Principal Software Engineer - Cloud-Native NIH Modernization

Stackular; Bethesda (MD); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Stackular in Bethesda, MD, is seeking a hands-on Principal Software Engineer to lead a multi-year cloud-native modernization at NIH.

You will guide cross-functional teams across API, data, and security, shaping architecture for a federated GraphQL API layer and a React/TypeScript frontend on AWS.

The role requires deep full-stack expertise, strong leadership, and the ability to review architecture, APIs, and deployments while mentoring DevSecOps.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience, with leadership on production cloud systems.
• Experience designing or reviewing distributed systems and microservices, including API contracts and data ownership.
• Strong hands-on proficiency in Python (FastAPI) and a modern frontend (React/TypeScript).

Responsibilities

• Provide hands-on technical leadership across modernization work, including code, APIs, and cloud infra.
• Review PRs across stack for risk, API design, data impact, security, and deployment readiness.
• Enforce consistent engineering patterns for APIs, services, deployment, observability, and security.
• Uphold modern engineering standards, microservice boundaries, and IaC guardrails.
• Translate architecture decisions into working, maintainable code on AWS stack.
• Guide design of containerized microservices using Python, GraphQL, and React.

Skills

Python

FastAPI

React

TypeScript

GraphQL

AWS

EKS

Terraform

CI/CD

Security

Tools

Docker

GitHub Actions

Kubernetes

Apollo Federation

PostgreSQL

Terraform

Jenkins

GitLab CI

Job description

Stackular in Bethesda, MD, is seeking a hands-on Principal Software Engineer to lead a multi-year cloud-native modernization at NIH.

You will guide cross-functional teams across API, data, and security, shaping architecture for a federated GraphQL API layer and a React/TypeScript frontend on AWS.

The role requires deep full-stack expertise, strong leadership, and the ability to review architecture, APIs, and deployments while mentoring DevSecOps.