Developer Experience Lead

System One; Washington (District of Columbia); Remote; USD 113,000 - 154,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401(k) plan

Life insurance

Voluntary plans

Job summary

System One is seeking a Developer Experience Lead in Washington, DC (Remote) on a contract basis. You will serve as the senior technical advisor to application teams, guiding them to adopt platform tooling, CI/CD, testing, and security practices while shaping developer experiences and onboarding.

You will build reusable templates and pipelines, coordinate with security and operations, and lead workshops and coaching to drive adoption of approved tools.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a technical field with 12+ years of relevant experience, or a Master's with 10+ years of relevant experience.
• 5+ years in software engineering, DevOps, or platform engineering with hands-on work on an enterprise source control and CI/CD platform and automated testing.
• 3+ years of UX engineering, UX design, or interaction design for developer-facing products or docs sites.
• Experience leading adoption of shared tools across multiple teams (golden-path templates, internal developer platform, or portal).
• Experience creating technical docs and training, delivering workshops and mentoring engineers.
• Experience coordinating across multiple projects and briefing senior leaders.
• Ability to obtain Public Trust; fingerprinting and credit check.
• Ability to report on-site in the Washington, DC metro area with one business day's notice.
• Built golden paths on GitHub Enterprise: Actions workflows, templates, docs-as-code sites.
• Built or ran an internal developer portal or service catalog (Backstage) or self-service platform workflow.
• Experience addressing security findings from tools like GitHub Advanced Security, SonarQube, or JFrog Xray without slowing delivery.
• Defined developer experience metrics and used them to improve delivery.
• Rolled out AI-assisted development (e.g., GitHub Copilot) with guidelines and measurable results.
• Experience enabling dozens of product teams in large enterprises or federal agencies.
• UX research methods applied to developers and hands-on coding in modern languages.
• Knowledge of accessibility standards, secure coding (OWASP), and NIST SP 800-218.
• Certifications in GitHub or Kubernetes tools; UX certifications; CKAD.

Responsibilities

• Act as the senior technical advisor to application teams, helping adopt source control, CI/CD, testing, dependency management, and security tooling.
• Study team workflows to find bottlenecks and drive improvements that speed delivery without compromising security or accessibility.
• Translate standards and policies into clear guidance and collect feedback from teams for governance.
• Create reusable templates, starter repositories, pipelines, and components to accelerate work while maintaining consistency.
• Partner with platform, security, and operations engineers to align developer workflows with architecture and privacy requirements.
• Guide teams on adopting AI-assisted development tools safely and productively.
• Own developer documentation and onboarding, including best practices and how-to guides.
• Run workshops, office hours, tech talks, and coaching to promote tool adoption.
• Define and track developer experience metrics and use results to set priorities.
• Lead technical support and incident response for development teams when needed.
• Provide backup coverage for pipeline engineering, software packaging, and UX design when required.

Skills

DevOps

Platform engineering

UX engineering

Documentation

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Human-Computer Interaction, or related field

Master's degree in one of these fields

Tools

GitHub

GitHub Actions

GitHub Copilot

GitHub Advanced Security

Azure DevOps

Jenkins

SonarQube

JFrog Xray

Job description

Job Title: Developer Experience Lead
Location: Washington, DC (Remote)
Type: Contract
Compensation: $97.00/hr on W2
Security Clearance: Public Trust

Responsibilities

• Act as the senior technical advisor to application teams that build and maintain custom software, helping them adopt the platform's source control, CI/CD, testing, dependency management, and security tooling.
• Study how teams build, test, and release software; find friction and bottlenecks; and recommend and drive improvements that speed delivery without weakening security, accessibility, or operational requirements.
• Turn enterprise standards and policies into clear, usable guidance, and bring teams' feedback and pain points back to platform and governance leadership.
• Build shared templates, starter repositories, example pipelines, and reusable components (golden paths) that let teams start new work quickly and consistently.
• Partner with platform, security, and operations engineers so developer workflows stay aligned with architecture, cybersecurity, and privacy requirements.
• Guide teams on adopting AI-assisted development tools safely and productively.
• Own the developer documentation and onboarding experience: best practices, coding standards, how-to guides, and onboarding paths.
• Run workshops, office hours, tech talks, and individual coaching to drive adoption of approved tools and practices.
• Define and track developer experience metrics (e.g., onboarding time, lead time, self-service rate, developer satisfaction) and use them to set priorities.
• Lead technical support and incident response for development teams, including hands-on Tier 2-3 troubleshooting when needed.
• Provide backup coverage for the pipeline engineering lead, software packaging, and the user experience designer.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related field and 12+ years of relevant experience, or a Master's degree in one of these fields and 10+ years of relevant experience.
• 5+ years in software engineering, DevOps, or platform engineering roles, including hands‑on work within the last 2 years with an enterprise source control and CI/CD platform (e.g., GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps, or Jenkins) and automated testing.
• 3+ years of UX engineering, UX design, or interaction design experience; this may include designing developer‑facing products such as internal developer portals, self‑service platform workflows, developer tools, or documentation sites.
• Experience leading adoption of shared tools or practices across multiple development teams, such as golden‑path templates, an internal developer platform or portal, inner‑source libraries, or an engineering onboarding program.
• Experience creating technical documentation and training, and delivering workshops, briefings, and mentoring for engineers.
• Experience in complex coordination across multiple project or product teams, including briefing senior technical and non‑technical leaders.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust determination at the high‑risk level; fingerprinting and a credit check are required before starting work.
• Ability to report on‑site in the Washington, DC metro area with one business day's notice.
• Within the last 18 months, built golden paths on GitHub Enterprise: reusable GitHub Actions workflows, repository templates, and docs‑as‑code sites (e.g., GitHub Pages).
• Built or ran an internal developer portal or service catalog (e.g., Backstage) or a self‑service platform workflow.
• Helped developers act on security findings from GitHub Advanced Security, SonarQube, JFrog Xray, or similar tools without slowing delivery.
• Defined and reported developer experience and delivery metrics (e.g., DORA, SPACE, onboarding time, developer satisfaction surveys) and used them to deliver a measurable improvement.
• Rolled out AI‑assisted development (e.g., GitHub Copilot) with usage guidelines, human review, and measured results.
• Enabled dozens of product teams in a large enterprise or federal agency, including teams maintaining legacy or commercial off‑the‑shelf applications.
• UX research methods (user interviews, journey mapping, usability testing) applied to developers, and recent hands‑on coding in one or more modern languages.
• Knowledge of Section 508 accessibility, secure coding practices (e.g., OWASP), and the NIST Secure Software Development Framework (SP 800-218).
• Certifications such as GitHub Foundations, GitHub Actions, GitHub Copilot, or GitHub Advanced Security; Certified Kubernetes Application Developer; or a recognized UX certification.
• Prior service as key personnel on a federal contract, an active Public Trust or other favorable federal background investigation, and residence in the Washington, DC metro area.

System One, and its subsidiaries including Mountain Ltd., are leaders in delivering outsourced services and workforce solutions across North America. We help clients get work done more efficiently and economically, without compromising quality. System One not only serves as a valued partner for our clients, but we offer eligible employees health and welfare benefits coverage options including medical, dental, vision, spending accounts, life insurance, voluntary plans, as well as participation in a 401(k) plan.

System One is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, family care or medical leave status, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

#LI-RF1
Ref: #851-Rockville-S1