Technical Architect - Aireon

Company Overview:

Aireon deployed the world’s first global space-based air traffic surveillance system, providing real-time aircraft monitoring capabilities around the world, including over the poles, over the oceans and in remote areas.  

Aireon data enables safer, more efficient and more environmentally friendly aviation travel, resulting in significant CO2 emission reductions. More than 20 Air Navigation Service Providers representing more than 40 countries – including NAV CANADA, NATS (UK), Air Traffic and Navigation Services (South Africa), Airports Authority of India (AAI), and ASECNA (Africa) -- rely on Aireon data to navigate aircraft in their airspaces.  

We are committed to offering an employment experience and benefits package that enables you and your family to grow with us and to share in our success. 

Position Summary, Job Requirements & Responsibilities:

As Aireon’s Technical Architect, you will lead the technical design and strategy of Aireon's cloud-based, real-time data processing platform and associated products. You will be the point of contact for technical decisions related to the overall solution and system architecture. You will act as the technical owner, ensuring all technical aspects align with the overall business objectives.

 

This hands-on technical position will require you to roll up your sleeves and manage tactical and technical strategic decisions. The ideal Technical Architect is a strategic thinker, a diligent problem-solver, and an excellent communicator who can effectively balance business needs, technical feasibility, and scalability.

 

This hybrid position requires two days on-site at Aireon’s HQ in McLean, VA.

 

What You'll Do

The ideal candidate should have:

• Up-to-date skills, with hands-on experience in software engineering and cloud architecture.
• Good communication skills with the ability to convey complex technical concepts to non-technical audiences.
• Ability to translate business requirements into system & technical requirements for implementation.
• Ability to provide visualizations to stakeholders to demonstrate architecture.
• Code working prototypes to demonstrate customer value in one or more platforms and languages.
• Knowledge of the latest software patterns, cloud architecture patterns, and Artificial Intelligence.
• Ability to design and develop highly scalable and available systems.
• Proven ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams.
• Take part in driving the platform's technology roadmap acting as a vital bridge between business needs and technological solutions.
• Ability to understand situations’ long-term (“Big picture”) and short-term perspectives and how they relate to achieving targeted business outcomes. Ability to distill information and provide clear architectural choices. Proven ability to deliver solutions in event-driven and service-oriented architectures.

Experience & Education Requirements / EEO:

Required Qualifications

• A bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, or a related field. Willing to consider incumbents with Associate degrees in computer science or related fields, with solid work experience.
• Five or more years of proven experience as a Technical Architect.
• Five or more years of proven experience in software engineering roles, including responsibilities of all software development life cycle (SDLC) aspects, such as planning, analysis, design, development, testing, security, deployment, and maintenance.
• Seven or more years of experience designing and implementing end-to-end solutions leveraging the latest GUI frameworks, web frameworks, data framework, microservices, and event-driven architectures.
• Strong knowledge of version control systems, such as Azure Repos, Git Repositories, etc.
• Experience using Azure DevOps Pipelines CI/CD programming.
• Working knowledge of real-time, low latency, data streaming solutions and architectures.
• Strong knowledge of cloud architectures and experience with cloud services such as Azure/Amazon Web Services.
• Must have hands-on experience programming in .NET/.NET core, Java, or Python.
• Hands-on experience with Infrastructure as Code, Kubernetes, PubSub messaging, and distributed real-time streaming.
• Must have a working knowledge of RDBMS and NoSQL databases.
• Possess working experience in API design and implementation (REST/GraphQL/gRPC).
• Strong knowledge of agile principles, development methodologies, and capability to support agile teams by providing advice and guidance on opportunities, impact, and risks while taking account of technical and architectural debt.
• Strong written and oral presentation skills.

Desired Qualifications

• Possess working experience with Air Traffic Service (ATS) Messages, including Flight Plans.
• Possess working experience with NATS.io and Solace PubSub.
• Possess working experience with cybersecurity standards and practices such as NIST and others.

About You

 

You are a self-starter. Sitting and waiting isn’t an option. You take the initiative to make things happen.

You are collaborative. You're a team player who puts the interest of the team above your own. You display a positive attitude, are open and enjoy contributing.

You are a natural leader. No matter where you find yourself, others tend to gather around you, leading to encouragement and mentoring.

Technology is your passion. It doesn’t just provide a paycheck, you are genuinely interested in what you do and the impact that it has on others.

You are a technical storyteller.  You can communicate clearly with all stakeholders from executives to engineers to customers.  Your diagrams and illustrations show precision and prioritize the story.

 

 

1-3-6-12 Month Plan

 

In the first month, we'll expect you to…

• Get onboarded and train with your manager.
• Get acclimated to the role.
• Understand the tools and different stakeholders.
• Be proactive in learning what Aireon does.
• Understand our internal processes and cloud-based products and architectures.
• Understand the role of the Integrated Product Team (IPT) at Aireon and learn about IPT members' roles and responsibilities.

 

At 3 months we'll expect you to…

• Gain a comprehensive understanding of Aireon's existing real-time data processing platform and its associated business objectives.
• Establish a strong, collaborative relationship with key stakeholders, and ensure that the organization understands and supports the technical strategy.
• Identify and propose enhancements to the current architecture for improved performance, scalability, and security.
• Initiate the development of architectural enhancements approved by key stakeholders.
• Manage the backlog and technology roadmap for Aireon's real-time data processing platform, ensuring they align with business objectives.
• Establish a process for regularly reviewing and updating the system architecture.

 

At 6 months we'll expect you to…

• Show clear improvement in system performance and efficiency due to architectural changes.
• Lead and direct the technical strategy of Aireon's cloud-based real-time data processing platform effectively.
• Lead and direct training and knowledge transfer across the IPT and Service Desk teams to streamline incident triage to resolve production issues.
• Establish a process to analyze incidents, provide root cause analysis, and work with the technical team to implement corrective actions to prevent similar incidents.

At 12 months we'll expect you to…

• Evaluate infrastructure and deployment architectures, leverage cloud-native technology advancements, and implement best practices that support scalability, reliability, security, and cost optimization.
• Establish and improve the standards for detecting and responding to production issues proactively and efficiently.
• Develop and improve observability capabilities to enable the team to identify potential impacts on critical systems proactively.
• Drive collaboration with technical teams to ensure that products meet their Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
• Further refine and execute the technology roadmap, making adjustments as needed to respond to changes in business strategy or technology trends.

About the Team

The Aireon integrated product team is currently close to 30 internal contributors with staff augmentation to accommodate product management / customers high priority needs. In addition, the integrated product team is supported by matrixed personnel for program management, service desk, finance, systems engineering and operations. The team made up of a multidisciplinary team that strives to develop innovative products in an agile environment. The team has both remote and local team members that stay connected through Microsoft Teams / Outlook with daily scrums to ensure collaboration and disciplined execution in infrastructure and deployment. The culture of Aireon is embodied within the integrated product team with a focus on customer centricity, employee engagement, urgency towards performance and innovation insertion into the product roadmap. Aireon seeks to invest in our employees so that they can leverage disruptive technologies and continuously share knowledge within the team and with the aviation industry associations.

 

Perks and Benefits

• Premium medical, dental and vision plan

• Life Insurance and AD&D

• Short Term and Long Term Disability

• Health Savings Account (HSA)

• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)

• Retirement 401K plan with Employer Matching

• Education Assistance and Tuition Reimbursement

• Paid Time Off, Sick Leave, Floating Holidays

• Paid Parental Leave

• Company Sponsored Events

• Employee Referral Program

 

Aireon is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or status as a protected veteran. EOE of Minorities/Females/Vets/Disability and other protected categories.