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We are seeking a highly experienced, forward-thinking Senior Systems / Solutions Architect to provide architectural leadership, technical direction, and innovation for the Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug System (MARx), a mission-critical system supporting the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
MARx supports complex, high-volume Medicare Advantage and Part D enrollment processing, premium calculations, plan payment operations, and information exchanges with numerous internal CMS systems and external partner organizations, including Medicare Advantage Organizations and Prescription Drug Plans.
The successful candidate will be responsible for defining and evolving the system architecture to ensure scalability, reliability, performance, security, maintainability, and operational efficiency, while supporting changing Medicare business requirements, federal regulations, and legislative mandates.
The architect will work closely with CMS business owners, the CMS Office of Information Technology (OIT), program management, and cross-functional technical teams spanning business analysis, software design, development, testing, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and production operations.
This position requires a unique combination of strong technical architecture expertise, deep understanding of complex business processing systems, strategic thinking, and hands-on technical leadership.
Beyond traditional architecture responsibilities, the individual will serve as a trusted technical advisor, thought leader, and mentor—driving innovation, promoting engineering excellence, identifying optimization opportunities, and helping shape the long-term evolution of MARx.
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Key Responsibilities
1. Enterprise Systems Architecture and Technical Leadership
• Own and evolve the overall solution architecture for MARx, ensuring alignment with CMS business objectives, technology standards, and long-term modernization strategies.
• Define architectural principles, technical standards, design patterns, and implementation guidelines for system development and enhancement.
• Lead architectural design for complex, high-volume transaction processing and data-intensive business applications.
• Ensure the architecture supports scalability, high availability, fault tolerance, performance, security, and maintainability.
• Evaluate architectural alternatives and recommend solutions based on technical feasibility, business value, operational impact, and total cost of ownership.
• Provide technical leadership for modernization initiatives, architectural improvements, and integration of emerging technologies.
• Maintain architectural documentation, including system context diagrams, component architectures, data flows, integration patterns, and technical decision records.
• Conduct design reviews and provide architectural oversight throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Identify and proactively address architectural risks, technical debt, and system bottlenecks.
2. Medicare Business Domain and Complex Transaction Processing
• Develop and maintain a comprehensive understanding of MARx business operations, including:
o Medicare Advantage and Part D enrollment and disenrollment processing.
o Premium calculation and withholding.
o Medicare Advantage and Part D plan payment processing.
o Retroactive adjustments, reconciliations, and payment corrections.
o Data exchanges with Medicare Advantage Organizations, Prescription Drug Plans, and other CMS systems.
• Architect solutions supporting high-volume, complex business transactions with stringent requirements for accuracy, timeliness, traceability, and reliability.
• Ensure appropriate controls for financial processing, including transaction integrity, reconciliation, auditability, and prevention of duplicate or erroneous payments.
• Design solutions capable of accommodating evolving Medicare policies, regulatory requirements, and legislative mandates.
• Collaborate with business stakeholders to translate complex Medicare requirements into scalable, maintainable technical solutions.
• Promote flexible and configurable architectures that minimize the effort required to implement future policy and business rule changes.
3. AWS Cloud Architecture and Infrastructure Optimization
• Provide architectural leadership for MARx applications and services deployed on the AWS platform.
• Design and optimize cloud-native solutions leveraging appropriate AWS services for computing, storage, databases, networking, integration, monitoring, and security.
• Establish architecture patterns for high availability, resilience, fault tolerance, disaster recovery, and business continuity.
• Optimize cloud infrastructure for performance, scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency.
• Collaborate with infrastructure and DevSecOps teams to implement Infrastructure as Code, automated deployments, and environment standardization.
• Establish effective observability capabilities, including centralized logging, monitoring, distributed tracing, and proactive alerting.
• Evaluate and recommend AWS services and architectural improvements based on evolving business and technical requirements.
• Ensure alignment with CMS security policies, federal cloud requirements, and applicable compliance standards.
4. PostgreSQL Database and Data Architecture
• Provide architectural oversight for PostgreSQL-based data management and transaction processing.
• Design and optimize database schemas, data models, indexing strategies, queries, and transaction management approaches.
• Address database performance, scalability, concurrency, and data integrity requirements associated with high-volume transaction processing.
• Develop strategies for efficient batch processing, bulk data operations, and large-scale data movement.
• Ensure appropriate database availability, backup, recovery, and disaster recovery capabilities.
• Establish data retention, archival, partitioning, and lifecycle management strategies.
• Collaborate with database engineers and development teams to identify and resolve performance bottlenecks.
• Promote consistent data architecture practices, data quality, traceability, and auditability.
5. Golang Application Architecture and Engineering Excellence
• Provide architectural direction for applications and services developed using Golang (Go).
• Define and promote appropriate application structures, design patterns, coding standards, and reusable frameworks.
• Guide the design of high-performance, concurrent, and scalable Go-based services.
• Establish best practices for API development, database connectivity, transaction management, error handling, and service integration.
• Promote effective use of Go's concurrency capabilities while ensuring reliability, resource efficiency, and maintainability.
• Collaborate with development teams to review critical implementations and resolve complex technical challenges.
• Encourage automated testing, code quality, secure coding, and performance optimization.
• Evaluate emerging Go libraries, frameworks, and development practices for potential adoption.
6. Systems Integration and Interface Architecture
• Define and oversee integration architecture supporting numerous internal CMS systems and external partner organizations.
• Design secure, reliable, and scalable interfaces supporting high-volume data exchanges and business transactions.
• Establish standards for RESTful APIs, asynchronous messaging, batch interfaces, and file-based integrations.
• Address complex integration requirements involving:
o Medicare Advantage Organizations and Prescription Drug Plans.
o CMS internal business systems.
o Federal agencies and other authorized external partners.
o Financial and payment-related processing systems.
• Ensure interfaces incorporate appropriate validation, error handling, retry mechanisms, reconciliation, and operational monitoring.
• Establish strategies for API versioning, backward compatibility, interface modernization, and partner onboarding.
• Promote reusable integration capabilities and standardized data exchange patterns.
• Design for end-to-end transaction traceability across multiple applications and organizational boundaries.
7. Performance, Scalability, and Operational Reliability
• Establish architectural approaches for processing large transaction volumes within required business processing windows.
• Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks across applications, databases, interfaces, and infrastructure.
• Define performance engineering strategies, capacity planning approaches, and scalability requirements.
• Guide architecture for complex batch processing, transaction orchestration, scheduling, and exception management.
• Ensure systems support appropriate recovery, restartability, idempotency, and transaction consistency.
• Collaborate with testing and operations teams to establish performance benchmarks, load testing strategies, and reliability objectives.
• Support root-cause analysis of critical production incidents and recommend long-term architectural improvements.
• Promote proactive monitoring, operational automation, and continuous reliability improvements.
8. Cross-Functional Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement
• Work closely with CMS business owners and OIT stakeholders to understand strategic objectives, operational challenges, and evolving business requirements.
• Serve as a principal technical advisor to program leadership and CMS stakeholders.
• Collaborate across all technical and functional disciplines, including:
o Business analysis and requirements engineering.
o Application architecture and software development.
o Database engineering and data management.
o System integration and interface development.
o Functional, integration, performance, and automated testing.
o Cloud infrastructure and DevSecOps.
o Cybersecurity and compliance.
o Production operations and maintenance.
• Facilitate architectural discussions, technical workshops, and design reviews.
• Communicate complex technical concepts and architectural trade-offs clearly to both technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Promote collaboration, transparency, and shared ownership of technical outcomes.
9. Program Planning and Execution Support
• Work closely with Program Management to support planning, prioritization, execution, and delivery of MARx initiatives.
