SeniorArchitect / Head of Technology

About the Role

BizFirst is assisting our client with the search for ahands-on Senior Architect / Head of Technology who will take independentownership of the technical organization, including architecture, engineeringdelivery, development and QA leadership, internal IT, infrastructure, securityoperations, and technical customer engagement.

The CEO currently carries day-to-day technical leadership inaddition to leading the business. This is a build-the-function role for apractical, direct player-coach who can strengthen process, accountability, anddocumentation while remaining close to the code, the product, and dailytechnical decisions.

Our client develops data intelligence andperformance-monitoring software used across complex IT and industrialenvironments. Its platform helps commercial, enterprise, and governmentcustomers analyze large volumes of data, identify root causes, and anticipateperformance issues.

What You'll Do

· Own architecture and technical direction,including the technical roadmap, platform decisions, build-versus-buyrecommendations, and incremental modernization of the product.

· Own engineering delivery within a structuredAgile SDLC, including sprint and release execution, quality gates, testing,documentation, and close coordination with project management and QA.

· Directly manage the development and QA team,including hiring, coaching, performance management, work allocation,accountability, and knowledge sharing.

· Remain hands-on by reviewing code and designs,resolving technical blockers, and troubleshooting production issues across amature codebase that includes long-lived C/C++ components and a SQL-backed dataplatform.

· Own internal IT and infrastructure, includingidentity, networks, backups, operating environments, and the operational sideof security and compliance.

· Serve as the technical voice in customerescalations, partner integrations, and prospect conversations, and communicatefacts, risks, and tradeoffs directly to the CEO.

· Improve transaction readiness through cleartechnical documentation, IP hygiene, key-person risk reduction, and support fortechnical due diligence.

Required Qualifications

Candidates should be preparedto discuss specific examples demonstrating the following:

· A practical, direct, solutions-oriented,hands-on, and process-minded approach. You are comfortable rolling up yoursleeves, organizing the work, solving difficult problems, and wearing multiplehats in a lean organization.

· 10+ years of overall experience in softwareengineering, architecture, or technical leadership, including designing,building, and supporting complex enterprise software systems.

· Experience personally leading and directlymanaging a small development and QA organization, typically 5 to 15 people,with responsibility for hiring, coaching, performance, and delivery.

· Recent hands-on technical leadership, includingarchitecture and design, code review, production troubleshooting, and releasedecisions.

· Experience owning and incrementally modernizinga mature production codebase, with enough technical depth to guide long-livedC/C++ components and a SQL-backed data platform.

· Experience operating within a structured Agilesoftware development lifecycle (SDLC), including requirements, design,development, code review, testing, quality gates, release, documentation, andproduction support.

· Strong working knowledge of time-series data,including how it is stored, queried, analyzed, and visualized, with experienceusing Grafana or a comparable dashboarding and reporting tool.

· Breadth across product engineering, internal IT,infrastructure, and security, with the ability to operate effectively without alarge budget, management layer, or dedicated support teams.

· Strong customer-facing and executivecommunication skills, including the judgment to present technical facts, risks,priorities, and tradeoffs clearly.

· U.S. citizenship, ability to work withoutcurrent or future visa sponsorship, and ability to work on-site in Fairfax,Virginia.

Preferred Qualifications

The following experiencewould help a candidate contribute quickly:

· Experience in a private-equity-backed company orthrough an acquisition, technical due diligence, or post-acquisitionintegration.

· Exposure to security compliance frameworks suchas ISO 27001, SOC 2, or similar.

· Enterprise software experience with regulatedbuyers in financial services, government, telecommunications, payments, or acomparable sector.

· Hands-on C or C++ development and strong SQLexperience with PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, or a comparable relational database.

· Experience with enterprise Java technologiessuch as Java EE/J2EE, JBoss or WildFly, JSF or PrimeFaces, and Hibernate orJPA.

· Experience with Linux and Windows environments,Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, application security, vulnerability remediation, orperformance tuning.

· A bachelor's degree in computer science,software engineering, information technology, or a related discipline, orequivalent education and experience.

Additional Experience That Would Be Helpful

These areas can be learned inthe role and are not required at hire:

· InfluxDB or another time-series database.

· Dart, Flutter, or mobile applicationdevelopment.

· EJB, JMX, RMI, or Windows and Linux scriptingand automation.

· Kafka, OpenTelemetry, or comparableevent-streaming and observability technologies.

What We're Looking For

The strongest candidate is a candid, low-ego player-coachwho can understand a complex software environment, make sound decisions, buildreliable processes, develop the team, and personally engage when the work getsdifficult.

This person seeks to understand the existing product beforechanging it, favors disciplined incremental modernization over a rewrite-firstapproach, and is comfortable operating without a large-company supportstructure.

Why This Role

This role offers full ownership of the technicalorganization at an established enterprise software company with long-standingcommercial and government customers. The person in this seat sets direction,reports directly to the CEO, and has visibility to the board.

Within six months, this leader is expected to ownarchitecture, delivery, and infrastructure, with key-person risks documentedand actively declining. By 12 months, the technical organization should operatecredibly and independently without the CEO in the daily technical path.

Benefits

· Medical, dental, vision, life, and disabilityinsurance.

· 401(k) plan with company match and healthsavings account.

· Paid time off and parental leave.

· Professional development support, flexibleschedule, and free on-site parking.

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