Principal Software Engineer

General Dynamics Information Technology•Los Angeles, CA

1d•$142,792 - $189,750•Remote

About The Position

We are GDIT. A global technology and professional services company that delivers consulting, technology and mission services to every major agency across the U.S. government, defense and intelligence community. Our 26,000 experts extract the power of technology to create immediate value and deliver solutions at the edge of innovation. We operate across 50 countries worldwide, offering leading capabilities in digital modernization, AI/ML, Cloud, Cyber and application development. Together with our clients, we strive to create a safer, smarter world by harnessing the power of deep expertise and advanced technology. Join our Talent Community to stay up to date on our career opportunities and events at gdit.com/tc. Equal Opportunity Employer / Individuals with Disabilities / Protected Veterans Opportunity Owned From working with technologies like AI, cyber and cloud to careers in intelligence and health, we offer endless opportunities to apply your expertise to create a safer, smarter world. For more information about GDIT's Privacy Policy, click here: Privacy Policy | GDIT

Requirements

Demonstrated track record of leading and delivering multiple production-ready, scalable distributed systems with measurable business impact
Proven experience architecting and implementing microservice architectures at scale with high-throughput and reliability requirements
Track record of establishing backend engineering standards, practices, and architectural patterns that improve team productivity and system quality
Working experience with distributed system patterns including event-driven architectures, asynchronous processing, caching strategies, and data consistency patterns
Experience designing and implementing APIs (REST, GraphQL, or similar) that serve as the foundation for customer-facing applications
Strong understanding of system transformation patterns with practical experience leading modernization efforts from monoliths to microservices or legacy to modern stacks
Experience with observability, monitoring, and alerting strategies including structured logging, metrics, tracing, and incident response
Familiarity with cloud-native architectures, infrastructure as code, and deployment patterns (AWS, Azure, GCP)
Experience with data architecture including relational and NoSQL databases, data modeling, migration strategies, and data governance
Strong proficiency in modern programming languages (Java, Python, or similar) with deep understanding of language ecosystems and tooling
Solid understanding of distributed systems principles including consistency models, consensus algorithms, failure modes, and reliability patterns
Working knowledge of cloud engineering paradigms, asynchronous systems, service integration patterns, and event-driven architectures
Experience with automated testing strategies including unit testing, integration testing, contract testing, and end-to-end system testing
Practical knowledge of system performance optimization, capacity planning, and cost optimization
Understanding of security principles including authentication, authorization, encryption, secrets management, and secure coding practices
Experience establishing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines with automated testing, security scanning, and deployment strategies
Familiarity with container orchestration (Kubernetes, ECS), infrastructure as code (Terraform, CloudFormation), and DevOps practices
Demonstrated ability to design systems that balance consistency, availability, partition tolerance, performance, and cost
Strong understanding of data architecture including database selection, schema design, indexing strategies, and query optimization
Experience with message brokers, event streaming platforms (Kafka, SQS, EventBridge), and asynchronous processing patterns
Ability to design for reliability including graceful degradation, circuit breakers, retry strategies, and disaster recovery
Working knowledge of API design principles, versioning strategies, and backward compatibility patterns
Understanding of system observability including structured logging, distributed tracing, metrics aggregation, and alerting strategies
Demonstrated ability to lead large-scale technical initiatives from vision to production, influencing outcomes across multiple teams
Quality driven, sets the standard for excellence in communication, code, and documentation
Ability to communicate complex technical concepts and strategic vision clearly to engineers, product managers, executives, and external stakeholders
Proven track record of mentoring and developing engineers at all levels, building organizational backend engineering capability
Recognized advocate for sound engineering practices who establishes patterns and influences engineering culture
Comfort leading cross-functional initiatives, making architectural decisions with organizational impact, and navigating technical/business trade-offs at the principal level
Must be a US Citizen and able to obtain and maintain Public Trust 6C

Nice To Haves

Problem Solving
Software Solutions
Solutions Development
frontend and infrastructure experience is valuable but backend systems are your primary focus
AWS, Azure, GCP
REST, GraphQL, or similar
Java, Python, or similar
Kubernetes, ECS
Terraform, CloudFormation
Kafka, SQS, EventBridge

Responsibilities

Define and drive the strategic direction for backend and full-stack engineering practices, architecture, and technical excellence across the organization
Lead the development of scalable, reliable, and secure distributed systems that serve government customers
Serve as the technical authority and thought leader for system architecture, data design, and engineering excellence
Design and implement modern service architectures, data pipelines, and infrastructure patterns that enable team velocity and system reliability
Deliver new features and improvements to our core services including major read/write paths for customer intake, application screening, and information dissemination
Collaborate with product managers and stakeholders to balance technical feasibility with business requirements, making pragmatic trade-offs that deliver measurable impact
Build and maintain shared libraries, service frameworks, and infrastructure patterns that enable consistency and reduce cognitive load
Identify opportunities to modernize our backend systems and take ownership of large-scale technical initiatives that improve system quality, performance, and maintainability
Establish and champion engineering best practices including API design, data modeling, testing strategies, observability patterns, security standards, and code quality
Mentor and coach engineers at all levels on backend technologies, distributed systems, and establish career development pathways for backend specialization
Influence technical decisions across teams and serve as a strategic advisor on architecture and infrastructure initiatives
Work across the full stack when needed to solve problems end-to-end – frontend and infrastructure experience is valuable but backend systems are your primary focus

Benefits

variety of medical plan options, some with Health Savings Accounts
dental plan options
a vision plan
a 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
a variety of paid time off plans, including vacation, sick and personal time, holidays, paid parental, military, bereavement and jury duty leave
15 days of paid leave per calendar year to be used for vacations, personal business, and illness
an additional 10 paid holidays per year
Paid Family Leave program provides a total of up to 160 hours of paid leave in a rolling 12 month period for eligible employees
short and long-term disability benefits
life, accidental death and dismemberment, personal accident, critical illness and business travel and accident insurance