Job Family:
Software Development & Support
Travel Required:
Up to 10%
Clearance Required:
Active Top Secret (TS)
Overview
Weâre seeking a highly seasoned SME Software Developer to architect, modernize, and sustain missionâcritical systems supporting the Department of Justice (DOJ). In this senior technical leadership role, you will guide engineering direction, mentor development teams, and influence enterpriseâlevel decisions across secure environments. Youâll work directly with product owners, mission stakeholders, and security leadership to deliver resilient, secure, and scalable software solutions that strengthen DOJ capabilities and national security.
What You Will Do
- Serve as the technical authority for software architecture, design strategy, and modernization initiatives across DOJ programs.
- Lead development of secure, scalable, enterpriseâgrade applications and APIs supporting missionâcritical workflows.
- Architect and implement microservices, distributed systems, and highâavailability integrations for complex case management, analytics, and interâagency data exchange.
- Establish advanced CI/CD patterns, security automation, artifact governance, and deployment pipelines that meet DOJ/IC compliance requirements.
- Direct hardening efforts for applications and infrastructure to ensure compliance with RMF, STIG, FIPS 140â2, and FedRAMP High control families.
- Oversee ATOârelated engineering activitiesâsecurity documentation, POA&M remediation paths, testing evidence, and continuous monitoring artifacts.
- Provide expertise in performance engineering, distributed tracing, observability modeling, and system optimization at scale.
- Guide Agile teams through backlog refinement, sprint planning, and technical reviews while aligning work to mission and enterprise objectives.
- Mentor senior developers, review critical code paths, and drive adoption of bestâpractice coding standards, patterns, and documentation.
- Support operational continuity, incident response, and complex troubleshooting in classified environments (including SCIF support).
What You Will Need
- U.S. Citizenship
- Active Top Secret (TS) Clearance with SCI or the ability to obtain SCI
- Twelve (12)+ years of professional software development experience, with clear evidence of SMEâlevel technical leadership in secure, regulated, or federal environments.
- Expert proficiency in one or more backend/ frontend ecosystems:
- Backend: Java/Spring Boot, .NET/C#, Python (FastAPI/Flask/Django), Node.js (Express/Nest)
- Frontend: React, Angular, or Vue with TypeScript
- Extensive experience designing and optimizing REST APIs, distributed systems, and relational data stores (PostgreSQL/Oracle).
- Mastery of CI/CD ecosystems (GitLab CI, Jenkins, GitHub Actions) and productionâgrade container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift).
- Deep understanding of secure software engineeringâauthN/Z, secrets mgmt, cryptographic controls, OWASP Top 10, and secure protocol design.
- Significant experience working within DOJ, DoD, or IC security frameworks, including RMF, STIGs, ATO processes, and compliance engineering.
- Strong cloud engineering background across AWS GovCloud or Azure Government, including InfrastructureâasâCode (Terraform/CloudFormation).
- Proven ability to communicate complex technical concepts to senior leadership and crossâfunctional mission partners.
- Education: BS in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience; advanced degrees or recognized SMEâlevel certifications are a plus.
Nice to Have
- Prior experience supporting DOJ components (FBI, DEA, ATF, EOIR, BOP, USAO) or adjacent federal law enforcement agencies.
- Expertise with data streaming/search platforms: Kafka, Kinesis, Elasticsearch/OpenSearch, NiFi.
- Advanced observability and SecOps tooling: Splunk, CloudWatch, Prometheus/Grafana, SonarQube, ZAP, Trivy.
- Working knowledge of compliance standards such as CJIS, NIEM, FISMA, FedRAMP High, Section 508.
- Experience with modern messaging frameworks (gRPC, GraphQL, EventBridge, SQS/SNS, RabbitMQ).
- Advanced test automation and quality engineering: JUnit, pytest, Cypress/Playwright, PACT.
- Strong background in identity/security frameworks: OAuth2/OIDC, SAML, PKI, KMS/HSM, ABAC/RBAC.
- Platform engineering experience with Red Hat OpenShift, service mesh (Istio/Linkerd), OPA/Gatekeeper policies.
- Expertise in cloud cost optimization, performance tuning, and highâavailability patterns in federal cloud environments.
- Relevant certifications: AWS/Azure GovCloud, Security+, CASP+, CISSP, CKA/CKAD, DoD 8570/8140.
Desired Additional Skills
- Deep experience modeling sensitive/controlled data environments and lifecycle governance.
- SMEâlevel capability in secrets management and configuration security (AWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault).
- Strong documentation leadershipâADRs, architecture packages, operational playbooks, security evidence for ATO cycles.
- Ability to lead incident investigations, rootâcause analysis, and remediation in highly controlled operational environments.
- Prior experience mentoring senior engineers and shaping technical standards, reusable frameworks, and enterprise patterns.
- Comfortable operating within SCIF procedures and managing structured workflows via ITSM tools (ServiceNow/Jira).
The annual salary range for this position is $149,000.00-$248,000.00. Compensation decisions depend on a wide range of factors, including but not limited to skill sets, experience and training, security clearances, licensure and certifications, and other business and organizational needs.
What We Offer:
Guidehouse offers a comprehensive, total rewards package that includes competitive compensation and a flexible benefits package that reflects our commitment to creating a diverse and supportive workplace.
Benefits include:
Medical, Rx, Dental & Vision Insurance
Personal and Family Sick Time & Company Paid Holidays
Parental Leave
401(k) Retirement Plan
Group Term Life and Travel Assistance
Voluntary Life and AD&D Insurance
Health Savings Account, Health Care & Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
Transit and Parking Commuter Benefits
Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
Tuition Reimbursement, Personal Development, Certifications & Learning Opportunities
Employee Referral Program
Corporate Sponsored Events & Community Outreach
Care.com annual membership
Employee Assistance Program
Supplemental Benefits via Corestream (Critical Care, Hospital Indemnity, Accident Insurance, Legal Assistance and ID theft protection, etc.)
Position may be eligible for a discretionary variable incentive bonus
About Guidehouse
Guidehouse is an Equal Opportunity EmployerâProtected Veterans, Individuals with Disabilities or any other basis protected by law, ordinance, or regulation.
Guidehouse will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable law or ordinance including the Fair Chance Ordinance of Los Angeles and San Francisco.
If you have visited our website for information about employment opportunities, or to apply for a position, and you require an accommodation, please contact Guidehouse Recruiting at 1-571-633-1711 or via email at RecruitingAccommodation@guidehouse.com. All information you provide will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodation.
All communication regarding recruitment for a Guidehouse position will be sent from Guidehouse email domains including @guidehouse.com or guidehouse@myworkday.com. Correspondence received by an applicant from any other domain should be considered unauthorized and will not be honored by Guidehouse. Note that Guidehouse will never charge a fee