Lead Software Engineer

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States.

📋 Description

• Act as the primary technical authority for the full-stack software operations, maintenance, troubleshooting, and ongoing enhancement of NOAA OWP’s enterprise web and data dissemination platform.

• Oversee the maintenance and enhancement of NWPS and associated OWP web applications to ensure 24/7 delivery of hydrologic observations, river forecasts, and flood inundation maps.

• Provide Tier 3 technical assistance and address urgent operational challenges within one hour, or within 30 minutes after normal business hours.

• Diagnose incidents, produce Root Cause Analysis documentation, and manage ticket resolutions in VLab Redmine/GitLab.

• Implement minor functional updates and operational improvements, including QPE processing corrections, bulk HydroNotes, dynamic hydrograph configurations, CMS gauge updates, and KML/KMZ data generation.

• Develop, maintain, and enhance automated CI/CD pipelines in VLab GitLab and GitHub.

• Integrate static code analysis, unit testing, dependency checking, and vulnerability patches prior to code promotion.

• Ensure a minimum of 80% statement test coverage and maintain an AQL of zero medium- or high-level static linting errors.

• Manage Terraform modules, minimize configuration drift, optimize AWS auto-scaling groups, oversee IAM roles and secrets, and reduce compute/storage expenses.

• Create technical documentation, conduct peer code reviews, and present software modifications to the NOAA Change Control Board.

• Engage in weekly status meetings with regional hydrologists, Tier 1/Tier 2 support teams, and OWP leadership.

• Keep developer documentation, API schemas, and architecture diagrams updated in version-controlled repositories.

⛳️ Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software Engineering, Mathematics, or a related computational discipline.

• A minimum of 5 years of progressive experience in software engineering, web application development, and cloud-optimized data dissemination solutions.

• Proven experience in building, scaling, and maintaining mission-critical, publicly accessible, cloud-native web applications serving high-concurrency user loads and substantial scientific/geospatial datasets.

• Strong background in Agile/Scrum development methodologies.

• Experience managing software repositories in GitLab/GitHub.

• Familiarity with enforcing CI/CD test automation frameworks.

• Direct experience in providing Tier 3 operational support, after-hours call support, and SLA-driven incident management for high-availability systems.

• Proficient in Python adhering to PEP 8 standards; C/C++ following SEI CERT and Google C++ Style Guides; Go; JavaScript/TypeScript; and Bash scripting.

• Practical experience with AWS Fargate/ECS, Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL, Amazon S3, Amazon EC2, AWS Lambda, CloudWatch, and IAM/Secrets Manager.

• Skilled in Terraform, Docker containerization, and container registry image security scanning.

• Expertise in Pytest, Gradle, CMake, Dependabot, AddressSanitizer, Ruff, Flake8, and Black.

• Experience with Esri ArcGIS Enterprise on Linux, FOSS4G tools, OGC standards (WMS, WFS), Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFFs, Zarr, GeoJSON, and NetCDF.

• Advanced knowledge of VLab GitLab, GitHub Actions, VLab Redmine, Git branching strategies, and automated pipeline security scanning.

• Understanding of FISMA, NIST controls, WCAG 2.1 AA, and Section 508 compliance.

🏝️ Benefits

• Competitive salary and performance-based incentives.

• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance.

• Generous paid time off and holiday schedule.

• Opportunities for professional development and training.

• Flexible working hours and remote work options.