• Provide architectural input to program roadmaps, release planning, technical estimates, and resource planning.
• Identify technical dependencies, implementation risks, and architectural constraints that could affect program schedules and deliverables.
• Evaluate the technical feasibility and implementation complexity of proposed business enhancements.
• Support prioritization of modernization initiatives, technical debt remediation, and infrastructure improvements.
• Guide technical teams during implementation to ensure alignment with approved architectural designs.
• Monitor architectural risks and proactively recommend mitigation strategies.
• Support technical reviews, milestone assessments, and customer presentations.
• Balance long-term architectural objectives with near-term delivery commitments and operational priorities.
10. Innovation, Modernization, and Continuous Optimization
• Provide thought leadership in identifying opportunities to modernize and optimize MARx architecture and operations.
• Evaluate emerging technologies, architectural patterns, and engineering practices for potential adoption.
• Identify opportunities to simplify complex business processing and reduce operational overhead.
• Promote automation across software development, testing, deployment, monitoring, and production operations.
• Explore the responsible use of Generative AI, Agentic AI, and AI-assisted engineering tools to improve productivity, software quality, operational efficiency, and business processing.
• Recommend strategies to reduce infrastructure costs, technical debt, maintenance complexity, and system enhancement effort.
• Promote architectural flexibility to support evolving CMS policies, regulations, and legislative mandates.
• Develop technical proof-of-concepts and evaluate innovative solutions to complex business and technology challenges.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement and technology innovation.
11. Technical Mentorship and Knowledge Sharing
• Mentor software architects, technical leads, developers, database engineers, and other technical staff.
• Provide technical guidance and coaching on architecture principles, design patterns, software engineering, and problem-solving.
• Conduct architecture reviews, technical knowledge-sharing sessions, and engineering workshops.
• Promote consistent adoption of architectural standards and engineering best practices.
• Encourage technical collaboration and knowledge transfer across project teams.
• Help develop technical leadership capabilities within the organization.
• Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, quality, and engineering excellence
Minimum of 12 years with BS/BA; Minimum of 10 years with MS/MA; Minimum of 7 years with Ph.D.
• At least 5 years of experience in a senior technical leadership, systems architecture, or solutions architecture role.
• Demonstrated experience architecting large-scale, mission-critical, data-intensive enterprise systems.
• Strong experience with high-volume transaction processing, complex business rules, and large-scale data integration.
• Experience supporting federal government systems, preferably within CMS or other federal healthcare programs.
• Proven ability to lead architectural decisions and guide multidisciplinary technical teams.
• Experience working directly with business stakeholders, program management, and senior technology leadership.
Technical Expertise
AWS Cloud Platform
• Strong experience designing and implementing applications on AWS.
• Knowledge of AWS compute, database, storage, networking, integration, security, and monitoring services.
• Experience with cloud-native architecture, high availability, disaster recovery, and infrastructure optimization.
PostgreSQL
• Strong understanding of PostgreSQL database architecture, data modeling, SQL optimization, indexing, and transaction management.
• Experience designing databases for complex, high-volume transaction processing.
• Knowledge of database performance tuning, concurrency, replication, backup, and recovery.
Golang
• Strong knowledge of Golang and its application to modern enterprise systems.
• Experience designing scalable Go-based applications, APIs, microservices, and background processing services.
• Understanding of Go concurrency, database integration, error handling, performance optimization, and testing practices.
Systems Integration
• Extensive experience designing RESTful APIs, asynchronous integrations, batch interfaces, and high-volume data exchange solutions.
• Strong understanding of integration reliability, error handling, transaction traceability, and data reconciliation.
• Experience integrating complex systems across organizational and technology boundaries.
Architecture and Engineering
• Strong knowledge of distributed systems, microservices, service-oriented architecture, and event-driven processing.
• Experience with application security, authentication, authorization, encryption, and secure integration patterns.
• Understanding of CI/CD, DevSecOps, Infrastructure as Code, containerization, and automated testing.
