Principal Platform Architect

Applied Information Sciences · Reston · $154,000–$232,000 (stated in the posting)

Why AIS?

When you join AIS, you’re joining a mission-driven team that’s passionate about making a difference. You’ll work on projects that matter, alongside industry-leading experts, in an environment that fosters innovation, driving client success, and empowering our team to make a lasting impact. As an employee-owned company, we value collaboration, inclusivity, continuous growth, and shared success.

Employee Ownership: Your contributions directly impact the company’s success, and you share in its achievements.
Continuous Learning: Access to resources, training, and mentorship to support your professional growth.
Inclusive Culture: A workplace where diversity is celebrated, and everyone’s voice is valued.
Mission-Driven Work: Engage in projects that make a meaningful difference for our clients and communities.

What are we looking for?

At AIS, we're looking for more than just skills - we're looking for driven individuals who are passionate about making a difference, eager to grow, and aligned with our core principles.

Working@AIS

At AIS, we are dedicated to providing our employees with diverse opportunities to grow their careers while supporting a variety of impactful projects. For this position, we are seeking a talented individual to join AIS as a Senior Infrastructure Architect.


Core Knowledge & Skills: Sets enterprise‑level infrastructure strategy; leads global architectures and integrations; manages worldwide environments; is recognized externally as a thought leader.
Work & Complexity: Oversees multi‑region programs, coordinates global delivery, applies analytics to predict/mitigate issues, and steers strategic vendor partnerships.
Quality & Independence: Establishes visionary, organization‑wide standards; ensures excellence on large‑scale initiatives; drives sustainable, future‑ready practices with full autonomy.
Teamwork & Communication: Leads enterprise communication of strategy, aligns global stakeholders, mentors next‑generation leaders, and represents the organization in industry forums.
Consulting & Engagement: Advises executives on strategy and vision, expands external offerings and partnerships, and shapes long‑term technology direction and market influence.


As your initial project assignment, you will support the unique needs of our client as a Principal Platform Architect.



Project Summary

As a Microsoft Solutions Partner, we help organizations accelerate their digital transformation by delivering modern cloud, infrastructure, security, and platform engineering solutions built on Microsoft technologies. We are seeking a Principal Platform Architect to lead the design, implementation, modernization, and optimization of enterprise platforms across Microsoft Azure, GitHub, DevOps, and DevSecOps.

This is a hands-on consulting role where you will architect, build, deploy, govern, and optimize enterprise solutions while serving as a trusted advisor to customers. You will work directly with client engineering, operations, and product teams to implement secure, scalable, and automated platforms, mentor technical teams, and lead complex transformation engagements from strategy through delivery.

he ideal candidate is passionate about building solutions as much as designing them. You are equally comfortable leading executive architecture workshops, writing Infrastructure-as-Code, implementing GitHub Actions, automating cloud deployments, building governance models, and solving complex platform engineering and DevSecOps challenges.

Key Responsibilities

Platform Architecture & Engineering

Design, build, and implement secure, scalable Microsoft Azure infrastructure and platform solutions.
Lead cloud migration, modernization, and hybrid infrastructure engagements.
Develop and implement Azure Landing Zones, governance frameworks, and operational standards.
Design resilient, highly available, and secure cloud architectures.
Develop Infrastructure-as-Code using Terraform, Bicep, and ARM templates.
Build reusable automation frameworks, deployment accelerators, and operational tooling.
Configure, optimize, and troubleshoot Azure networking, compute, storage, identity, monitoring, and security services.
Participate in hands-on implementation throughout the project lifecycle.

GitHub, DevOps & Platform Engineering

Design and implement enterprise DevOps platforms using GitHub Enterprise, GitHub Actions, and Azure DevOps.

DevSecOps & Security

Integrate security throughout the software development lifecycle.
Implement GitHub Advanced Security, code scanning, secret scanning, dependency management, and vulnerability remediation.
Design and implement identity and access management solutions using Microsoft Entra ID.
Implement policy-as-code, security automation, and compliance controls.
Configure Azure Key Vault, privileged access management, and secrets management.
Ensure solutions align with Microsoft security best practices and industry compliance requirements.

Consulting & Customer Leadership

Lead technical discovery sessions, architecture workshops, and solution design engagements.
Translate business objectives into practical technical solutions and implementation roadmaps.
Serve as the primary technical advisor throughout project delivery.
Present architecture recommendations and delivery roadmaps to executive and technical stakeholders.
Mentor client engineering teams and provide technical knowledge transfer.
Support pre-sales activities including solution architecture, technical proposals, estimations, and proof-of-concepts.

