CLEVELAND COOKE
Fredericksburg
Summary
Enterprise Solutions Architect and Program Manager with extensive experience in delivering secure, scalable digital solutions. Proven track record in technology modernization, aligning IT initiatives with strategic objectives, and translating complex business requirements into actionable plans for mission-driven environments.
Overview
34
34
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Program Manager / Technical Product Manager / Enterprise Solutions Architect
DLH CORP
Bethesda
09.2022 - Current
- Managed the program and led enterprise solutions to support NIH OIIT modernization, project portfolio governance, cloud planning, DevSecOps, cybersecurity alignment, data interoperability, and executive decision support across various workstreams.
- Work directly with the NIH OIIT CIO and senior leadership to oversee the project portfolio, clarify priorities, manage risks and dependencies, coordinate stakeholder expectations, and translate leadership direction into actionable program controls, roadmaps, and delivery plans.
- Operationalized portfolio prioritization through weighted scoring, business case-style data collection, project ranking, status reporting, risk/issue visibility, and transparent decision support for CIO-level governance discussions.
- Developed prioritized weighted scoring workbook for CIO to evaluate and rank projects based on risk, ORS strategic alignment, OIIT strategic alignment, work type, customer urgency, leadership visibility, and mission impact, facilitating informed decision-making.
- Support enterprise cloud migration planning using Azure Migrate discovery and assessment outputs; frame migration waves, application grouping, dependency analysis, infrastructure readiness, sizing considerations, cost inputs, and leadership decision points.
- Shape early authorization and cybersecurity strategy for cloud modernization, including platform ATO concepts, application control inheritance, Zero Trust alignment, NIST/RMF considerations, and early engagement with security stakeholders.
- Architect scalable, modular, secure enterprise solution concepts aligned with federal modernization expectations, data integration needs, cybersecurity standards, privacy requirements, and long-term maintainability.
- Lead Agile release planning and execution, managing schedules, dependencies, budgets, risks, stakeholder expectations, and delivery metrics across concurrent modernization and operational workstreams.
- Develop executive-ready decision materials, governance narratives, status updates, technical talking points, risk summaries, and roadmap briefings for CIO and senior leadership review.
- Supported HHS ACF Tech modernization by helping establish data interoperability approaches that improved the ability of programs, platforms, and stakeholders to exchange, reconcile, and use data consistently across federal systems and business processes.
- Partnered with business stakeholders, product owners, data teams, architects, and engineering teams to translate program requirements into integration patterns, data exchange concepts, interface requirements, backlog items, and technical delivery plans.
- Helped define data interoperability priorities across enterprise applications, focusing on secure information exchange, common data definitions, system-to-system integration, data quality, auditability, analytics readiness, and reduced manual reconciliation.
- Directed enterprise data integration discussions with federal systems and platforms to strengthen interoperability, data consistency, privacy-aware exchange, reporting reliability, and operational decision support.
- Guided teams in aligning data integration work with Agile delivery, DevSecOps practices, security review, API/service design, and release planning, improving coherence between business requirements and technical implementation.
- Established formal configuration management plan for OIIT, defining configuration items, baselines, change integration, governance roles, approval paths, evidence expectations, CMDB alignment, post-implementation review, and audit-ready operating practices to enhance operational consistency.
Vice President of Information & Technology
DLH CORP
Silver Spring
10.2020 - 09.2022
- Directed enterprise technology strategy, Agile transformation, DevSecOps adoption, cloud governance, and modernization solutioning post-DLH acquisition of Irving Burton Associates, enhancing alignment with organizational goals.
- Defined and governed enterprise product roadmaps, aligning technology portfolios, resource prioritization, and modernization investments with strategic objectives, mission priorities, and long-term business outcomes.
- Established cloud governance and cost optimization models using AWS economics and TCO analytics, informing investment decisions and achieving operational cost reductions of up to 30%.
- Led technical solutioning for federal pursuits, incorporating solicitation analysis, compliant technical approaches, staffing strategies, transition plans, and architecture artifacts to enhance proposal competitiveness.
- Provided enterprise architecture advisory support for government clients pursuing cloud adoption, application modernization, systems integration, secure digital service delivery, and operational modernization.
Vice President of Information & Technology
IRVING BURTON ASSOCIATES
Falls Church
03.2016 - 10.2020
- Defined and executed enterprise cloud strategy using AWS, modernizing infrastructure, improving scalability, and delivering measurable cost efficiencies through governance and financial modeling.
- Led enterprise IT modernization, DevSecOps transformation, cloud strategy, vendor management, technology operations, and process maturity initiatives across federal and enterprise delivery environments.
- Established vendor management and procurement frameworks, negotiating strategic technology contracts that optimized spend and strengthened operational execution.
- Championed organizational process maturity, contributing to CMMI Level 3 certification by embedding continuous improvement practices in development and service delivery.
