Lead Developer

Guidehouse•Rockville, MD

7d•$113,000 - $188,000•Onsite

About The Position

As a Lead Developer, you will provide technical leadership for teams supporting Grants.gov application operations, maintenance, enhancements, forms development, chatbot capabilities, system-to-system integrations, release planning, deployment, testing, documentation, and production support. You will work closely with federal stakeholders, architects, product owners, scrum masters, developers, testers, operations staff, security teams, IV&V partners, helpdesk partners, and modernization teams to design, build, troubleshoot, and deploy reliable, secure, scalable, and user-centered solutions. You will help ensure development activities align with HHS EPLC expectations, security and privacy requirements, application performance needs, and the operational continuity requirements of a public-facing federal shared service. Lead application development, maintenance, and enhancement activities for Grants.gov, including web-based capabilities, system-to-system interfaces, forms processing, chatbot-related updates, and operational support features. Provide hands-on technical leadership to developers by guiding solution design, coding standards, code reviews, troubleshooting, defect resolution, refactoring, and secure development practices. Design, develop, test, and deploy approved application enhancements in accordance with HHS Enterprise Performance Life Cycle expectations and program change management processes. Support corrective and preventative maintenance for the Grants.gov application and chatbot to sustain availability, performance, usability, and uninterrupted service through rolling deployment practices. Develop and maintain Grants.gov forms and related processing capabilities, including validation, browser compatibility, Section 508 support, XML and PDF generation, and compatibility with current and prior form viewer versions. Support S2S technical coordination, including certificate coordination, diagnostics, error log review, interface troubleshooting, and issue resolution for partner organizations. Coordinate with operations, database, cloud, security, and application platform teams on deployments, configuration changes, performance tuning, monitoring, incident response, and production support needs. Support testing activities, including unit testing, integration testing, regression testing, defect triage, IV&V coordination, release readiness, and validation of production changes. Update and maintain technical documentation, development artifacts, system documentation, release notes, online help updates, troubleshooting guides, and other materials needed to operate and maintain the system. Analyze production issues, helpdesk escalations, stuck submissions, broken links, performance concerns, and application defects; recommend and implement timely fixes and long-term improvements. Partner with architects and modernization teams to identify technical improvements, reduce technical debt, improve maintainability, support cost-efficiency goals, and align legacy Grants.gov capabilities with future-state modernization objectives. Communicate technical status, risks, design considerations, alternatives, and recommendations clearly to technical teams, federal stakeholders, and non-technical audiences.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree. Additional Four (4) years of exp needed in lieu of degree.
8+ years of experience in software development, application maintenance, systems integration, or technology modernization, including experience leading development teams or workstreams.
Demonstrated experience designing, developing, testing, deploying, and maintaining enterprise applications in complex, mission-critical environments.
Experience supporting application operations and maintenance, defect resolution, release planning, deployment coordination, performance tuning, and production support.
Experience developing or supporting web applications, APIs, system-to-system integrations, data exchanges, forms processing, workflow capabilities, or user management functions.
Working knowledge of secure software development, application lifecycle management, configuration management, quality assurance, DevSecOps practices, and change management processes.
Ability to coordinate effectively with architects, product owners, scrum masters, developers, testers, operations teams, security teams, federal stakeholders, IV&V partners, helpdesk partners, and other contractors.
Strong understanding of: Application design, coding standards, code reviews, refactoring, and maintainability
Web application development, APIs, integrations, data exchange, and interface troubleshooting
Unit, integration, regression, performance, accessibility, and security testing practices
Release readiness, deployment planning, defect triage, incident response, and production support
Technical documentation, system documentation, release notes, and operational knowledge transfer
Experience using development and collaboration tools such as Git, Jira, Azure DevOps, Confluence, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, CI/CD tools, or similar platforms.
Excellent technical communication, problem-solving, mentoring, and stakeholder coordination skills with the ability to explain complex technical issues to executive, federal, technical, and non-technical audiences.
Must be able to OBTAIN and MAINTAIN a Federal or DoD "PUBLIC TRUST"; candidates must obtain approved adjudication of their PUBLIC TRUST prior to onboarding with Guidehouse.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting federal grants management systems, shared service platforms, or large public-facing government applications.
Experience with HHS, ACF, CMS, HRSA, NIH, or other federal grant-making agencies.
Knowledge of HHS Enterprise Performance Life Cycle (EPLC), federal IT governance, security documentation, ATO support, and compliance-driven development environments.
Experience with FedRAMP, FISMA, NIST 800-53, POA&M management, incident response, security monitoring, vulnerability remediation, or other federal cybersecurity requirements from an application delivery perspective.
Experience with Grants.gov-like capabilities, including funding opportunity posting, applicant registration, application submission, grantor user management, S2S integrations, form development, XML/PDF generation, SAM imports, or stuck submission troubleshooting.
Experience supporting chatbot, AI-enabled customer support, website updates, broken link remediation, helpdesk escalation workflows, or public-facing user support capabilities.
Experience supporting modernization, consolidation, transition-in, or multi-vendor integration initiatives involving multiple applications and stakeholder organizations.
Relevant certifications such as: AWS Certified Developer, AWS Solutions Architect, or equivalent cloud certification; Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional (CSSLP) or equivalent secure development certification; SAFe Practitioner, SAFe DevOps, or Agile software delivery certification; ITIL, Security+, or other relevant federal IT, cybersecurity, or service management certification.
Candidates with an ACTIVE PUBLIC TRUST or SUITABILITY are preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead application development, maintenance, and enhancement activities for Grants.gov, including web-based capabilities, system-to-system interfaces, forms processing, chatbot-related updates, and operational support features.
Provide hands-on technical leadership to developers by guiding solution design, coding standards, code reviews, troubleshooting, defect resolution, refactoring, and secure development practices.
Design, develop, test, and deploy approved application enhancements in accordance with HHS Enterprise Performance Life Cycle expectations and program change management processes.
Support corrective and preventative maintenance for the Grants.gov application and chatbot to sustain availability, performance, usability, and uninterrupted service through rolling deployment practices.
Develop and maintain Grants.gov forms and related processing capabilities, including validation, browser compatibility, Section 508 support, XML and PDF generation, and compatibility with current and prior form viewer versions.
Support S2S technical coordination, including certificate coordination, diagnostics, error log review, interface troubleshooting, and issue resolution for partner organizations.
Coordinate with operations, database, cloud, security, and application platform teams on deployments, configuration changes, performance tuning, monitoring, incident response, and production support needs.
Support testing activities, including unit testing, integration testing, regression testing, defect triage, IV&V coordination, release readiness, and validation of production changes.
Update and maintain technical documentation, development artifacts, system documentation, release notes, online help updates, troubleshooting guides, and other materials needed to operate and maintain the system.
Analyze production issues, helpdesk escalations, stuck submissions, broken links, performance concerns, and application defects; recommend and implement timely fixes and long-term improvements.
Partner with architects and modernization teams to identify technical improvements, reduce technical debt, improve maintainability, support cost-efficiency goals, and align legacy Grants.gov capabilities with future-state modernization objectives.
Communicate technical status, risks, design considerations, alternatives, and recommendations clearly to technical teams, federal stakeholders, and non-technical audiences.

Benefits

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