• Experience with performance engineering, capacity planning, observability, and production troubleshooting.
• Strong understanding of architecture documentation, design reviews, and technical governance.
Medicare Domain Knowledge
• Strong understanding of CMS, Medicare programs, and related business operations.
• Familiarity with Medicare Advantage and Part D enrollment and payment processing.
• Understanding of the complexities associated with implementing Medicare policy changes and legislative mandates.
• Experience supporting systems involving sensitive beneficiary information, complex financial transactions, and stringent regulatory requirements.
US Citizen with the ability to obtain a Public Trust
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Preferred Qualifications
• Direct experience with MARx, including its business processes, architecture, interfaces, and operational environment.
• Experience with Medicare Advantage and Part D plan enrollment, premium calculations, payment processing, and reconciliation.
• Familiarity with CMS enterprise architecture standards, technology governance, and modernization initiatives.
• Experience supporting high-value financial payment processing systems with stringent accuracy, reconciliation, and audit requirements.
• Advanced experience with AWS architecture, PostgreSQL optimization, and Golang application development.
• Experience with large-scale batch processing, distributed transaction management, and complex workflow orchestration.
• Familiarity with Medicare Advantage Organization and Prescription Drug Plan interfaces and data exchange requirements.
• Experience with AWS services such as ECS/EKS, Lambda, S3, RDS/Aurora PostgreSQL, SQS, SNS, EventBridge, CloudWatch, and Step Functions, as applicable.
• Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform, and modern DevSecOps practices.
• Familiarity with federal security and compliance requirements, including FISMA, NIST 800-53, and applicable CMS security policies.
• Experience applying AI-assisted engineering, intelligent automation, or emerging technologies to enterprise systems.
• AWS Solutions Architect certification or equivalent demonstrated expertise.
• Experience leading modernization initiatives while maintaining uninterrupted operations of mission-critical legacy systems.
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Essential Leadership and Interpersonal Skills
The ideal candidate must demonstrate:
Strategic Thinking: Ability to anticipate future business and technology needs and establish architectural direction that supports long-term program objectives.
Technical Depth: Strong engineering fundamentals and the ability to evaluate detailed technical designs, identify risks, and guide complex implementation decisions.
Business Acumen: Ability to understand Medicare business operations and translate complex requirements into practical technical solutions.
Thought Leadership: Ability to challenge conventional approaches, introduce innovative ideas, and promote continuous improvement.
Collaborative Leadership: Ability to work effectively with CMS stakeholders, program management, and cross-functional technical teams.
Execution Focus: Commitment to translating architectural strategies into successful implementations while balancing business priorities, technical quality, and delivery schedules.
Communication: Ability to present architectural recommendations, technical risks, and complex trade-offs clearly to diverse audiences.
Mentorship: Commitment to developing technical talent and fostering a collaborative engineering culture.
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Expected Outcomes
The successful candidate will be instrumental in achieving the following:
Area Expected Outcomes
System Architecture Scalable, reliable, secure, and maintainable architecture aligned with MARx business objectives
Medicare Business Processing Improved timeliness, accuracy, and reliability of enrollment and payment processing
Payment Integrity Strong transaction controls, reconciliation, traceability, and financial processing accuracy
AWS Optimization Improved cloud performance, resilience, scalability, and cost efficiency
Database Performance Optimized PostgreSQL performance and efficient handling of high-volume transactions
Software Engineering High-quality, maintainable Golang applications and services
Systems Integration Reliable and efficient internal and external interfaces
Program Delivery Improved technical planning, risk management, and execution predictability
Innovation Adoption of modern technologies, intelligent automation, and engineering best practices
Operational Efficiency Reduced technical debt, operational complexity, and maintenance costs
Team Development Stronger technical capabilities through mentoring, coaching, and knowledge sharing
EEO: Equal opportunity employer, including disability and protected veterans, or other characteristics protected by law.
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