Enterprise Solution Architect - DoD Defense Health Agency, Solution Delivery Division
IRVING BURTON ASSOCIATES
Falls Church
10.2016 - 09.2019
- Acted as enterprise solution architect to support DHA cloud modernization and DevSecOps transformation across multiple enterprise systems, aligning mission objectives, technical modernization, cybersecurity requirements, and sustainment goals.
- Developed an enterprise DevSecOps strategy and modernization roadmap establishing the foundation for secure, automated software delivery across DHA software delivery environments and supporting organizations.
- Assessed legacy application delivery pipelines, infrastructure dependencies, release processes, testing gates, deployment patterns, and compliance workflows to identify modernization opportunities and cloud-readiness gaps.
- Documented current-state architectures for 12+ enterprise systems, mapping CI/CD workflows, manual controls, release management practices, security checkpoints, tooling gaps, and delivery maturity to inform modernization efforts.
- Designed target-state architectures using standardized CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code, containerization with Docker/Kubernetes, automated testing, integrated security scanning, artifact management, and repeatable deployment patterns.
- Defined cloud modernization blueprints and compliance strategies aligned with FedRAMP, DoD RMF, STIG, DISA SRG, Platform One, and ATO expectations to accelerate migration planning and accreditation readiness.
- Built transition roadmaps that moved programs from manual, siloed delivery practices toward secure cloud-enabled delivery models with greater automation, traceability, resilience, and governance alignment.
- Facilitated cross-functional discovery sessions with engineering, operations, cybersecurity, program management, and executive stakeholders to ensure architecture decisions aligned with operational constraints and mission priorities.
- Developed dashboards, heatmaps, architecture visuals, maturity models, and executive briefings to effectively communicate modernization progress, investment priorities, risk posture, and implementation sequencing to stakeholders.
- Presented enterprise solutions to the Architecture Review Board and achieved governance alignment with DHA modernization objectives, RMF control expectations, ATO timelines, and sustainment needs.
Enterprise Solutions Architect - DHS OCIO Support
IRVING BURTON ASSOCIATES
Herndon
07.2012 - 10.2016
- Acted as Enterprise Solutions Architect to support DHS OCIO modernization priorities, translating business needs and policy drivers into target-state architectures, roadmaps, and executable delivery plans.
- Led solution architecture for DHS enterprise systems, aligning application modernization, cloud readiness, integration, cybersecurity, infrastructure, and service delivery with federal IT governance.
- Assessed legacy platforms and modernization candidates, establishing cloud-ready deployment patterns, interoperability needs, security constraints, release dependencies, and transition sequencing.
- Defined reusable application and shared-service patterns, enhancing consistency across technical requirements, integration touchpoints, application components, and delivery teams.
- Governed Agile roadmaps, PI planning, high-level backlogs, and release plans across five development streams; created CI/CD pipelines and launched a self-service portal that streamlined support processes and increased release efficiency.
Technical Lead - Department of Homeland Security
IRVING BURTON ASSOCIATES
Herndon
01.2010 - 07.2012
- Led enterprise architecture and modernization initiatives, aligning business capabilities with application portfolios and technical roadmaps to meet security requirements and federal governance frameworks.
- Led technical planning, requirements facilitation, architecture design, Agile delivery, and integration improvements, enhancing effectiveness of DHS modernization programs.
- Introduced an API gateway solution that improved system interoperability by 30% and enabled faster data exchange between DHS systems.
- Implemented a risk monitoring framework that reduced unplanned downtime during critical releases by 15% and improved operational resilience.
Lead Software Engineer / Development Lead - Department of Homeland Security
IRVING BURTON ASSOCIATES
Herndon
09.2006 - 12.2010
- Led development as Development Lead and Solution Architect for cross-functional Agile teams delivering enterprise Java/JEE solutions that enhanced large-scale case management operations.
- Architected and delivered enterprise JEE solutions using Spring, Hibernate, Struts, JSP, EJB, XML, distributed architecture patterns, and reusable integration frameworks.
- Supported microservice-oriented modernization using Spring Boot and containerized service concepts, improving scalability, maintainability, and deployment resilience.
- Defined enterprise data architecture standards and authored technical design documentation to mitigate technical risks and resolve production blockers across multiple release cycles.
Engineering Manager / Lead Software Engineer / Senior Software Engineer
BLACKBOARD, INC.
Washington
10.1999 - 08.2006
- Held engineering and technical leadership roles supporting Blackboard LMS, e-learning platforms, and enterprise web applications, enhancing product delivery and production operations.
- Led cross-functional engineering teams in designing and delivering application capabilities using Java/J2EE, JavaScript, Perl CGI, JSP, EJB, XML, Tomcat, WebLogic, Linux, and Solaris.
- Directed refactoring, infrastructure optimization, QA standardization, and release process improvements, streamlining critical hot-fix rollouts across 50+ client environments.
