Lead Software Engineer

Lead Software Engineer

Duration: 6 MONTHS contract

Location: Reston, VA 20191

Purpose:

• Performs complex analysis, design, development, automated unit and integration testing, and debugging of computer software ranging from operating system architecture integration and software design to selection of computer systems, language, and/or equipment. Designs, codes, tests, develops, and documents application programs for computer systems. Works with end-users and project stakeholders to define system scope and objectives. Manages modifications to and maintenance of operational programs and procedures. Leads stakeholder and product owner meetings to define software requirements and creates highly complex systems. Acts as a mentor to junior engineers

Essential Functions:

• Lead a team of software engineers in the design, development, and implementation of multiple applications. Performs and leads the detail technical design, coding, code review and testing of new applications and enhancements of existing applications. Serves as a subject matter expert for specified systems and their subsequent applications. Develop and/or analyze interface design documentation. Comply with hardware and software systems standards and procedures. Deliver large systems for tens of thousands of users. Ensures compliance to the dev/sec/ops practices and policies. Understanding of architectural practices and design.
• Identifies gaps in requirements and solves problems for the supporting staff. Identifies sequencing of services and technologies that are integrated in later phases of the project. Leads the evaluation of risk and opportunity impacts to existing or proposed projects/programs and implements risk mitigation actions. Develops ways to improve performance and increase system availability. Provides recommendations to infuse new technology. Compile, assess, and report data results from software testing and analysis.
• Supports the Project Manager as the technical team lead on the project. Estimates the technical costs of projects for clients and project managers. Confers with clients to identify requirements and determine desired outcomes to formulate the design of the system or offer alternatives. Demonstrated experience with front-end and back-end programming and integration frameworks and tools. Assist in the estimation of development of application features.
• Leads software design and development teams. Identifies, analyzes, defines, and coordinates user, customer, and stakeholder needs and translates them into technical requirements. Manages technical resources (hardware, software, licenses, and services). Plans and leads transformation initiatives to new software architectures. Extend open-source libraries and systems as necessary to meet the needs of the team. Play a crucial role in product scoping and roadmap/architecture discussions. Continually evaluate emerging technologies to identify opportunities, trends, and best practices. Ensure code quality, deployment standards and practices. Mentoring junior developers.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree of Information Technology or Computer Science
• Collaborate with data scientists to build and deploy AI agents to both automate and optimize labor-intensive workflows.
• Writing software code to support AI agent communication, connecting models and agents to external/internal services via API calls
• Support testing and debugging tasks, deployment into target environments, setting up monitoring, and ensuring reliable execution of agentic AI systems.
• Utilize a combination of open source models, agentic tools, and large proprietary commercial models.
• Secure agentic workflows and evaluate the results for accuracy, performance, and impact.
• Ensure AI systems adhere to ethical guidelines, transparency, and fairness principles.
• A self-starter while also working well within the team, collaborating and sharing discoveries and seeking feedback.
• Conduct research, develop prototypes, evaluate and document results.
• 3+ years of experience building production-level AI or ML systems, including LLMs, agents, or complex automation frameworks
• 3+ years of experience with Python and Python tools, including Pandas or NumPy
• Experience with Large Language Models (LLMs), Machine Learning (ML), Deep Learning (DL), and Reinforcement Learning (RL)
• Good understanding and experience working with Natural Language Processing (NLP)
• Experience with tools and AI agent frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, LangGraph, or LangChain
• Experience in resolving workflow problems through automation optimization
• Experience in connecting Agents to APIs, Cloud platforms, or databases
• Ability to work with automated testing tools to perform testing and maintenance
• Experience with Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), such as DevSecOps
• Experience with Cloud Service Providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Experience with developing REST services with Java and Spring Boot
• Experience with the administration of continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI / CD) pipelines using Kubernetes, Docker, or Jenkins
• Preferred experience working with GitHub and other collaborative development platforms.