Senior Software Engineer

AlignityX; McLean (VA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Confidential Client in McLean, VA seeks a Mid to Senior Software Engineer to join a performance engineering team tackling challenging real-time issues. You will design scalable solutions and collaborate closely with a small, agile group to optimize system performance.

The role emphasizes hands-on JVM tuning, heap analysis, and building tooling for diagnostics, with CI/CD using GitLab/Jenkins and orchestration via Docker/Kubernetes.

Qualifications

• BS in Computer Science or related field; hands-on software development experience.
• 4+ years building and delivering software applications.
• Strong Java/JVM fundamentals and experience with Tomcat/Spring.

Responsibilities

• Design clean, effective solutions for complex problems in a small, agile team.
• Utilize a modern observability stack (Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, Loki, Grafana, Elasticsearch, Kubernetes) to keep the platform performant.
• Partner with customers to investigate and resolve performance issues.
• Build internal tooling to diagnose and solve performance bottlenecks.
• Develop frameworks, libraries, and infrastructure enabling automated performance testing.
• Respond to production issues and build automation to prevent recurrence.

Skills

Java

Python

Performance engineering

CI/CD

Observability

Docker & Kubernetes

Linux

Distributed systems

Education

B.S. in Computer Science or related field

Tools

GitLab

Jenkins

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Senior Software Engineer — Confidential Client

Our client is a fast-growing enterprise software company known for its culture of innovation and technical excellence. They're looking for a Mid to Senior level Software Engineer to join a specialized performance engineering team, tackling some of the organization's toughest technical challenges alongside a team of skilled engineers.

What You Bring:

• 4+ years of experience building and delivering software applications.
• Strong working knowledge of the JVM, including garbage collection tuning and heap dump analysis, along with solid Java fundamentals and experience with application server technologies (e.g., Tomcat, Spring).
• Comfort working with relational databases and diagnosing performance issues at the data layer.
• Solid grasp of Linux systems fundamentals, including threading and context switching.
• Proficiency in Java and Python, or comparable interpreted languages; familiarity with C/C++ is a plus.
• A genuine interest in performance engineering, with a track record of building tools to diagnose and resolve complex system bottlenecks.
• Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines and test automation, using tools such as GitLab, Jenkins, Docker, and Kubernetes.
• Experience with observability and monitoring tooling, including tracing and load-testing frameworks like Locust.
• Comfort operating in high-pressure production environments, including debugging live issues and participating in rapid-response efforts.
• An appetite for solving hard problems in large-scale, real-time, distributed systems.
• A B.S. in Computer Science or equivalent hands-on experience.

The Role:

• Design clean, effective solutions to complex technical problems that sit at the intersection of engineering and IT infrastructure, working within a small, agile team.
• Work with a modern observability stack, including Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, Loki, Grafana, Elasticsearch, and Kubernetes, to keep the platform performant and ensure customer applications run smoothly at scale.
• Partner with customers to investigate and resolve performance issues.
• Build internal tooling purpose-built for diagnosing and solving performance problems.
• Develop frameworks, libraries, and infrastructure that enable automated performance testing.
• Respond to and resolve production issues as they arise, and build lasting automation to prevent them from recurring.

Experience:

• 4+ years of relevant, hands-on software development experience.

Education:

• B.S. in Computer Science or a related technical field.