Solution Architect - Autonomous Systems & Industrial Base (ComS058)

Role Overview

Key Responsibilities

• Facilitate technical discovery and architecture conversations with autonomous drone manufacturers, Federal Systems Integrators, defense technology companies, and mid-sized commercial companies pursuing federal opportunities.
• Work closely with customers to understand their platforms, mission requirements, existing software architecture, data flows, deployment models, and operational constraints.
• Identify where cloud-native technologies can improve the development, deployment, management, and sustainment of software running across drones, satellites, weapons systems, edge devices, and supporting infrastructure.
• Design and communicate architectures for deploying and operating cloud-native applications in distributed, edge, disconnected, and resource-constrained environments.
• Help customers understand how data transport, synchronization, messaging, and software distribution technologies can support information movement between tactical edge systems, platforms, and enterprise environments.
• Map Defense Unicorns capabilities and broader cloud-native technologies to customer use cases and system architectures.
• Partner with engineering, product, sales, and business development teams to translate customer requirements into technical solutions and product opportunities.
• Develop reference architectures, technical diagrams, integration approaches, demonstrations, and proofs of concept that illustrate how modern software can be incorporated into existing and next-generation platforms.
• Support Federal Systems Integrators and technology partners in incorporating Defense Unicorns solutions into larger federal programs and platform architectures.
• Help commercial technology companies understand the technical, architectural, and operational considerations associated with deploying their products into federal and defense environments.
• Serve as a trusted technical advisor to customers throughout the evaluation, integration, and adoption process.
• Capture recurring customer requirements and market signals to help inform Defense Unicorns product and technical strategy.
• A successful Solutions Architect in this role will be able to walk into a conversation with a drone manufacturer, satellite company, weapons-system developer, systems integrator, or commercial software company and quickly understand how their system operates, where software and data move through the architecture, and where modern cloud-native approaches can create meaningful operational value.
• They will help customers move from broad questions such as “How do we bring cloud-native software onto this platform?” to a concrete architecture for how applications are packaged, transported, deployed, updated, secured, and operated across the system.
• Experience designing or supporting distributed, cloud-native, edge, or mission-critical software systems.
• An understanding of Kubernetes, containers, software supply chains, application deployment, and modern DevSecOps practices.
• Familiarity with data transport, messaging, networking, synchronization, and distributed-system architectures.
• Ability to reason about systems operating in disconnected, intermittent, limited-bandwidth, or resource-constrained environments.
• Experience working with defense, aerospace, autonomous systems, robotics, satellites, weapons systems, or other complex cyber-physical platforms is highly desirable.
• Experience working with Federal Systems Integrators, Department of Defense organizations, or companies selling technology into the federal government is preferred.
• Strong technical communication skills with the ability to explain complex architecture concepts to engineers, program leaders, executives, and government stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical discovery, whiteboarding sessions, architecture reviews, and customer workshops.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguous environments where the problem is not fully defined and the architecture must be developed collaboratively with the customer.
• This role may be a strong fit for someone who has previously worked as a Solutions Architect, Systems Architect, Platform Engineer, Cloud Architect, Field Engineer, Sales Engineer, or Technical Product Leader supporting defense, aerospace, autonomous systems, or highly distributed computing environments.
• Role primarily based out of Los Angeles and San Francisco Areas.

What Success Looks Like

Desired Experience

Ideal Background

Qualifications

• Familiarity with data transport, messaging, networking, synchronization, and distributed-system architectures.