Backend API Developer

General Dynamics Information Technology•Arlington, VA

23h•$119,000 - $161,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Backend API Developer builds and operates the service layer behind an operator application in a cyber command center supporting national cyber defense across Critical Infrastructure and government partners. Responsibilities focus on low‑latency service delivery, correctness under load, and strict entitlement enforcement.

Requirements

Experience building and operating production service interfaces at scale.
Experience integrating with upstream services and maintaining derived state.
Knowledge of push/streaming delivery, connection lifecycle, and backpressure.
Experience with server-side authorization models.
Experience with containerized deployment and cloud environments.
Experience instrumenting services and supporting production incidents.
BS in computer science or engineering and 8+ years relevant experience (or equivalent).
Public Trust eligibility and U.S. citizenship.
On-site work in the Washington, D.C. metro area (not remote or hybrid).

Nice To Haves

Experience with streaming platforms (Kafka, MSK, Event Hubs).
Experience with API gateways or service meshes.
Experience with serverless functions (Lambda, Azure Functions).
Experience supporting latency‑sensitive operational systems.
Experience delivering software in regulated environments.
Current cloud developer/associate certification.

Responsibilities

Build and operate independently deployable services behind the application.
Maintain interface contracts, versioning, and backward compatibility.
Implement consistent request handling, validation, errors, authentication, and authorization.
Create automated tests for service behavior and contract compliance.
Integrate with upstream services via REST and streaming interfaces.
Maintain accurate, consistent view state and ensure clients connecting mid‑stream receive a complete picture.
Coordinate payload and interface changes with upstream service owners.
Deliver updates using server-sent events and WebSocket streams.
Manage connection lifecycle, authentication, backpressure, reconnection, and catch‑up.
Sustain large numbers of concurrent long‑lived connections without degradation.
Enforce role and attribute-based authorization server‑side.
Implement content filtering so users receive only authorized data.
Test entitlement enforcement and maintain audit logs of all deliveries.
Build and operate event-triggered functions for routing, downstream actions, and notifications.
Integrate with managed messaging services.
Ensure triggered actions are idempotent, observable, and safely retried.
Design and validate services for low-latency, high-throughput use.
Instrument services for monitoring, diagnosis, and production incident response.
Deploy through established pipelines into containerized environments.
Maintain required training and certifications; report certification status monthly.
Collaborate with front-end engineers on service contracts.
Work with platform teams on configuration, scaling, secrets, and deployment.
Participate in sprint planning, demos, and reviews.

Benefits

Comprehensive benefits and wellness packages
401K with company match
Competitive pay
Paid time off
Variety of medical plan options
Health Savings Accounts
Dental plan options
Vision plan
401(k) plan offering the ability to contribute both pre and post-tax dollars up to the IRS annual limits and receive a company match
Full flex work weeks where possible
Variety of paid time off plans, including vacation, sick and personal time, holidays, paid parental, military, bereavement and jury duty leave
Short and long-term disability benefits
Life, accidental death and dismemberment, personal accident, critical illness and business travel and accident insurance