Senior Software Engineer

Exostar • Herndon, VA

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

We're looking for a senior builder — a high-output engineer who ships production systems at a pace that resets expectations and raises the bar for everyone around them. Not an architect who whiteboard-only. Not a reviewer who lives in PRs. A hands-on engineer whose default mode is writing, deploying, and owning code — and whose experience means fewer wrong turns and faster recovery when things get hard.

You'll take on the work that demands senior judgment: platform migrations with no clean path, production-ready prototypes that become the foundation others build on, architectural rebuilds that have to stay live through the transition, and cross-system integrations that touch everything and are owned by no one. You scope it, you build it, you ship it — and you leave it better documented and more maintainable than you found it.

We operate in a FedRAMP Moderate / CMMC L2 environment serving major defense primes. Compliance is a constraint you've internalized — not a blocker you escalate.

Requirements

• 8–10 years of recent, hands-on software engineering with a track record of shipping full systems, not just features.
• Deep proficiency in at least two: Angular/TypeScript, .NET/C#, Python, Java — with the ability to move across stacks as needed.
• Extensive experience designing and building cloud-native systems (Azure preferred; Azure Gov a plus).
• Comfortable owning the full stack — infra → backend → frontend — and making the right tradeoffs at each layer.
• Daily user of Claude Code, Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf, or equivalent — this is how you work, not a novelty.
• Strong, earned mental model of where AI accelerates development and where human judgment is irreplaceable.
• Demonstrated examples of shipping faster and better with AI assistance and sharing those techniques with others.
• Thrives in ambiguity; makes reasonable assumptions, communicates them clearly, and ships.
• Strong but flexible architectural opinions — you can defend your reasoning and update it when presented with better information.
• Clear, precise written communication; you write to inform decisions, not to document effort.

Nice To Haves

• Have hands-on experience with Azure Government (IL2/IL4/IL5), Entra ID, PIM, managed identities, and Zero Trust architecture.
• Proven experience building in regulated environments (FedRAMP, CMMC, ITAR, SOC2, HIPAA).
• Bring a background in IAM, credentialing, PKI, or federated identity.
• Have built dev tools, internal platforms, or shared infrastructure used by other engineering teams.
• Have worked in Aerospace & Defense, Life Sciences, or other regulated SaaS environments.
• Have meaningful agentic AI development experience (MCP, multi-tool workflows, AI-driven testing) and can speak to what worked and what didn't.
• Have a prototype or side project that demonstrates what senior-level AI-augmented development looks like in practice.

Responsibilities

• Write production code daily across Angular/TypeScript, .NET/C#, Python, or whatever the problem requires.
• Use AI coding tools—Claude Code, Copilot, agentic workflows—as your native development environment and actively raise the bar for how the team uses them.
• Own systems end-to-end: architecture → implementation → testing → deployment → You deeply understand the constraints of FedRAMP and CMMC and you design around them without slowing down.
• Build on Azure Gov and Commercial using microservices, event-driven patterns, APIs, and data pipelines — and make deliberate architectural decisions that others can build on.
• Drive delivery of complex, high-impact projects: migrations, prototypes, legacy replacements, and cross-system integrations that require senior judgment to scope and execute.
• Lead IaC (Terraform, Bicep), CI/CD automation, and internal tooling that accelerates the whole engineering organization.
• Your code and architecture decisions become the reference standard for engineering quality across the team.
• Lead code reviews with depth and speed; mentor through pairing, not lectures.
• Champion AI-augmented development across the team — prompting strategies, workflow patterns, context management, and tool selection.
• Author practical, durable documentation (READMEs, ADRs, runbooks) that outlasts any single sprint.
• Identify and close skill gaps on the team through example, not just feedback.
• Provide authoritative signal on platform gaps, tooling choices, and systemic engineering friction — and propose solutions, not just observations.
• Evaluate new technology by building with it in real environments with real data, then synthesize findings for the broader team.
• Own the identification and prioritization of technical debt that materially slows delivery or increases risk.
• Partner with product and engineering leadership to influence roadmap tradeoffs from a grounded technical perspective

Benefits

• AI-native engineering: Claude & Copilot integrated across the org with leadership backing.
• Builder autonomy: Minimal process, maximum ownership.
• Mission impact: Secure collaboration infrastructure for the Defense Industrial Base.
• Real technical constraints: FedRAMP Moderate, CMMC 110/110, Azure Gov multi-tenant SaaS.
• We believe in employee development: we promote internally and provide training and educational assistance
• We provide a fun, engaged workplace, with social and community-building events
• We offer comprehensive benefits and flexible time off plans

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed