Lead Software Engineer/Developer

Requirements

Must have:

- We need at least 5 years of professional software development experience, including time as a technical lead or senior engineer on an Agile team.

• We require a bachelors degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a related discipline, or equivalent additional experience.
• We are looking for proven ability to lead technical design, perform peer code reviews, and mentor mid-level developers.
• We require deep hands-on experience building production backend services and REST APIs in Python, with substantial Django experience.
• We need strong relational database expertise, especially with PostgreSQL, including data modeling, schema design, query tuning, and migrations.
• We require working proficiency in Java to maintain, extend, and troubleshoot existing platform components.
• We are seeking hands-on experience with Solr and Elasticsearch, including index design and query optimization.
• We require experience designing and building microservices and REST APIs with authentication, authorization, versioning, input validation, and error handling.
• We need experience building ETL or data integration pipelines, including transformation, validation, reconciliation, and recovery handling.
• We require hands-on experience developing and deploying applications in AWS environments.
• We need working knowledge of Terraform for infrastructure as code.
• We require experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines with Jenkins and Git-based source control.
• We need working knowledge of content-addressable storage concepts and patterns.
• We require proficiency with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript to support user-facing components.
• We need experience working in Agile and Scrum environments, including JIRA-based user story development and story-point estimation.
• We require excellent written and verbal communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively in a fully remote setting.
• Preferred: experience supporting federal government clients on software development or systems integration programs.
• Preferred: experience with digital content, digital collections, or digital asset management workflows.
• Preferred: experience with Celery or similar distributed task queues for asynchronous processing.
• Preferred: experience with Docker, Red Hat Linux, Apache, and Varnish in enterprise environments.
• Preferred: experience with automated testing and code quality tools such as Selenium and SonarQube, plus accessibility testing under Section 508 and WCAG 2.1.
• Preferred: experience with reporting and monitoring tools such as Grafana or Tableau.
• Preferred: familiarity with front-end frameworks and libraries such as React, Angular, or Bootstrap.
• Preferred: experience in environments governed by NIST SP 800-53 security controls and CUI handling requirements.
• Preferred: experience supporting assessment and authorization activities with technical artifacts such as system diagrams.
• Preferred: familiarity with metadata standards and formats such as Dublin Core, METS, MODS, or MARC.

Responsibilities:

- We serve as the technical lead for a scrum team working on a three-week sprint cycle within an integrated team of government developers, testers, and stakeholders.

• We lead the design, development, and unit testing of Python and Django backend services for content acquisition, ingest, quality review, inventory, and reporting.
• We design and build REST APIs in Python and Django to support ETL operations, metadata exchange, reporting, and digital content management across enterprise systems.
• We create content identification and selection services, including business rules, inclusion and exclusion criteria, filtering logic, and manual, scheduled, and event-driven triggers.
• We build metadata management and transformation services, including field mapping, normalization, schema validation, quality checks, completeness checks, and reconciliation for mismatches and validation failures.
• We implement API integration and secure content transfer capabilities, including connectivity, authentication, authorization, secure transport, retry logic, status monitoring, and end-to-end transaction logging.
• We design relational data models and optimize PostgreSQL schemas, queries, and indexes to support registries, workflow state, audit history, and reporting.
• We implement asynchronous and background processing for long-running content operations, including queueing, orchestration, checkpointing, throttling, and idempotent retries.
• We maintain and extend existing Java components while applying consistent standards for testability, readability, and maintainability.
• We integrate malware scanning, file integrity validation, and content routing utilities into exchange workflows through their documented APIs.
• We design and implement workflow administration and governance features, including workflow states, approvals, escalations, exception paths, role-based access, operational queues, and audit logging.
• We design and tune search and indexing functionality using Solr and Elasticsearch.
• We build and operate services across AWS development, test, staging, and production environments, contributing to Terraform infrastructure as code and Docker-based deployment patterns.
• We maintain CI pipelines with Jenkins and Git, including automated build, test, and code quality stages such as SonarQube.
• We author unit tests for our own code and work with government QA staff on acceptance, integration, and accessibility testing, including sprint planning criteria.
• We support accessibility of user-facing components against WCAG 2.1 and help remediate accessibility findings.
• We participate in Agile ceremonies, including story creation, daily stand-ups, backlog refinement, sprint planning, sprint reviews, and retrospectives, and we track work in JIRA.
• We mentor the mid-level developer through pairing, design reviews, and constructive code review, while enforcing coding standards across repositories.
• We contribute technical input to lifecycle documentation, including requirements, design documents, system diagrams, and security assessment and authorization artifacts.
• We handle project information as Controlled Unclassified Information and perform development within client-owned, client-managed environments.
• We support closeout activities by finalizing documentation, closing tickets, and completing transition tasks.

Company:

We are Aretum, a mission-driven organization delivering innovative, technology-enabled solutions across defense, civilian, and homeland security sectors. We are hiring a Lead Software Engineer/Developer for a remote, hands-on technical lead role on a large federal digital content management and systems integration program. This contingent position requires Public Trust eligibility and the ability to obtain and maintain the appropriate suitability determination, with sponsorship unavailable. Our team works in a collaborative environment alongside government developers, testers, user experience staff, and subject matter experts, and we offer a competitive salary range of $120,000 to $142,000, along with medical, dental, and vision coverage, a 401(k), life insurance, paid time off, family leave, short- and long-term disability, and training and development. Occasional travel may be required for client meetings, collaboration events, or training, and it is expected to remain under 10%.