Principal Software Engineer

VT Group (VTG); Hanover (MD); On-site; USD 200,000 - 245,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Sign-on bonus up to $10,000

Job summary

VT Group (VTG) in Hanover, MD is seeking a Senior Principal Software Engineer to design, develop, and maintain secure, high-performance software for mission-critical national security initiatives. The role emphasizes Python, Protocol Buffers, gRPC, Kubernetes, Helm, and Docker within distributed systems.

You will mentor teammates and collaborate across engineering, systems, and hardware teams. The position is based in Hanover, Maryland with a sign-on bonus of up to $10,000 for eligible

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related discipline.
• 20+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Advanced software development experience using Python.

Responsibilities

• Analyze user, system, and mission requirements to derive software design and performance requirements.
• Design, develop, modify, test, integrate, and maintain complex mission-critical software systems.
• Develop high-quality software primarily using Python and related frameworks.
• Design and implement distributed services using Protocol Buffers and gRPC.
• Build, deploy, configure, and maintain containerized applications with Kubernetes and Docker-based technologies.

Skills

Python

Distributed systems design

Troubleshooting

Mentorship

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Kubernetes

Helm

Docker

gRPC

Protocol Buffers

GitLab CI/CD

Job description

As a Principal Software Engineer, supporting mission-essential national security initiatives, you will design, develop, integrate, and maintain secure, high-performance software solutions that enable critical intelligence, defense, and operational missions. Working alongside engineers, analysts, and mission stakeholders, you will build scalable applications and services that directly support the protection of U.S. national security interests. The ideal candidate will have extensive software engineering experience and advanced proficiency in Python, Protocol Buffers, gRPC, Kubernetes, and Helm. This individual will help design, develop, integrate, deploy, and maintain scalable, highly available mission systems using modern distributed-system and containerization technologies. This role is based in Hanover, Maryland. Eligible candidates may receive a sign-on bonus of up to $10,000, making this an exceptional opportunity to join a mission-critical team supporting national security initiatives.

What will you do?

• Analyze user, system, and mission requirements to derive software design, interface, and performance requirements.
• Design, develop, modify, test, integrate, and maintain complex mission-critical software systems.
• Develop high-quality software primarily using Python and related programming languages and frameworks.
• Design and implement distributed services and system interfaces using Protocol Buffers and gRPC.
• Debug existing software, identify root causes, and correct defects across complex applications and services.
• Create and maintain scalable, reliable, and highly available mission systems using modern software architecture and system design principles.
• Build, deploy, configure, and maintain containerized applications using Kubernetes, Helm, and Docker-based technologies.
• Develop and maintain Helm charts, Kubernetes resources, deployment configurations, and supporting infrastructure.
• Develop automation scripts and tools to improve software development, testing, integration, deployment, and operational workflows.
• Support automated GitLab continuous integration and continuous deployment pipelines.
• Develop and execute test procedures for individual software components, services, interfaces, and integrated systems.
• Use scientific analysis and mathematical models to predict, measure, and evaluate software and system performance.
• Collaborate with systems engineers and hardware engineers to define software requirements, system interfaces, performance expectations, capabilities, and project limitations.
• Integrate software with databases, messaging platforms, search technologies, configuration services, and external interfaces.
• Troubleshoot application, container, deployment, network, database, and system integration issues.
• Review existing engineering practices and recommend improvements to software documentation, development processes, testing standards, coding practices, and deployment procedures.
• Create and maintain technical documentation throughout the software development life cycle.
• Participate in software architecture, design reviews, integration, verification, validation, deployment, and sustainment activities.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to software engineers as needed.

Do you have what it takes?

• US Citizen with TS/SCI with Poly required
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, or a related technical discipline.
• A minimum of 20 years of professional software engineering experience.
• Advanced software development experience using Python.
• Strong experience developing distributed applications and services using Protocol Buffers and gRPC.
• Extensive hands-on experience with Kubernetes and container orchestration.
• Experience developing, configuring, and maintaining Helm charts.
• Experience designing and maintaining scalable, highly available, and mission-critical software systems.
• Experience debugging, testing, integrating, deploying, and supporting complex software applications.
• Experience developing automation scripts and improving engineering workflows.
• Demonstrated ability to translate user and system requirements into software design and performance requirements.
• Experience collaborating with software, systems, and hardware engineering teams.
• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, documentation, and communication skills.

Experience with several of the following technologies is strongly desired:

• Java
• RESTful APIs and web services
• GNU Autotools
• Docker and Docker Buildx
• Automated GitLab CI/CD pipelines
• MongoDB
• etcd
• Elasticsearch
• RabbitMQ
• Distributed systems and microservices
• Container-based build and deployment processes
• Automated software testing and system integration

VTG’s estimated starting pay range is $200K-$245K annually, which is a general guideline for the geographic location. When extending an offer, VTG also considers work experience, education, skill level, market considerations and may possibly include contractual requirements which may cause an offer to fall outside of this range.