Senior Modernization Lead / Hands-On Solution Architect – Federal HHS Modernization

Senior Modernization Lead / Hands-On Solution Architect – Federal HHS Modernization

Location: Washington, DC / Hybrid; onsite participation as required by the customer
Engagement: Contract, approximately 25 weeks
Anticipated Period: September 30, 2026 – March 23, 2027
Estimated Commitment: Approximately 20–30 hours/week; workload may vary by project phase
Compensation: $90–$105/hour, depending on experience and engagement structure
Status: Contingent upon contract award
Clearance: No active clearance is currently specified; candidate must be able to satisfy applicable federal/HHS onboarding, identity, security, privacy, and system-access requirements.

Position Overview

We are seeking a senior, hands-on Modernization Lead / Solution Architect to lead a rapid federal modernization discovery, prototyping, and implementation-planning engagement supporting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

This is not a traditional project-management position. The successful candidate will operate as a player-coach, combining executive stakeholder engagement, business-process analysis, enterprise/solution architecture, AI and automation strategy, and hands-on technical leadership. The individual will lead the team from current-state discovery through opportunity prioritization, prototype validation, implementation planning, and executive recommendations.

Responsibilities

• Lead discovery interviews, stakeholder workshops, technical working sessions, and current-state assessments across selected federal programs, workflows, systems, and technical operations.
• Analyze manual and fragmented business processes, technical constraints, data dependencies, integration issues, operational risks, and modernization opportunities.
• Develop and apply a practical prioritization framework based on expected impact, feasibility, complexity, dependencies, risk, and time-to-value.
• Develop modernization recommendations spanning business-process redesign, workflow automation, artificial intelligence, data modernization, systems integration, application modernization, and cloud/modern architecture.
• Translate business problems into feasible technical solutions and prototype concepts.
• Provide hands-on architectural and technical leadership for rapid prototypes and proofs of concept.
• Work closely with engineers to design, build, test, demonstrate, and validate selected prototypes with Government stakeholders.
• Evaluate AI and automation use cases with appropriate attention to federal data security, privacy, responsible AI, and information-handling requirements.
• Develop implementation plans covering sequencing, dependencies, resources, integration, data migration, operational readiness, risks, and sustainment.
• Produce clear architecture artifacts, technical recommendations, implementation roadmaps, decision materials, and executive-level presentations.
• Facilitate knowledge transfer so Government personnel can understand, evaluate, reproduce, maintain, or further develop delivered solutions.
• Ensure technical recommendations and prototypes consider Section 508 accessibility, security, privacy, records management, and Government data/software-rights requirements.
• Support development and delivery of the final modernization roadmap and executive readout.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience supporting digital transformation, systems modernization, enterprise architecture, technology consulting, or comparable modernization initiatives.
• Demonstrated experience leading business and technical discovery with senior customer stakeholders.
• Strong experience translating operational/business problems into technical architectures and executable modernization approaches.
• Hands-on understanding of modern application architecture, APIs/integration, cloud platforms, automation, data platforms, and software-development practices.
• Practical experience evaluating or implementing AI/GenAI, intelligent automation, workflow automation, or data-driven solutions.
• Experience taking concepts from discovery → recommendation → prototype/POC → validation → implementation planning.
• Ability to evaluate technical alternatives, identify dependencies and risks, and communicate architectural tradeoffs to both executive and engineering audiences.
• Strong facilitation, analytical, technical-writing, and executive-presentation skills.
• Ability to work effectively in an ambiguous environment where priorities and workstreams may evolve based on discovery findings.
• Availability to begin the engagement immediately following contract award.

Highly Preferred

• Prior experience supporting HHS or another federal civilian agency.
• Experience in federal or other highly regulated environments.
• Experience with modernization involving business-process reengineering, AI/ML, automation, data modernization, cloud, APIs, low-code/workflow platforms, or legacy-system transformation.
• Experience personally designing or contributing to working prototypes rather than only managing development teams.
• Knowledge of federal cybersecurity, privacy, identity/access, records-management, and Section 508 accessibility considerations.
• Experience preparing implementation roadmaps, business cases, architecture decision records, technical recommendations, and executive briefings.

Pay: $80.00 - $95.00 per hour

Expected hours: 30.0 – 40.0 per week

Work Location: In person