Senior Software Engineer

Bluestaq•Colorado Springs, CO

About The Position

Senior Software Engineers are the technical anchors of our teams. You'll be the go-to person for a domain or service, ensuring that what we ship is not only functional but well-designed, tested, and sustainable. Your work will directly impact mission readiness, and your mentorship will shape the next generation of engineers at Bluestaq. You'll balance hands-on delivery with technical leadership, raising the bar for code quality and system design.

Requirements

Strong proficiency in multiple programming languages and frameworks
Proven ability to design and deliver complex features across the full stack
Deep understanding of software architecture patterns and design principles
Experience with automated testing strategies and test-driven development
Track record of mentoring junior engineers and improving team practices
Strong debugging and problem-solving skills across distributed systems
Experience with cloud platforms, containerization, and modern deployment practices
Excellent communication skills and ability to explain technical concepts clearly
You use modern AI tools with judgment: integrating them into workflows where they're impactful, reviewing their outputs, and handling proprietary or sensitive data responsibly.

Nice To Haves

Experience with microservices architectures and distributed systems
Familiarity with event-driven architectures and asynchronous processing
Background in performance optimization and scalability
Experience working on government, defense, or mission-critical systems
Knowledge of security best practices and secure coding standards
Contributions to open-source projects or technical communities
Experience with observability tools and practices (logging, metrics, tracing)
Familiarity with customer-facing environments, including Technical Exchange Meetings (TEMs) or similar collaborative forums with stakeholders

Responsibilities

Own features and modules that span multiple components/services and require coordination with other teams or roles
Design and implement non-trivial features with clear tradeoffs (performance, readability, complexity, security)
Write solid tests (unit, integration, basic end-to-end) and help improve test coverage and reliability
Identify and address code smells, refactoring opportunities, and tech debt in your area
Understand core architecture patterns in use (microservices, event-driven, SPA, component-based UI) and work within them effectively
Operate independently within your product area: scope work, make reasonable design decisions, and proactively raise risks
Act as an escalation point for junior engineers when debugging issues or clarifying designs
Mentor others via pairing, feedback, and sharing context, not just fixing things yourself
Lead medium-sized features from idea → design → implementation → production → follow-up
Debug complex issues that span multiple components or services, including production incidents
Make incremental improvements to architecture, patterns, and tooling in your domain