Principal Software Engineer
About The Position
The Office of Innovation & Technology (OIT) is the central IT agency for the City of Philadelphia. The Revenue IT team builds and supports critical tax and revenue systems that power how the City serves residents and businesses. This role is on a small, highly collaborative engineering group that partners closely with their vendor, FAST, to configure and extend the City’s GenTax platform and surrounding services. The engineer will work across the stack—owning features end‑to‑end, from discovery and design through development, testing, deployment, and production support—while contributing to shared standards and modern engineering practices across OIT. The role involves collaboration with product owners, business analysts, QA, and stakeholders in the Department of Revenue, and coordination with FAST engineers to deliver reliable, secure, and well‑documented solutions.
Requirements
- Completion of a bachelor’s degree program at an accredited college or university with major course work in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Mathematics, or equivalent practical experience, – boot camps / alternative pathways are welcomed.
- Minimum 3 years of experience in a technical role
- Experience developing in a .NET environment (C#), building production web applications and services.
- Proficiency with relational databases and SQL (e.g., Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL).
- Strong communication skills—you can explain technical concepts clearly to both technical and non‑technical audiences.
- Ability to work both independently and collaboratively; strong ownership and follow‑through.
- Comfort navigating incomplete requirements—asking the right questions to clarify needs and deliver solutions.
- Solid source-control habits and modern development workflows.
Nice To Haves
- Experience in Web or software development, or design a plus
- Experience providing technical support to a wide variety of applications a plus
- Experience working in a large governmental, or non-profit agency is a plus; in particular, knowledge of the City of Philadelphia.
- Experience with FAST/GenTax configuration in government revenue/tax domains.
- API design and integration experience; familiarity with eventing, messaging, or ETL patterns.
- Background writing clear technical documentation and conducting thoughtful code reviews.
- Strong debugging methodology and comfort tracing complex, multi‑system issues.
Responsibilities
- Configure and extend FAST/GenTax functionality for City-specific use cases using FAST tools and C#.
- Design, build, and maintain services, integrations, and APIs that connect Revenue IT systems with other City applications and data sources.
- Write and optimize SQL for reporting, data migration, and application features across SQL Server/Oracle/PostgreSQL environments.
- Participate in agile ceremonies; scope work with product and business partners; turn evolving requirements into robust technical solutions.
- Review code, write unit/integration tests, and monitor features after launch to ensure quality and performance.
- Support production systems—triaging incidents, debugging complex issues, and implementing fixes and follow‑ups.
- Document designs, decisions, and runbooks for maintainability and knowledge sharing.
- Uphold City standards and policies—especially around data security and compliance applicable to Revenue systems.
Benefits
- 25% tuition discount program for City employees (and sometimes spouses and dependents as well) in partnership with area colleges and universities
- Comprehensive health coverage for employees and their eligible dependents
- Wellness program offers eligibility into the discounted medical plan
- Employees receive paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays
- Generous retirement savings options are available
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Principal
