"Maximus sits at the intersection of policy, operations, and technology, translating complex healthcare needs into services that real people actually use," Candice Charlton told Trish Barbar on the WIT Podcast.
Candice Charlton on mission-first architecture
Charlton, Vice President, Solution Architect at Maximus, frames the solution architect’s job not as a catalog of technical choices but as an exercise in mission translation. She said the most important part of her work is "understanding the mission outcomes an agency wants to achieve and then architecting in a way that makes it intuitive for the citizen to use." That formulation places user experience and mission goals ahead of technology selection, a theme she returns to throughout the conversation.
From mainframes to cloud: complexity and data exchange
The technology environment federal agencies face today is markedly different from a generation ago. The source describes a shift "just as mainframes have given way to the cloud," with digital government now demanding "seamless and secure data exchange across interconnected systems, platforms, and global endpoints." In that context, Charlton argues, solution architects are a critical role for shaping "resilient, future-ready ecosystems" that keep service delivery agile and citizen-centric.
Maximus’ scale: touching one in three Americans
Charlton anchors her technical prescriptions in the company’s operational reach. She said, "The systems we build at Maximus touch one in three Americans." That scale drives her insistence that architecture decisions reflect not only system performance and security, but accessibility and equity across a broad user base. The company’s work sits, in her words, at the intersection of policy, operations, and technology — making trade-offs and design choices consequential for millions of people.
Diversity across four coming on five generations
Designing for that many people, Charlton emphasized, requires a diverse set of perspectives within the teams that build systems. "Our workforce now has four coming up on five generations working alongside each other," she said. Each generation carries different expectations and familiarity with technology; Charlton describes diversity as "a practical necessity for designing solutions that are used by one of the most diverse user bases in the country." For her, bringing those perspectives into design from the outset is non-negotiable if the final product is to meet citizens’ "broad expectations."
Why asking "why" changes digital designs
A recurring practical lesson Charlton offers is to interrogate existing processes before digitizing them. Some agency workflows, she noted, "may have been designed for paper forms or in-person interactions," and instinctively reproducing those steps in a digital environment can be the wrong move. A solution architect, she said, should "ask why does each step exist in the first place" — a diagnostic that can reveal obsolete steps, opportunities for simplification, and ways to surface services so they are more intuitive for citizens.
T-shaped skills, communications, and curiosity
Beyond technical fluency, Charlton stressed human skills for architects. She highlights "T-shaped skill sets" — depth in particular technical domains combined with breadth across others — and "the importance of strong communications skills." Above all, she calls curiosity her "superpower," encouraging architects to probe mission drivers, user needs, and the assumptions embedded in legacy processes. Those attributes, she implies, are as important to durable and equitable systems as any platform choice.
What this means for solution architects, federal healthcare agencies, and citizens
- Solution architects and technologists: Charlton’s prescription is to prioritize mission outcomes, incorporate multi-generational user perspectives early, and interrogate legacy process steps before digitizing them.
- Federal healthcare agencies and procurement leaders: Architectural decisions should be evaluated not only for technical compliance, but for how they translate policy and operations into citizen-facing services that are intuitive and equitable.
- Citizens and end users: The approach Charlton advocates aims to make services simpler to use across varying levels of digital fluency, potentially reducing friction where paper-era processes persist in digital systems.
Charlton’s central test — asking why each step in a process exists — is both a practical design heuristic and a governance question. Will agencies and their partners allow architectures to reshape processes, or will the default be to digitize existing paperwork and in-person routines? The answer will determine whether future digital government becomes a streamlined, citizen-centric experience or a faster version of yesterday’s bureaucracy.
