Principal Application Software Engineer

Oracle; Reston (VA); On-site; USD 99,600 - 209,500; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) with company match

Paid time off

Paid holidays

Sick leave

Job summary

Oracle Government Defense & Intelligence is seeking a Principal Application Software Engineer to design, build, and operate secure application services for sovereign and government cloud environments.

You will lead complex design and implementation, guide engineers, and improve development practices while mentoring the team and shaping technical standards across distributed systems.

Qualifications

• Active U.S. Government security clearance (TS/SCI with Poly) at hire.
• 11+ years in software development or advanced degrees with experience.
• Experience designing, building, testing, and operating distributed services.
• Strong code-review, automation, quality assurance, and mentorship.
• Familiarity with secure development practices and observability.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and implementation of secure, scalable application features and APIs.
• Guide and review code; coach engineers on quality and security.
• Troubleshoot complex application, API, and production issues across services.
• Drive architecture decisions, performance, and testing methodologies.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align tech with mission needs.
• Mentor engineers and contribute to hiring and standards.
• Design AI-enabled capabilities with secure data access and governance.

Skills

Security clearance TS/SCI with Poly

Distributed systems

Mentoring/leadership

Code reviews

AI-enabled software

RESTful APIs

Cloud platforms OCI/AWS/Azure/GCP

Programming languages

Education

Bachelor’s or higher in a relevant technical field

Master’s in a relevant technical field

PhD in a relevant technical field

Tools

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

AWS

Azure

Google Cloud

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Linux

Job description

Principal Application Software Engineer – Oracle Government Defense & Intelligence

Position Overview: Oracle Government Defense & Intelligence is seeking a Principal Application Software Engineer to design, build, and operate secure application services for sovereign and government cloud environments. This senior technical contributor leads complex design and implementation work, guides engineers, improves application development practices, and resolves complex production and integration issues across distributed systems. The role also serves as a technical lead for AI‑enabled software capabilities, including secure application architecture, governed data integrations, evaluation tooling, and production‑ready operational workflows.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead design and implementation of application features, services, APIs, and integrations aligned to secure, scalable architecture.
• Develop and guide new application features and enhancements, including design specifications, implementation plans, and technical documentation.
• Lead code reviews across multiple application areas and coach engineers on quality, maintainability, security, and operational readiness.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex application, API, service‑to‑service, integration, and production issues.
• Contribute to architecture decisions, scalability strategies, performance optimization, and periodic technical reviews.
• Implement comprehensive testing, observability, monitoring, error logging, and debugging practices.
• Collaborate with product, program, QA, operations, security, and customer‑facing teams to align technical delivery with mission and business needs.
• Mentor engineers and contribute to hiring, technical standards, and continuous improvement across the team.
• Design and implement AI‑enabled software capabilities, including secure service integrations, workflow orchestration, evaluation tooling, operational data access, and production application features.
• Define engineering patterns for testing, validating, monitoring, and operating AI‑enabled software, including reliability, latency, quality, failure handling, auditability, and safe degradation.
• Lead technical design for governed access to approved operational data sources and ensure AI‑enabled features provide evidence‑grounded, supportable outputs.
• Mentor engineers on secure implementation, observability, debugging, and operational readiness for AI‑enabled software in sovereign or restricted environments.

Minimum Qualifications

• U.S. Citizenship with active U.S. Government security clearance, TS/SCI with Poly, at hire.
• 11 years of software development experience; or bachelor’s degree in a relevant technical field and 7 years of software development experience; or master’s degree in a relevant technical field and 5 years of software development experience; or doctorate in a relevant technical field and 3 years of software development experience.
• 6 years of experience with programming and/or scripting languages.
• 4 years of experience with databases.
• Experience designing, building, testing, and operating distributed application services.
• Demonstrated experience with code review, automation, quality assurance, secure development practices, and technical mentorship.

Preferred Qualifications

• 11 years of software development experience or equivalent advanced degree plus experience.
• 3 years of experience with cloud platforms such as Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
• 1 year of experience working with operating budgets and/or project financials.
• Experience with RESTful APIs, microservices, service‑oriented architecture, CI/CD, containers, Kubernetes, Linux, observability, and incident response.
• Experience delivering software in regulated, classified, sovereign, or air‑gapped environments.
• Experience building production AI‑enabled software, including secure application integrations, evaluation frameworks, workflow automation, model‑serving integrations, operational data platforms, or observability for AI‑enabled systems.

Disclaimer and Requirements

Certain U.S. based or U.S. customer or client‑facing roles may be required to comply with applicable requirements, such as immunization/occupational health mandates, and/or drug testing requirements.

Range and Benefits

US: Hiring Range in USD from: $99,600 - $209,500 per year. May be eligible for bonus and equity.

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, including expert medical opinion
• Short‑term disability and long‑term disability
• Life insurance and AD&DD
• Supplemental life insurance (Employee/Spouse/Child)
• Health care and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts
• Pre‑tax commuter and parking benefits
• 401(k) Savings and Investment Plan with company match
• Paid time off: Flexible Vacation for salaried (non‑overtime eligible) positions; accrued vacation for other employees. Accrual rate: 13 days annually for first three years; 18 days for subsequent years. Prorated vacation for 20‑34 hours per week. No vacation for fewer than 20 hours per week.
• 11 paid holidays
• Paid sick leave: 72 hours of paid sick leave upon hire. Refreshes each calendar year. Unused balance carries over up to a maximum cap of 112 hours.
• Paid parental leave
• Adoption assistance
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Financial planning and group legal
• Voluntary benefits including auto, homeowner and pet insurance

Career Level – IC4

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