Information Technology Specialist (Application Software)

DC Department of Human Resources; Washington; On-site; USD 120,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

The District of Columbia Health Benefit Exchange Authority (DCHBX) seeks a software developer to design, build, test, and maintain its health insurance marketplace platform. You will implement full‑stack Ruby on Rails applications, develop RESTful and SOAP APIs for CMS FedHub and state systems, and ensure accessibility compliance across features.

You will work with a service-oriented architecture on AWS EKS, MongoDB, and RabbitMQ, using TDD/BDD with RSpec and Cucumber to deliver reliable

Qualifications

• Experience designing, developing, testing, deploying, and maintaining full‑stack Ruby on Rails web applications.
• Experience building RESTful and SOAP/XML APIs for healthcare or government integrations.
• Proficient in TDD/BDD with RSpec and Cucumber for acceptance testing.

Responsibilities

• Designs, develops, tests, and maintains full-stack Ruby on Rails web apps using MVC patterns.
• Develops RESTful and SOAP/XML APIs for federal/state integrations.
• Writes clean, testable code with TDD/BDD and ensures accessibility compliance (WCAG 2.1).
• Maintains CI/CD pipelines and collaborates with DevOps on infrastructure-as-code.

Skills

Ruby on Rails

REST APIs

TDD/BDD

WCAG 2.1

Jira

Tools

RSpec

Cucumber

GitHub Actions

MongoDB

RabbitMQ/AMQP

AWS EKS

Job description

DCHBX Social Justice Values Statement

We believe in social justice and the power of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and are committed to fighting longstanding discrimination, racial injustice, and systemic racism to contribute to a more just and equitable future for our workforce, our customers, and our partners.

Introduction

This position is in the District of Columbia Health Benefit Exchange Authority (DCHBX). The mission of the Health Benefit Exchange Authority is to implement a health care exchange program in the District of Columbia in accordance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010 and the District of Columbia Health Benefit Exchange Authority Establishment Act of 2011, thereby ensuring access to quality and affordable health care to all District of Columbia residents.

The incumbent is responsible for the design, development, testing, deployment, and ongoing maintenance of the agency's mission-critical health insurance marketplace platform. The platform includes the DC Health Link enrollment portal (Enroll) and a constellation of integrated services that together support DC residents in obtaining and maintaining health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The incumbent works within an event-driven, service-oriented architecture built on RabbitMQ/AMQP messaging, MongoDB, AWS Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), and a shared domain model.

Duties And Responsibilities

Designs, develops, tests, and maintains full-stack Ruby on Rails web applications that align with RESTful architecture and Model-View-Controller (MVC) patterns, using the Ruby on Rails framework across all platform services. Develops and consumes RESTful and SOAP/XML APIs for integration with federal systems, including Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) FedHub endpoints and state systems.

Writes clean, testable, well-structured code using Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) methodologies that align with RSpec test framework (unit, integration, and request specs) in order to contribute to acceptance test coverage using Cucumber where applicable. Implements front-end components using HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript (ES6+), and framework-appropriate UI libraries in order to ensure cross-browser compatibility, responsive design, and Section 508 / Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 accessibility compliance. Participate in code reviews to enforce coding standards and ensure software quality.

Applies the dry-rb library stack (dry-validation, dry-monads, dry-struct, dry-types) to model business rules, enforce data contracts, and implement functional error-handling patterns throughout application service objects and operations. Designs and implements data models using MongoDB in order to conduct document-oriented data modeling, embedded documents, Mongoid validations, indexes, and configuration.

Maintains and improves Continuous Integration/ Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipelines (GitHub Actions or equivalent) to support automated build, test, and deployment workflows. Uses Git for version control; follows branching strategies, performs code reviews, and participates in pull request workflows. Collaborates with the DevOps team on environment configuration and deployment automation to write and maintain infrastructure-as-code scripts and deployment runbooks.

Ensures ADA/Section 508 compliance in all user-facing features to partner with the American with Disabilities Act Compliance Specialist as needed. Participates in agile ceremonies including sprint planning, daily standups, and retrospectives using Jira for ticket tracking. Writes and maintains technical documentation including API documentation, runbooks, architecture diagrams, and code comments. Provides technical mentorship to junior developers and participates in knowledge-sharing activities within the Software Development Division.

Participates in agile ceremonies including sprint planning, daily standups, and retrospectives using Jira for ticket tracking. Writes and maintains technical documentation including API documentation, runbooks, architecture diagrams, and code comments. Provides technical mentorship to junior developers and participates in knowledge-sharing activities within the Software Development Division. Collaborate with Business Analysts to clarify requirements and translate business needs into technical specifications.

Qualifications And Education

Specialized Experience

Experience that equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the duties of the position successfully, and this is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. To be creditable, at least one (1) year of specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.

Licenses and Certifications

None

Working Conditions/Environment

Work is generally performed in an office setting.

Promotion Potential

No known promotion potential.

Tour of Duty: Monday - Friday 8:15 a.m.- 4:45 p.m.

Pay Plan, Series, Grade: CS-2210-15

Collective Bargaining Unit: This position is not a part of a collective bargaining unit.

Position Destination: This position has been deemed Security Sensitive under the guidelines of the DC Personnel Manual. Incumbents of this position are subject to enhanced suitability screening pursuant to Chapter 4 of DC personnel regulations. Accordingly, incumbents must successfully pass a criminal background and consumer credit check as a condition of employment and will be subject to periodic criminal background checks for the duration of their tenure.

Residency Requirement: Applicants claiming “Residency Preference” will be required to maintain residency in the District of Columbia for a minimum of seven (7) years. Failure to do so may result in forfeiture of employment.

EEO Statement: The District of Columbia Government is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified candidates will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, personal appearance, sexual orientation, family responsibilities, matriculation, physical handicap, or political affiliation.