Technical Leadership

Provide technical leadership across multiple client engagements.
Mentor architects, consultants, and engineers.
Establish engineering standards, reusable patterns, and delivery best practices.
Conduct architecture and code reviews.
Evaluate emerging Microsoft technologies and recommend adoption strategies.
Contribute to the growth of our Microsoft practice through innovation, solution development, and technical enablement.

Required Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
10+ years of experience in infrastructure, cloud, platform engineering, or enterprise architecture.
5+ years designing and implementing Microsoft Azure solutions.
Experience leading enterprise cloud modernization and digital transformation initiatives.
Azure DevOps to GitHub migration experience is a plus, including repository migration, pipeline transition to GitHub Actions, permissions/governance, branching strategies, and developer workflow adoption.
Experience working within a Microsoft partner, consulting, or professional services organization.
Proven success leading customer-facing technical engagements.
Excellent communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.
Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation.
Implement GitHub Advanced Security, repository governance, branching strategies, and developer workflows.
Design platform engineering solutions that improve developer productivity and self-service capabilities.
Automate infrastructure and application deployments across multiple environments.
Establish enterprise DevOps standards and best practices.

Required For This Opportunity

Microsoft Azure

Azure Landing Zones
Azure Virtual Networks, ExpressRoute, VPN Gateway
Azure Compute, Storage, Backup, Site Recovery
Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Azure Policy
Azure Firewall, Application Gateway, Private Link
Microsoft Entra ID and identity services
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

GitHub & DevOps

GitHub Enterprise Cloud and Server
GitHub Actions
GitHub Advanced Security
Azure DevOps
CI/CD pipeline architecture
Release automation
Git workflows and repository governance
Platform engineering
Azure DevOps to GitHub migration planning and execution, including repos, CI/CD pipelines, release workflows, security controls, and team enablement.
Terraform
Bicep
ARM Templates
PowerShell
Azure CLI
Bash or Python scripting

DevSecOps & Security

Secure SDLC
Zero Trust architecture
Identity and Access Management (IAM)
Secrets management
Vulnerability management
Policy-as-Code
Compliance automation
Security governance
Containers & Cloud Native
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
Docker
Kubernetes
Helm
GitOps methodologies

Certifications

Candidates should possess, or be willing to obtain within six months of hire, the following certifications:

Required

Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305)
Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert (AZ-400)
GitHub Foundations
GitHub Actions
GitHub Advanced Security
HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate

Preferred

Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104)
Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate (AZ-500)
Microsoft Certified: Identity and Access Administrator Associate (SC-300)
Microsoft Certified: Information Security Administrator Associate (SC-401 or successor)
Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
TOGAF Foundation or Certified
ITIL Foundation
Migration experience from Azure DevOps to GitHub Enterprise and GitHub Actions is strongly preferred.

What Success Looks Like

Lead enterprise cloud transformation engagements from strategy through implementation.
Build secure, scalable, and automated Azure platforms.
Deliver modern DevOps and DevSecOps capabilities using GitHub Enterprise.
Improve developer productivity through platform engineering and automation.
Serve as a trusted technical advisor to enterprise customers.
Mentor engineering teams and promote technical excellence.
Strengthen our Microsoft practice by delivering innovative, high-quality solutions and exceptional client outcomes.

Why Join Us

Work on complex enterprise transformation initiatives with leading organizations.
Collaborate with Microsoft engineering teams and leverage the latest Microsoft technologies.
Influence technical strategy and solution delivery across a diverse client portfolio.
Help customers modernize responsibly by combining technical excellence with secure, automated Azure architecture and operating models.
Join a collaborative, high-performing consulting team that values innovation, continuous learning, and technical excellence.



At AIS, we are committed to offering competitive and fair compensation that reflects the skills, experience, and contributions of each team member.

The targeted base salary range for this role is $154,000-$232,000 per year. Please note that this range is provided as a guideline and the final offer will be based on several factors, including but not limited to, skillset and competencies, level of experience, education, certifications, and location.

We value transparency in our hiring process and are happy to discuss how your unique qualifications align with our compensation structure during the interview process.



Applied Information Sciences does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, religion, color, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other basis. Employment decisions are based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs.

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