Job description

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 effectiveness. • 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. • Ability to communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences. • Demonstrates the Clearinghouse’s core competencies: customer focus, optimizes work processes, communicates effectively, collaborates, and is open and authentic. • Must live within a commutable distance to Herndon, VA or in one of the Clearinghouse's approved States for hiring purposes. Refer to our HR Policies Page, located on our Careers site at studentclearinghouse.org , for more details. • Must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. We do not intend to sponsor external applicants for work visas, and may consider sponsorship only if no qualified candidates can be found who are authorized to work without sponsorship. • Must be at least 18 years old. Additional Desired Qualifications • Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Cybersecurity, Engineering, Business Administration, or a related field. • Professional certifications such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional, Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA), Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS), HashiCorp Terraform Associate, Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), GIAC certifications, or equivalent industry-recognized credentials. • Experience developing and implementing enterprise DevSecOps transformation programs in large-scale, highly regulated, or mission-critical environments. • Experience designing and operating Internal Developer Platforms (IDP) and platform engineering capabilities. • Experience implementing software supply chain security programs, including SBOM management, artifact signing, software provenance, and secure build pipelines. • Experience establishing enterprise architecture governance processes, technical standards, and architecture review practices. • Experience leading cloud modernization, containerization, and application modernization initiatives across hybrid or multi-cloud environments. • Experience with advanced observability, site reliability engineering (SRE), and operational resilience practices. • Experience integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities into software development, platform operations, engineering automation, or security processes. • Experience supporting federal, educational, financial services, healthcare, or other highly regulated industry environments. • Experience evaluating emerging technologies and developing business cases, cost-benefit analyses, and technology investment recommendations. • Demonstrated success influencing senior technical leaders and cross-functional teams without formal supervisory authority. • Experience mentoring architects, engineers, and technical teams while promoting engineering excellence and continuous improvement. Physical Demands: • Use of a computer for 8 or more hours a day. • Use of a telephone and/or copy machine. • Frequently required to sit for 7 or more hours per day. • Occasionally required to use hands and fingers to operate, handle, and reach. • Vision abilities include close vision and the ability to adjust focus. • Must be able to remain seated and work at a computer for extended periods while supporting production events, maintenance activities, incident response efforts, and emergency service restoration. • Must be available to work extended hours and provide after-hours support during critical incidents, system implementations, technology migrations, disaster recovery events, service disruptions, or other business-critical operational activities. Benefits and Related Information The National Student Clearinghouse provides a robust benefit program designed to help meet the needs of each employee and their family, both now and in the future. We offer comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance, as well as life and disability insurance benefits, for employees and their qualified dependents. Health care, dependent care, and limited purpose flexible spending accounts, as well as a health savings account with annual employer contributions of $300 for employees and $600 for employees who are enrolled with their spouse and/or dependents, voluntary supplemental health plans for Accident and Hospital Indemnity coverage, and infertility coverage are options available for employees to set aside pre-taxed dollars for certain qualifying expenses. We offer a very generous 401k matching contribution program with the opportunity to defer pre-tax and Roth contributions, as well as catch-up contributions for those who are eligible! We are proud to offer a competitive paid leave program consisting of vacation, sick, and personal time, as well as paid holidays, up to 3 weeks of paid parental leave during a 12-month period , and up to 5 days of paid military leave per calendar year . Vacation time will accrue based on length of service, and new full-time hires can accrue up to 13 days of vacation and up to 10 days of sick time per year. On an annual basis, new employees may use up to 32 hours of accrued sick time as personal time. Additionally, the Clearinghouse observes at least 15 paid holidays per year, including company year-end close between Christmas and New Years Holidays. Another perk is that employees have the option to get reimbursed for basic wholesale company and roadside assistance memberships (e.g., Costco and AAA) and to request a buy back on portions of unused accrued vacation based on tenure and certain other qualifications. Employees can further their education and professional development by using our Employee Education Assistance Program, which establishes reimbursement for qualified education expenses upon successful completion of the program, and leveraging the enterprise-wide LinkedIn Learning subscription. There are additional employee benefits too, including but not limited to, mental health with up to eight free therapy sessions for employees and their family members and well-being reward benefits. With the Clearinghouse being an eligible 501(3)(c) nonprofit organization, employees are eligible for service credit towards the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF). To find out more, please request a copy of our Benefits at a Glance! Additionally, we reasonably believe that the salary range for this position is between $139,320 and $181,116. The pay range listed above represents a good faith estimate and is not a guarantee of compensation or salary. The National Student Clearinghouse considers multiple factors when determining base pay for offers, including but not limited to the responsibilities and scope of the role, as well as a candidate’s experience, education, knowledge, skills, abilities, internal equity, and alignment with market data. Internal Candidates: If you feel you meet the qualifications for the role, we strongly encourage you to apply and focus on preparing for the application process. Finalist internal candidates will receive a compensation review prior to any offer being made. In accordance with the Clearinghouse’s compensation and promotion guidelines, internal compensation practices will be applied first, which may result in pay that differs from the posted salary range. This job announcement was posted to the National Student Clearinghouse’s Careers site at www.studentclearinghouse.org/careers via ClearCo on 10/13/2026 and the online application period will be open for at least 3 days from this posting date. A completed online application is required to be considered for this opportunity. Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities: The National Student Clearinghouse is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to actual or perceived race, creed, color, religion, alienage or national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, disability or handicap, sex, marital status, veteran status (or known to have a spousal, family, business, social or other relationship or association with a protected veteran), sexual orientation, genetic information, arrest record, natural hairstyle, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws. Our management team is dedicated to this policy with respect to recruitment, hiring, placement, promotion, transfer, training, compensation, benefits, employee activities and general treatment during employment. Pay Transparency Notice : The National Student Clearinghouse is a federal contractor that abides by all applicable equal opportunity laws and regulations. Under these laws, companies doing business with the federal government must provide applicants and employees with certain policies, including the following information. The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)

Requirements

Must-haves

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Experience developing enterprise architectures, engineering standards, technology roadmaps, and governance frameworks.

Nice-to-haves

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Application prep

Use the role’s language and application details while tailoring your materials.

Keywords to mirror

ci/cdaiazurekubernetespythonawsmachine learning

Platform: clearcompany
Effort: medium

Benefits

Benefits detected in the listing.

Dental

Vision

401k

Parental Leave

Professional Development