Modernization SME

Overview

Looking to make a difference and help modernize critical government missions? Join Acuity's team of experts supporting the U.S. Department of State. As the Modernization SME, you will serve as the senior technical advisor responsible for advancing enterprise infrastructure and technology modernization across data centers, virtualization, cloud, cybersecurity, automation, observability, data protection, and application dependencies. Working closely with government leadership, architects, engineers, and program management, you will assess legacy environments, develop modernization roadmaps, reduce technical debt and lifecycle risk, and guide implementation of secure, resilient, supportable, and sustainable enterprise solutions that improve mission delivery and operational efficiency.

Why Acuity?

Responsibilities

• Serve as the senior technical advisor for enterprise infrastructure and technology modernization initiatives spanning data center transformation, compute, virtualization, storage, data protection, hybrid cloud, cybersecurity, automation, observability, application dependencies, and enterprise operations.
• Develop and recommend modernization strategies that improve security, scalability, resiliency, operational efficiency, and long-term sustainability of enterprise systems.
• Assess legacy enterprise infrastructure and identify modernization opportunities through technology refresh, virtualization modernization, platform consolidation, cloud adoption, storage and data protection modernization, automation, and selective application or cloud-native transformation.
• Collaborate with government stakeholders, architects, and engineering teams to translate mission objectives into practical modernization roadmaps and implementation strategies.
• Provide technical leadership for large-scale modernization efforts involving data center transformation, virtualization modernization, cloud adoption, platform consolidation, technology refresh, storage modernization, data protection, automation, Zero Trust implementation, application dependencies, and operational transformation.
• Evaluate modernization alternatives for mission benefit, interoperability, cybersecurity, resiliency, technical risk, lifecycle cost, operational impact, scalability, maintainability, supportability, and long-term sustainability.
• Advise technical teams on Infrastructure as Code (IaC), configuration management, automation, DevSecOps, secure-by-design principles, continuous monitoring, and standardized operational practices for infrastructure engineering and operations.
• Collaborate with cybersecurity teams to ensure modernization efforts comply with NIST RMF, NIST SP 800-53, FedRAMP, FISMA, Zero Trust Architecture, and Department of State security requirements.
• Evaluate workload placement and migration options across on-premises, virtualized, hybrid-cloud, and public-cloud environments, applying working knowledge of application architecture, APIs, containers, Kubernetes, and cloud-native technologies to assess dependencies and advise on hosting and migration decisions.
• Evaluate emerging technologies, infrastructure lifecycle requirements, end-of-life/end-of-support risks, enterprise observability, capacity and performance needs, AI-enabled automation, and modernization capabilities to reduce technical debt and operational risk.
• Support Authority to Operate (ATO) activities by providing technical expertise for architecture reviews, security documentation, system assessments, and compliance evidence.
• Develop infrastructure modernization roadmaps, technical recommendations, implementation and migration plans, architecture documentation, executive briefings, and technology assessments that account for production availability, operational continuity, cybersecurity compliance, recovery capability, and supportability.
• Mentor architects, engineers, and technical teams while promoting engineering excellence, collaboration, automation, and continuous improvement.
• Provide technical leadership during modernization planning sessions, architecture reviews, technical working groups, and executive briefings.
• Perform additional duties as assigned in support of customer mission objectives.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Cybersecurity, or related field (or equivalent experience).
• Minimum of twelve (12) years of experience supporting enterprise infrastructure modernization, systems engineering, cloud engineering, data center transformation, virtualization, enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, or related technology modernization initiatives.
• Minimum of seven (7) years leading or advising large-scale infrastructure modernization initiatives involving data center transformation, virtualization modernization, cloud adoption, platform consolidation, technology refresh, automation, storage modernization, data protection, or operational transformation.
• Demonstrated experience assessing legacy enterprise infrastructure and developing modernization roadmaps addressing technical debt, end-of-life/end-of-support technology, capacity, cybersecurity, resiliency, operational risk, and lifecycle sustainability.
• Broad technical knowledge of enterprise compute, Windows and Linux platforms, virtualization, VMware, enterprise storage, networking dependencies, data protection, disaster recovery, monitoring and observability, hybrid cloud, and infrastructure automation.
• Experience evaluating workload placement and migration options across on-premises, virtualized, hybrid-cloud, and public-cloud environments.
• Experience applying Infrastructure as Code, configuration management, automation, and DevSecOps principles to infrastructure engineering and operations.
• Experience planning modernization while maintaining production availability, operational continuity, cybersecurity compliance, recovery capability, and supportability.
• Experience evaluating infrastructure modernization alternatives based on mission benefit, cybersecurity, technical risk, lifecycle cost, operational impact, scalability, maintainability, and long-term sustainability.
• Working knowledge of application architecture, APIs, containers, Kubernetes, and cloud-native technologies sufficient to assess application dependencies and advise on infrastructure hosting and migration decisions.
• Strong understanding of NIST RMF, NIST SP 800-53, FISMA, FedRAMP, Zero Trust Architecture, and security requirements affecting Federal infrastructure modernization.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to advise executive leadership, government stakeholders, architects, engineers, and operations teams on complex modernization decisions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Cybersecurity, Engineering, or related field.
• Technical certifications such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional, Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Google Professional Cloud Architect, CISSP, CCSP, TOGAF, SAFe Agilist, or Security+.
• Experience supporting the U.S. Department of State or other federal civilian agencies.
• Experience leading data center transformation, infrastructure lifecycle modernization, enterprise virtualization, storage/data protection modernization, hybrid-cloud adoption, or large-scale operational transformation.
• Experience implementing Zero Trust Architecture, Secure-by-Design principles, AI-enabled automation, enterprise observability, or cloud-native modernization.
• Experience with VMware, Kubernetes, OpenShift, Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk, ServiceNow, Terraform Enterprise, or comparable enterprise platforms.
• Experience supporting modernization initiatives within classified or high-security federal environments.

Clearance Requirement

• Active Secret or Top Secret security clearance required.

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