DevSecOps Architect

By joining the National Student Clearinghouse, you can be sure that the work you do now will help shape the future of education and the workforce in the U.S. As the trusted source for higher education data since 1993, the Clearinghouse is the leading provider of transcript and data exchange services, automated enrollment and degree verifications, learner insights and research, and compliance solutions for schools, businesses, and learners nationwide. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the Clearinghouse works with nearly 3,600 postsecondary institutions to meet their compliance needs and with thousands of high schools and districts to provide continuing collegiate enrollment, progression, and completion statistics about their alumni. In addition, the Research Center publications inform policymakers and business leaders about student educational pathways. Using our unique combination of data, analytics, and software to drive our mission, security and privacy is paramount. Join us as we continue to invest in our talent and new advanced technologies to unlock the power of data on behalf of all learners. ## About the Role: The Architect, DevSecOps serves as a senior individual contributor responsible for defining and advancing enterprise DevSecOps architecture, standards, governance, and technology roadmaps that enable secure, scalable, and resilient software delivery. This role partners across engineering, security, operations, product, data, and business teams to modernize development platforms, improve operational reliability, strengthen software supply chain security, and accelerate delivery through automation and platform engineering practices. The Architect provides technical leadership for complex enterprise initiatives spanning cloud-native technologies, CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, observability, resiliency, and secure software development. Currently, this is a remote-first position, and this position may be required to periodically work on-site at our office and the frequency would depend on the department/division's requirements. Therefore, candidates must either reside within a reasonable distance to commute to our office or be willing to travel to our office in Herndon, when required. ## How You Contribute: - Demonstrate the Clearinghouse's core competencies: Customer Focus, Optimizes Work Processes, Collaborates, Communicates Effectively, and Be Open and Authentic. - Define and evolve the enterprise DevSecOps architecture vision, reference architectures,standards, governance frameworks, and strategic technology roadmaps that enable secure,scalable, and resilient software delivery. Evaluate and responsibly integrate AI-assisted engineering capabilities into softwaredevelopment, testing, security, platform operations, incident response, and developer workflows to improve productivity, quality, and operational effectiveness. - Provide architectural leadership and technical direction for enterprise software delivery platforms,CI/CD ecosystems, platform engineering capabilities, and cloud-native environments to support business and technology objectives. - Architect and champion secure software development practices, software supply chain security controls, and DevSecOps governance processes that reduce risk and strengthen organizational security posture. - Establish enterprise architectural patterns and best practices for Infrastructure as Code (IaC), automation, GitOps, policy as code, and cloud infrastructure management. - Partner with engineering, cybersecurity, cloud, infrastructure, data, product, and businessstakeholders to align technology investments and solution architectures with organizational objectives and priorities. - Evaluate emerging technologies, industry trends, and engineering methodologies, developing recommendations and roadmaps that improve operational efficiency, resiliency, security,developer productivity, and cost ef ectiveness. - Lead the architectural strategy for observability, monitoring, incident response, operational readiness, service reliability, disaster recovery, and business continuity initiatives. - Develop and maintain architecture standards that promote scalability, performance, availability,recoverability, operational excellence, and long-term platform sustainability. - Serve as a trusted technical advisor to leadership, project teams, and engineering organizations, providing guidance on architecture decisions, technical risks, trade-offs, and implementation strategies. - Lead architecture reviews, technical assessments, and design governance activities to ensuresolutions align with enterprise standards, security requirements, and strategic objectives. - Drive platform modernization and continuous improvement initiatives through automation,engineering innovation, data-driven decision making, and adoption of leading practices. - Mentor and influence engineers, architects, and technical teams by fostering engineering excellence, knowledge sharing, technical standards, and collaborative problem-solving. - Develop architectural approaches that balance business needs, technical requirements, operational supportability, security considerations, and long-term investment value. - Provide architectural guidance and senior technical leadership during critical production incidents, disaster recovery events, complex implementations, and major service disruptions when needed. Position may be required to perform other duties as required. These essential functions are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the job. Reasonable accommodations will be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions. ## What You Bring to the Table: Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Cybersecurity, or related field. A combination of education and experience including military service will also be considered. 10 years of direct and relevant experience in software engineering, DevSecOps, cloud engineering, infrastructure automation, site reliability engineering, platform engineering, cybersecurity, or related technical disciplines. Experience developing enterprise architectures, engineering standards, technology roadmaps, and governance frameworks. Experience designing secure software delivery platforms and cloud-native technology solutions. Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: Enterprise DevSecOps strategy, governance, architecture, and transformation principles. CI/CD platforms including GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, or similar technologies. Platform engineering and cloud-native architecture including Kubernetes, container technologies, ECS, EKS, or OpenShift. Infrastructure as Code tools including Terraform, CloudFormation, and Ansible. Automation and scripting using Python, Bash, PowerShell, and GitOps methodologies. Secure SDLC practices including SAST, DAST, software composition analysis, container security, secrets management, SBOMs, artifact signing, and software provenance. AWS expertise and working knowledge of Azure, OCI, or other cloud platforms. Observability, monitoring, logging, incident response, and operational reliability practices. High availability, disaster recovery, business continuity, and production readiness principles. Strong consulting, communication, presentation, collaboration, and influencing skills.