Chief Engineer / Architect

Type of Requisition:

Regular

Clearance Level Must Currently Possess:

None

Clearance Level Must Be Able to Obtain:

None

Public Trust/Other Required:

BI Full 6C (T4)

Job Family:

Software Engineering

Job Qualifications:

Skills:

Application Development, Legacy Systems, Technical Architecture, Technical Leadership, Technical Strategy

Certifications:

None

Experience:

15 + years of related experience

US Citizenship Required:

Yes

Job Description:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), protects the American people, safeguards U.S. borders, and enhances the nation's economic prosperity through innovation, intelligence, and collaboration. Within CBP's Office of Information and Technology (OIT), the Border Enforcement Management Systems Directorate (BEMSD) manages a large, diverse portfolio of mission applications—sustaining legacy systems at high availability while modernizing and developing new solutions. The Systems & Applications Integration & Lifecycle Support (SAILS) program will provide BEMSD with full-lifecycle IT services—from new application development and 24x7x365 operations to legacy modernization—delivered through Agile and DevSecOps practices.

GDIT is seeking a Chief Engineer/Architect to support the SAILS program. In this role, you will serve as the senior technical authority for the program, leading the program's technical architecture, modernization roadmap, and technical approach for DevSecOps within CBP's established CI/CD environment. You will partner with program leadership and BEMSD stakeholders to translate mission needs into secure, scalable, integrated solutions while shaping the program's long-term technical strategy.

How You'll Make an Impact

• Lead enterprise architecture and modernization across BEMSD's application portfolio, enabling secure, scalable mission capabilities.
• Guide technical design decisions and ensure architecture standards remain aligned with CBP and DHS requirements.
• Oversee development and maintenance of architecture artifacts, including system interfaces, integration patterns, reference architectures, and technology roadmaps.
• Champion innovation across application development, modernization, and operations to improve mission agility and performance.
• Provide technical leadership to engineering teams across application, cloud, data, and integration domains.
• Partner with BEMSD stakeholders and development teams to translate mission needs into secure, compliant solutions.
• Evaluate and integrate AI, automation, and emerging technologies—including sensor, edge, and field data integration—to enhance mission capabilities.
• Brief BEMSD and GDIT leadership on architectural strategy, risks, tradeoffs, and recommendations.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a technical discipline.
• 15+ years leading enterprise architecture for large-scale federal IT programs.
• Experience leading modernization across complex application portfolios.
• Expertise in legacy modernization, cloud and hybrid architectures.
• Experience with Agile, DevSecOps, CI/CD, and modern software delivery practices.
• Strong executive communication, stakeholder engagement, and leadership skills.
• U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain a CBP Background Investigation.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in a technical or management discipline.
• Prior DHS, preferably CBP OIT, program experience.
• Experience with Salesforce, ServiceNow, or enterprise BI platforms.
• Experience delivering AI/ML and automation capabilities in federal environments.
• Experience integrating operational data from sensor, edge, or field systems.
• Relevant cloud architecture certifications (e.g., AWS or Azure).

OWN YOUR OPPORTUNITY
Explore a career in cyber security at GDIT and you’ll find endless opportunities to grow alongside colleagues who share your passion for securing the mission.

The likely salary range for this position is $170,000 - $230,000. This is not, however, a guarantee of compensation or salary. Rather, salary will be set based on experience, geographic location and possibly contractual requirements and could fall outside of this range.

Scheduled Weekly Hours:

40

Travel Required:

Less than 10%

Telecommuting Options:

Remote

Work Location:

Any Location / Remote

Additional Work Locations:

Total Rewards at GDIT:

Our benefits package for all US-based employees includes a variety of medical plan options, some with Health Savings Accounts, dental plan options, a vision plan, and a 401(k) plan offering the ability to contribute both pre and post-tax dollars up to the IRS annual limits and receive a company match. To encourage work/life balance, GDIT offers employees full flex work weeks where possible and a variety of paid time off plans, including vacation, sick and personal time, holidays, paid parental, military, bereavement and jury duty leave. GDIT typically provides new employees with 15 days of paid leave per calendar year to be used for vacations, personal business, and illness and an additional 10 paid holidays per year. Paid leave and paid holidays are prorated based on the employee’s date of hire. The GDIT Paid Family Leave program provides a total of up to 160 hours of paid leave in a rolling 12 month period for eligible employees. To ensure our employees are able to protect their income, other offerings such as short and long-term disability benefits, life, accidental death and dismemberment, personal accident, critical illness and business travel and accident insurance are provided or available. We regularly review our Total Rewards package to ensure our offerings are competitive and reflect what our employees have told us they value most.

Our Identity Verification Process:

As part of the hiring process, we will ask you to complete an identity verification process that leverages advanced biometrics and artificial intelligence to ensure authenticity and protect against identity fraud. You are expected to be on camera during virtual interviews. We reserve the right to take your picture to verify your identity and prevent fraud. By proceeding, you authorize the collection, processing, and use of your biometric data for identity verification and security purposes.

About Our Work:

We are GDIT. A global technology and professional services company that delivers technology solutions and mission services to every major agency across the U.S. government, defense and intelligence community. Our 26,000 experts extract the power of technology to create immediate value and deliver solutions at the edge of innovation. We operate across 50+ countries worldwide, offering leading mission-ready capabilities in AI, cloud, cyber and software development.

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Equal Opportunity Employer / Individuals with Disabilities / Protected Veterans