Senior Backend Architect for Scalable Systems

General Dynamics IT; United States; On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

General Dynamics IT seeks a Principal Software Developer Senior to lead backend and full-stack engineering across government projects. You will guide architecture, build scalable distributed systems, and mentor engineers to raise technical standards.

Ideal candidates have strong Java/Python skills, experience with microservices, cloud platforms, CI/CD, and security. You will drive API design, data models, and infrastructure patterns for reliability and performance.

Qualifications

• Experience: 5+ years of related experience.
• US Citizenship Required: Yes
• Clearance: Public Trust/Other Required: Other

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the strategic direction for backend and full-stack engineering practices, architecture, and technical excellence across the organization
• Lead the development of scalable, reliable, and secure distributed systems that serve government customers
• Serve as the technical authority and thought leader for system architecture, data design, and engineering excellence
• Design and implement modern service architectures, data pipelines, and infrastructure patterns that enable team velocity and system reliability
• Deliver new features and improvements to our core services including major read/write paths for customer intake, application screening, and information dissemination
• Collaborate with product managers and stakeholders to balance technical feasibility with business requirements, making pragmatic trade-offs that deliver measurable impact
• Build and maintain shared libraries, service frameworks, and infrastructure patterns that enable consistency and reduce cognitive load
• Identify opportunities to modernize our backend systems and take ownership of large-scale technical initiatives that improve system quality, performance, and maintainability
• Establish and champion engineering best practices including API design, data modeling, testing strategies, observability patterns, security standards, and code quality
• Mentor and coach engineers at all levels on backend technologies, distributed systems, and establish career development pathways for backend specialization
• Influence technical decisions across teams and serve as a strategic advisor on architecture and infrastructure initiatives
• Work across the full stack when needed to solve problems end-to-end - frontend and infrastructure experience is valuable but backend systems are your primary focus

Skills

Problem Solving

Software Solutions

Solutions Development

Backend Engineering

Distributed Systems

Architecture Leadership

API Design

Java/Python

Cloud & DevOps

Mentoring

Tools

Kubernetes

Terraform

CloudFormation

REST/GraphQL

Job description

General Dynamics IT seeks a Principal Software Developer Senior to lead backend and full-stack engineering across government projects. You will guide architecture, build scalable distributed systems, and mentor engineers to raise technical standards.

Ideal candidates have strong Java/Python skills, experience with microservices, cloud platforms, CI/CD, and security. You will drive API design, data models, and infrastructure patterns for reliability and performance.