground Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG) and agent workflows in authoritative sector data; ensure data readiness, freshness, and guardrails for AI/ML. Collaborate with the Systems Architect to align solution designs with platform constraints and delivery patterns; provide architecture decision records (ADRs) and design reviews.
Meet with program customers and functional stakeholders to capture requirements, evaluate solution paths, and recommend approaches that balance speed, governance, and maintainability. Define and socialize data policies (access, stewardship, retention, classification) and operating processes (intake, review, approval) to scale adoption across programs. Establish KPIs and ROI metrics (data quality, timeliness, reuse, cycle‑time impact) and drive continuous improvement; create playbooks and templates for rapid onboarding.
Basic Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems and 12+ years of experience, or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems and 10+ years of experience. The selected candidate will be required to obtain a U.S. Government Secret level security clearance and a Special Access Program (SAP/SAR) clearance; maintaining the required clearances will be a condition of continued employment.
Experience in data architecture, enterprise data modeling, and data platform engineering across multiple domains. Hands‑on experience de