Senior Network Engineer
INOTECH
Fairfax
05.1998 - 10.1999
Electronics Technician
U.S. NAVY
09.1992 - 08.1996
Education
Bachelor of Science - Electrical Engineering
Old Dominion University
Norfolk, VASkills
- Cloud application development
- Cloud governance
- Migration planning
- Microservices architecture
- Cloud-native frameworks
- Serverless architecture
- API integration
- API management
- Microservices communication
- Data interchange formats
- Data serialization
- Event-driven architecture
- Enterprise application development
- Performance optimization
- Automation scripting
- Data streaming solutions
- SQL
- PL/SQL
- AWS
- AWS cloud services
- Azure
- Azure Migrate
- Linux
- UNIX
- Windows
- Virtualization
- GitLab
- GitHub
- Jenkins
- Docker
- Kubernetes
- Terraform
- Ansible
- Chef
- CI/CD
- Automated testing
- Security scanning
- Release governance
- Application server management
- Cloud-based middleware
- Enterprise integration solutions
- Java application servers
- Web service management
- Relational database management
- Database solutions
- Enterprise database solutions
- NoSQL database management
- Distributed data systems
- Jira
- Confluence
- Data visualization tools
- Data analytics platforms
- Collaboration platforms
- Project management tools
- Process mapping
- Agile project management
- Service management frameworks
- Version control systems
- Source control management
- Software change management
- Version control solutions
- Security frameworks
- Risk management frameworks
- Authorization processes
- Cloud compliance standards
- Cybersecurity standards
- Security compliance tools
- Security reference guides
- Agile development practices
- Front-end development
- User interface design
- Single-page applications
- Rapid application development
- Dynamic web applications
- Security reference guides
- Agile development practices
Certification
- Certified Scrum Master (CSM)
- Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
- Google Cybersecurity
Selected Enterprise Architecture Deliverables
- Configuration Management Plan establishing governance for configuration items, baselines, change/configuration integration, approval workflows, evidence expectations, and audit readiness.
- Weighted project prioritization workbook enabling CIO-level portfolio ranking using risk, strategic alignment, urgency, visibility, mission impact, and work-type criteria.
- ACF Tech data interoperability approach connecting business requirements to integration patterns, secure data exchange, common data definitions, API/service design, and analytics readiness.
- DHA cloud modernization and DevSecOps roadmap covering current-state assessments, target-state architecture, CI/CD standardization, containerization, IaC, security scanning, RMF/ATO alignment, and transition sequencing.
Clearance
6C Public Trust Clearance
Technical Skills
AWS, AWS GovCloud, Azure, Azure Migrate, Linux, UNIX, Solaris, HP-UX, Windows, virtualization, cloud governance, migration planning, GitLab, GitHub, Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Ansible, Chef, CI/CD, automated testing, security scanning, release governance, Java, J2EE, Spring, Spring Boot, Hibernate, EJB, JSP, Struts, REST, SOAP, XML, JSON, JAX-WS, JavaScript, NodeJS, React, AngularJS, Kafka, Python, Ruby, PHP, C#, C/C++, Perl, SQL, PL/SQL, Shell scripting, Apache Tomcat, WebLogic, WebSphere, JBoss, IIS, MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle, MongoDB, Cassandra, Jira, Confluence, Tableau, SEMOSS, SharePoint, Microsoft Project, Visio, TFS, ServiceNow SPM concepts, Subversion, CVS, PVCS, VSS, Zero Trust, RMF, ATO, FedRAMP, NIST SP 800-53, STIG Viewer, DISA SRGs, Platform One principles
Personal Information
Citizenship: U.S. Citizen
Timeline
Program Manager / Technical Product Manager / Enterprise Solutions Architect
DLH CORP
09.2022 - Current
Vice President of Information & Technology
DLH CORP
10.2020 - 09.2022
Enterprise Solution Architect - DoD Defense Health Agency, Solution Delivery Division
IRVING BURTON ASSOCIATES
10.2016 - 09.2019
Vice President of Information & Technology
IRVING BURTON ASSOCIATES
03.2016 - 10.2020
Enterprise Solutions Architect - DHS OCIO Support
IRVING BURTON ASSOCIATES
07.2012 - 10.2016
Technical Lead - Department of Homeland Security
IRVING BURTON ASSOCIATES
01.2010 - 07.2012
Lead Software Engineer / Development Lead - Department of Homeland Security
IRVING BURTON ASSOCIATES
09.2006 - 12.2010
Engineering Manager / Lead Software Engineer / Senior Software Engineer
BLACKBOARD, INC.
10.1999 - 08.2006
Senior Network Engineer
INOTECH
05.1998 - 10.1999
Electronics Technician
U.S. NAVY
09.1992 - 08.1996
Bachelor of Science - Electrical Engineering
Old Dominion University