Principal Data Architect at McBride
Hanscom Afb, MA
—
Aug 6, 2026
Hanscom Afb, MA
Sep 24, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A defense contractor role supporting the Air Force's C3BM division at Hanscom AFB, focused on designing and maintaining mission planning data architectures, schemas, and interoperability frameworks across DoD and Intelligence Community environments. The position involves cloud and hybrid architecture design, API and microservices guidance, data governance, and participation in technical working groups with government and coalition partners. Suited to a deeply experienced data architect with a DoD background and an active Top Secret clearance.
Senior level · 20+ years · Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH · Top Secret clearance · Full-time
Advertised as Principal, but the requirements read as Senior.
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $165,205 (middle half $137,427–$177,039).
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Aug 8, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (8)
The clearance requirement states 'Top Secret with the ability to obtain SCI later on' — this is treated as a hard gate on an active TS clearance, with SCI eligibility required but not yet mandatory at hire. The clearance field reflects the current hard gate (Top Secret).
The 20+ years overall and 12+ years DoD experience appear under 'Preferred Qualifications', not 'Minimum Required Qualifications'. However, given the Principal title and the depth of the technical and domain requirements, the overall years minimum is set to 20 as the practical floor the role is designed around.
Education (Bachelor's or Master's) is listed under Preferred Qualifications only, so no minimum degree is flagged as required.
All technical skills are drawn from the 'Technical Skills' section, which sits under 'Preferred Qualifications' in the posting. However, given the seniority level and the specificity of the listed technologies, they are treated as the expected competency profile for this role rather than truly optional extras. They are marked as required to reflect the practical hiring bar.
The role is 100% onsite at Hanscom AFB, Bedford, MA — no remote or hybrid option is stated.
No compensation figures are provided in the posting.
Ignored 2 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): Data Governance, Cloud architecture.
Requires a Top Secret clearance — the cleared population is a small fraction of this occupation, so the real candidate pool is materially smaller than the estimate below, which does not model clearance.
Read the full posting
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