Senior Back-End / Platform Engineer

AMERICAN SYSTEMS; Alexandria (VA); On-site; USD 135,000 - 165,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Retirement plans

Education and training assistance

Job summary

AMERICAN SYSTEMS is seeking a Senior Back-End / Platform Engineer in Alexandria, VA to lead the modernization of the Data Management Platform and build secure, scalable cloud-native services. You will design business APIs for assessments and findings, and integrate with enterprise data sources while ensuring data integrity and auditable workflows.

The role requires 11+ years of backend experience, cloud certifications, and expert Python with REST/GraphQL, CKAD, and Security+ qualifications.

Qualifications

• 11+ years of backend software engineering experience.
• 3+ years delivering cloud-native, distributed, or microservices-based applications.
• AWS/Azure/GCP certifications or comparable CSP credential.
• CKAD or equivalent Kubernetes expertise.
• Security+ or equivalent certification.
• Expert-level Python with FastAPI/Flask/Django.
• Experience migrating legacy data platforms to PostgreSQL cloud data services.
• Experience with CDC, data quality controls, lineage and reconciliation.
• REST APIs and GraphQL design and implementation.

Responsibilities

• Lead modernization of DDMP Python/Flask services and data into secure cloud-native services.
• Design and implement APIs for assessments, findings, reports, and history.
• Build secure integrations with enterprise data sources and analytics platforms.
• Develop data-ingestion, transformation, validation, and reconciliation services.
• Implement workflow automation and AI-assisted capabilities with auditable processes.
• Establish API standards, data quality controls, and documentation.
• Collaborate with security and cloud teams to remediate vulnerabilities and generate ATO evidence.

Skills

Python

Cloud-native

PostgreSQL

Kubernetes

REST APIs

CI/CD

Security+

OpenAPI

GraphQL

Education

BS

TS/SCI eligible

Tools

Docker

GitLab CI/CD

Kafka

Job description

Senior Back-End / Platform Engineer

Location: US-VA-Alexandria

ID: 2026-4989

Category: Software & Systems Development

Position Type: Full-Time

Remote: No

Clearance Required: Secret

Overview

AMERICAN SYSTEMS is an employee-owned federal government contractor supporting national priority programs through our strategic solutions in the areas of Information Technology, Engineering & Analysis, Test & Evaluation, and Training.

Responsibilities

Design, build, migrate, and sustain DTE&A Data Management Platform (DDMP) secure domain services, data-access layer, integration APIs, workflow automation, and AI-enabled back-end capabilities.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the modernization of existing DDMP Python/Flask services and legacy MySQL/MongoDB data into secure, scalable cloud-native services.
• Design and implement business APIs for assessments, evaluation, findings, recommendations, reconciliation threads, reports, artifacts, and approval history.
• Build secure, observable integrations with enterprise data sources, program-management systems, SharePoint, telemetry streams, and analytics platforms.
• Develop data-ingestion, transformation, validation, and reconciliation services that preserve data integrity and provenance.
• Implement workflow automation and AI-assisted capabilities while ensuring analysts remain the accountable authority for official findings and scores.
• Establish API standards, coding standards, data-quality controls, service-level objectives, and technical documentation.
• Partner with security and cloud engineering staff to remediate vulnerabilities, implement secure configurations, and generate ATO evidence.

Qualifications

• BS, TS/SCI eligible with 11+ years of professional back-end software engineering experience, including 3+ years delivering cloud-native, distributed, or microservices-based applications.
• AWS Certified Developer, Microsoft Azure Developer Associate, Google Professional Cloud Developer, or comparable CSP credential.
• Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) or equivalent practical Kubernetes expertise.
• Security+ or equivalent certification.
• Expert-level Python experience, including modern API and service frameworks such as FastAPI, Flask, Django, or equivalent.
• Experience decomposing a monolithic Flask application into modular services without disrupting active users or data integrity.
• Experience designing domain-driven systems and workflow engines for complex, auditable business processes.
• Knowledge of API gateway patterns, API versioning, throttling, idempotency, OpenAPI specifications, OAuth/OIDC token validation, and service-to-service authentication.
• Experience with Change Data Capture (CDC), database replication, data quality controls, lineage, and data reconciliation.
• Experience integrating with Microsoft 365/SharePoint Online through Microsoft Graph while maintaining SharePoint as the authoritative artifact repository.
• Experience implementing retrieval-augmented generation, document extraction, NLP workflows, model-evaluation controls, and human-in-the-loop AI decision support.
• Familiarity with DoW data platforms, secure cross-boundary integrations, and auditability requirements.
• Deep experience designing and implementing REST APIs; practical GraphQL experience strongly preferred.
• Strong relational-data expertise, especially PostgreSQL: data modeling, schema evolution, migrations, query optimization, indexing, transactions, high availability, backup/restore, and replication.
• Experience migrating legacy data platforms, preferably MySQL and MongoDB to PostgreSQL and/or managed cloud data services, with validation, reconciliation, rollback, and minimal-downtime approaches.
• Experience with event-driven architecture, asynchronous processing, queues, and streaming platforms such as Kafka, Kinesis, RabbitMQ, SQS, or equivalent.
• Experience building ETL/ELT, data-ingestion, document-processing, and API-integration pipelines for structured and unstructured content, including JSON, XML, CSV, PDF, and Office documents.
• Strong expertise in automated testing: unit, integration, contract, regression, performance, and API security testing.
• Experience packaging applications with Docker and deploying to Kubernetes or a managed container platform.
• Proficiency with Git-based development and CI/CD pipelines, ideally GitLab CI/CD in a DoW enterprise environment.

Pay Transparency Statement

AMERICAN SYSTEMS is committed to pay transparency for our applicants and employee-owners. The salary range for this position is USD $135,000.00/Yr. - USD $165,000/Yr. Actual compensation will be determined based on several factors permitted by law. AMERICAN SYSTEMS provides for the welfare of its employees and their dependents through a comprehensive benefits program by offering

• healthcare benefits
• paid leave
• retirement plans
• insurance programs
• education and training assistance

EEO Statement

EEO Race/Sex/Disability Status/Veteran Status