Principal Software Engineer

ICF • Reston, VA

18h • $144,381 - $245,448 • Remote

About The Position

ICF is a mission-driven company filled with people who care deeply about improving the lives of others and making the world a better place. Our core values include Embracing Difference; we seek candidates who are passionate about building a culture that encourages, embraces, and hires dimensions of difference. About the Role: Our Health Engineering Solutions (HES) team works side by side with customers to articulate a vision for success and then make it happen. We know success doesn't happen by accident. It takes the right team of people, working together on the right solutions for the customer. We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to provide technical leadership in the design, development, and evolution of mission-critical healthcare technology platforms. This role combines hands-on software engineering with architectural leadership and strategic technical influence. The successful candidate will help define technical direction, establish engineering standards, mentor fellow engineers, and drive the delivery of scalable, secure, and resilient cloud-native solutions. You will work closely with product owners, engineers, architects, and business stakeholders to solve complex technical challenges, modernize existing platforms, and build new capabilities that support federal healthcare programs. You will play a key role in evaluating technologies, shaping platform architecture, and ensuring engineering excellence across the software development lifecycle. We believe strongly in test-driven development, continuous integration, continuous deployment, and a DevOps-first culture. Our core work hours are 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM Eastern Time, with flexibility to start earlier or work later depending on your time zone.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree
• 12+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• 5+ years of experience developing applications using Node.js and TypeScript.
• 3+ years of experience designing, deploying, and supporting solutions within AWS cloud environments.
• 3+ years’ experience supporting federal healthcare programs.
• Must have lived in the United States for a total of three full years out of the last five years.
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust clearance.
• Must reside in the United States, be authorized to work in the United States, and all work must be performed within the United States.

Nice To Haves

• Experience building and supporting enterprise-scale REST APIs and distributed systems.
• Experience working with MongoDB or similar NoSQL database technologies.
• Experience with containerization technologies such as Docker.
• Strong understanding of cloud-native architecture, distributed systems, and software design principles.
• Demonstrated experience serving as a technical lead, architect, principal engineer, or equivalent senior technical role.
• Experience mentoring engineers and influencing technical direction across teams.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively within cross-functional teams.
• Experience with FHIR and healthcare interoperability standards.
• Experience designing and operating systems serving large public-facing user populations.
• Experience building event-driven architectures and large-scale data processing pipelines.
• Experience leading cloud migration, modernization, or platform transformation initiatives.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code solutions such as Terraform or CloudFormation.
• Experience with Identity and Access Management solutions such as Okta.
• Experience with observability and log analysis tools such as Splunk.
• Experience working in Agile software development environments.
• Experience supporting high-volume, highly available cloud-native applications.
• Experience with complex salesforce integrations with a specific focus on overall architecture in a healthcare setting.
• Experience with machine learning tools for developing and maintaining complex language models.

Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture, design, and implementation of enterprise-scale cloud-native applications and services.
• Provide technical leadership across multiple applications, services, and engineering teams.
• Design and develop secure, scalable, and maintainable backend services using Node.js, TypeScript, and modern cloud technologies.
• Establish and promote engineering standards, architectural patterns, and development best practices.
• Partner with product owners, business stakeholders, and engineering leadership to translate business objectives into technical solutions.
• Lead technical design discussions and architectural reviews.
• Mentor engineers through code reviews, design reviews, technical guidance, and knowledge sharing.
• Drive platform modernization initiatives and evaluate emerging technologies for potential adoption.
• Design and implement integrations with internal and external systems and services.
• Optimize application performance, reliability, scalability, and operational efficiency.
• Contribute to long-term technology strategy and technical roadmaps.
• Support DevOps practices, automation, observability, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Troubleshoot complex production issues and guide teams toward sustainable solutions.
• Collaborate effectively across distributed teams while maintaining strong communication with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Benefits

• ICF is an equal opportunity employer.
• Reasonable Accommodations are available, including, but not limited to, for disabled veterans, individuals with disabilities, and individuals with sincerely held religious beliefs, in all phases of the application and employment process.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal