Account Backend Engineer

NIH-NCBI•Bethesda, MD

About The Position

Black Canyon Consulting (BCC) is seeking an NCBI Login and MyNCBI Account Backend Engineer to support and modernize authentication and account management infrastructure for the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), part of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at NIH. The role maintains legacy systems, supports migration to modern identity platforms, and provides secure, scalable backend services for biomedical users worldwide. The engineer will provide operational support for NCBI Login and MyNCBI Account services, develop and maintain backend applications and integrations, help ensure security and compliance, participate in identity-platform migration, and manage backend build and deployment processes.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience.
Strong proficiency in backend programming with C++, Python, and SQL, and experience in Linux environments.
Experience with authentication and authorization protocols, including OAuth, OIDC, SAML, and JWT.
Extensive experience with Microsoft SQL Server and relational database design and optimization.
Experience with version control (Git, SVN), CI/CD tools, and DevOps practices.
Experience integrating with third-party applications and secured data sharing.
Experience working with XML and XSLT.
Experience with agile development processes.
Ability to work with legacy systems and facilitate migration to modern platforms.
Strong troubleshooting, teamwork, and communication skills, and ability to work independently.

Responsibilities

Troubleshoot, patch, and stabilize the NCBI Login System during migration phases.
Support MyNCBI Account backend services, resolve session and account-linking issues, and maintain backend storage databases.
Build, deploy, and maintain backend binaries and CGI scripts across Almalinux and other Unix/Linux environments.
Integrate third-party identity providers and manage federated account data feeds, including InCommon organizations.
Develop and optimize backend services using C++, Python, Django, and SQL, with attention to security, compliance, and performance.
Ensure backend systems meet FISMA Moderate and other compliance requirements.
Apply authentication, authorization, and IT security best practices, including SAML, OAuth 2.0, OIDC, and JWT.
Monitor and support ongoing user issues, collaborating with partner agencies to resolve them.
Participate in migration from legacy authentication systems to NIH ICAM standards.
Implement federated-login, account-consolidation, and application-owned authorization integration patterns.
Support user account migration, including linking, merging, and retiring local credentials for NCBI applications.
Manage code and configuration repositories, build pipelines, and deployment processes for backend services.
Troubleshoot build and deployment issues, including OS upgrades and library dependencies.