IT - Technology Lead | DevOps | Continuous integration - Java

Ampcus Inc; Englewood (CO); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Ampcus Inc is seeking a Lead Developer in Greenwood Village, CO to bridge our Forward Deployed Engineer and offshore teams. You will translate architecture into actionable tasks, contribute code, and ensure architectural compliance while coaching the offshore squad.

The role emphasizes hands-on Python backend work (FastAPI/Flask) and deep API design knowledge, with a focus on delivering compliant, scalable services. You’ll influence technical decisions and maintain high quality across the stack.

Qualifications

• Hands-on technical leadership with deep Python skills (FastAPI/Flask) and a track record of guiding teams
• Able to translate high-level architecture into offshore delivery tasks with architectural compliance
• Proven experience enabling offshore teams and delivering high-quality backend services
• Experience with domain-driven design and service decomposition
• Familiarity with API design standards, OpenAPI, and RESTful patterns
• Experience with modern frontend review for security and quality (React/TypeScript)
• Proficiency in CI/CD, containerization, and observability tooling
• Strong skills in DevOps practices, monitoring, and incident management

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical bridge between FDE and offshore development teams
• Translate architectural directions into well-scoped work items for offshore delivery
• Contribute hands-on code roughly half the time while guiding technical ownership
• Maintain code quality, architectural compliance, and adherence to Charter standards
• Lead through technical context and influence, not direct management authority
• Review frontend and API design for correctness, security, and standards

Skills

Python backend

Async patterns

OpenAPI 3.0

REST API design

OAuth 2.0

Kubernetes

Docker

FastAPI/Flask

Code review

Frontend familiarity

Tools

JFrog Artifactory

OpenShift

GitLab CI/CD

Kafka

PostgreSQL

OpenTelemetry

Job description

Job Title: Lead Developer

Location(s): Greenwood Village, CO

Job Description

This Lead Developer serves as the technical bridge between our Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE)and the offshore development team.

The role translates high-level architectural direction and productrequirements into actionable, well-scoped work for offshore delivery, while maintaining code quality,architectural compliance, and alignment with Charter engineering standards.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role, aligned to the Charter Software Engineering Team Leadmodel. Roughly half the time is spent contributing code directly; the rest is spent on technicalownership, delivery coordination, and enabling the offshore team. The lead leads through technicalcontext and influence, not formal management authority.

The core of this role is a strong hands-on technical engineer with real leadership experience. The twothings that matter most are (1) demonstrated technical leadership of a development team and (2)deep backend Python skills (FastAPI/Flask, async, Pydantic, REST API design).

Please provide the TOP skills, and the years of experience that you’ll consider:

Backend Development

• Python — FastAPI, Flask; deep knowledge of async patterns, dependency injection, Pydanticvalidation
• Packaging and distribution via internal PyPI (JFrog Artifactory)
• Node.js — service development, npm ecosystem
• Microservice architecture — Domain-Driven Design (DDD), bounded contexts, servicedecomposition
• Shared library design — building and maintaining common packages consumed across services

API Design and Integration

• REST API design following Spectrum Business standards (contract-first OpenAPI 3.0+, URL pathversioning, JSON/camelCase, HATEOAS)
• API Gateway experience
• Three-tier error classification (Protocol, Application, Domain errors)
• Async job handling patterns (202 Accepted + polling)
• Idempotency key implementation for state-changing operations
• API versioning strategy — N-1 support, deprecation lifecycle, sunset headers
• Service-to-service communication — OAuth 2.0 Client Credentials flow, inter-service clientpatterns

Frontend (Working Knowledge)

• React — functional components, hooks, Redux Toolkit state management
• Micro-Frontend (MFE) architecture — understanding of Module Federation, remote applicationloading, independently deployed modules on the Galaxy platform
• Ability to review frontend code for correctness, security (no secrets in client code), and adherenceto team coding standards (SCSS, relative units, component structure)
• Comfortable reading TypeScript and providing meaningful code review feedback
• Understanding of ReactJS Reusable Component Library and Design Library patterns

Databases

• PostgreSQL — schema design, query optimization, Alembic migrations, CDC replication setup
• Oracle — read/query patterns for legacy system integration
• SQL Server — cross-platform query compatibility

Infrastructure and CI/CD

• GitLab CI/CD — pipeline design, multi-environment deployment via branch strategy and job splits
• Docker / containerization — Dockerfile authoring, image optimization, layer efficiency
• Kubernetes (OpenShift/RKE2) — pod deployment, service configuration, cert-manager, Reloader,health probes
• Linux (RHEL) — server administration, troubleshooting
• Helm chart management and deployment patterns

Observability and Monitoring

• Datadog — APM instrumentation, dashboard creation, monitor configuration, structured logging
• Distributed tracing — correlation ID propagation (X-Correlation-ID), OpenTelemetry spans
• Log management — structured JSON logging, Flask-Log-Request-ID, ddtrace integration
• Kafka-specific monitoring — consumer lag alerts, broker health, connector status (applies asevent-driven usage grows; see the Event-Driven Architecture note above)
• RED metrics (Request rate, Error rate, Duration) and USE metrics for infrastructure resources

Testing and Quality

• Unit testing: pytest (Python), Jest (React) — minimum 70% code coverage
• Integration testing: 80% integration-point coverage, external dependency mocking
• Automated backward compatibility testing for APIs
• Consumer-driven contract testing (Pact-style)
• Performance baseline documentation and load testing
• Event-driven testing — testing async workflows, verifying message production/consumption, schema compatibility testing (relevant as event-driven usage grows; see the Event-DrivenArchitecture note above)

Security

• OAuth 2.0 / Keycloak integration — Client Credentials flow, JWT validation
• mTLS for service-to-service communication
• Federated authentication (LDAP, Charter Corporate IT)
• Secrets management via Kubernetes Secrets (cert-manager pattern) for credential delivery
• Kafka security — TLS encryption, SASL/SCRAM authentication, topic-level ACLs (relevant as event-driven usage grows; see the Event-Driven Architecture note above)

Required Soft Skills

• Clear written and verbal communication — ability to produce documentation that removesambiguity for offshore teams operating asynchronously
• Technical leadership without direct authority — influence through expertise and clear reasoning
• Cross-cultural communication awareness — experience working with geographically distributedteams across timezones
• Conflict resolution — ability to mediate technical disagreements between FDE direction andoffshore implementation realities
• Prioritization under pressure — comfort triaging competing requests and communicating tradeoffs

Preferred Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional backend software development experience
• 3+ years leading or coordinating distributed/offshore development teams
• Experience with Domain-Driven Design (DDD) methodology and C4 architecture documentation
• Familiarity with Jira for sprint/backlog management and issue tracking
• Experience producing and maintaining technical documentation
• Exposure to network automation, telecom/ISP provisioning systems, or enterprise IPAM platforms
• Any hands-on Kafka / event-driven experience — designing or operating event pipelines, ormigrating systems from synchronous request/response to event-driven patterns — is a nice-to-have plus, not a requirement

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veterans or individuals with disabilities.