Principal Application Developer (372)

VSE; California, Northern (MO, KY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

VSE is seeking a Principal Application Developer to lead the design, coding, and scale-out of a modern e-commerce platform backend. You will own software architecture, APIs, and integrations with third-party services to ensure secure, scalable, and reliable commerce capable of handling high transaction volumes.

You will work with cross-functional teams to deliver a robust backend, driving performance improvements, CI/CD, and security compliance while supporting growth and multi-vendor catalog

Qualifications

• Minimum requirements include a Bachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineering or equivalent experience.
• OR an additional 3 years of specific work experience in lieu of degree.
• 7 years of relevant/technical work experience.
• Experience with server-side languages and frameworks.
• Proficiency with relational and non-relational databases.
• Experience building and consuming RESTful and GraphQL APIs.
• Knowledge of microservices, event-driven systems, and containerization.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms.
• Hands-on ecommerce experience including inventory, payments, cart and shipping APIs.
• ERP backend integrations experience.
• Understanding of catalog management, inventory, promotions and multi-vendor systems.
• Willingness to travel 25%.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain the core back-end software architecture for a scalable e-commerce platform.
• Develop APIs, microservices, and integrations to power front-end applications and third-party services.
• Implement secure payment systems, inventory management, and order fulfillment logic.
• Optimize database schemas and queries for high availability and large-scale traffic.
• Ensure platform compliance with security and privacy standards.
• Collaborate with front-end developers, DevOps, and product managers to deliver a seamless platform experience.
• Build automation, CI/CD pipelines, and monitoring tools for system reliability.
• Proactively identify performance bottlenecks and design scalable solutions.

Skills

Server-side languages

Frameworks

Relational databases

Non-relational databases

JSON/XML/structured data

RESTful/GraphQL APIs

Microservices

Event-driven architectures

Containerization

Cloud platforms

Ecommerce domain experience

ERP integrations

Catalog/inventory/promotions

Travel readiness

Education

Bachelor’s degree in computer science or software engineering

Job description

Overview

Position Type

Full Time

Category

Non DOT - Safety Sensitive Position

Description

SUMMARY: The Principal Application Developer is accountable for the design, coding/build, and scale-out of a modern e-commerce platform backend. In this role you will be responsible for the software architecture and development of a custom, robust eCommerce platform able to support a wide array of product catalogs, checkout workflows, and integrations with third-party applications and services to ensure seamless commerce. You will play a key role in ensuring the platform is secure, scalable and reliable to handle high transaction volumes and future growth.

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Design, build, and maintain the core back-end software architecture for a scalable e-commerce platform.
• Develop APIs, microservices, and integrations to power front-end applications and third-party services.
• Implement secure payment systems, inventory management, and order fulfillment logic.
• Optimize database schemas and queries for high availability and large-scale traffic.
• Ensure platform compliance with security and privacy standards.
• Collaborate with front-end developers, DevOps, and product managers to deliver a seamless platform experience.
• Build automation, CI/CD pipelines, and monitoring tools for system reliability.
• Proactively identify performance bottlenecks and design scalable solutions.

Qualifications

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineering or equivalent experience
  • OR an additional 3 years of specific work experience in lieu of degree
• 7 years of relevant/technical work experience
• Strong proficiency in server-side languages
• Experience with frameworks
• Proficiency in relational and non-relational databases
• Experience with JSON, XML, and structured data formats
• Experience building and consuming RESTful and/or GraphQL APIs
• Knowledge of microservices architecture, event-driven systems, and containerization
• Familiarity with cloud platforms
• Hands-on experience with eCommerce including inventory management, payment gateways, shopping cart logic, and shipping APIs
• Experience with integrations involving ERP backend systems
• Understanding of catalog management, inventory, promotions, and multi-vendor systems
• Will be required to travel 25%

PREFERRED REQUIREMENTS:

• Experience designing distributed systems for high-traffic e-commerce
• Knowledge of caching, message queues, and search optimization
• Exposure to headless commerce platforms and API-first architectures
• Previous experience with large-scale e-commerce builds or SaaS platforms