Software Engineer and Data Automation Specialist

U. S. Sentencing Commission•Washington, DC

6d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Software Engineer and Data Automation Specialist works within the Information Systems team of the Office of Administration and Technology, supporting the research and operational work of the United States Sentencing Commission. The role designs, develops, integrates, and maintains applications, data-processing workflows, data warehouse solutions, and analytics systems, with an emphasis on document and data extraction, processing, transformation, validation, integration, and automation. The position includes modernization projects as well as ongoing support of existing systems. Assignments may involve document extraction, data transformation, database integration, reporting, and application maintenance, with duties varying according to project priorities and operational needs. The incumbent collaborates with technical staff and subject-matter experts to build shared knowledge of Commission data, business rules, and systems. The specialist develops Python applications and automated pipelines for structured and unstructured data, including PDFs and scanned documents; applies OCR, text parsing, regular expressions, and document-layout techniques; and preserves document context and traceability. The role also develops SQL and Oracle PL/SQL solutions, data models, ETL/ELT processes, integrations, reports, dashboards, and visualizations. Machine learning, natural-language processing, and locally hosted AI models may be evaluated and applied where useful, with results compared against established methods and approved reference data before production use. Applications may need to operate securely in air-gapped or restricted-network environments. The incumbent supports reliable and secure production operations through testing, data-quality checks, logging, monitoring, error handling, recovery procedures, troubleshooting, and documentation. The role includes maintaining existing applications and analytics platforms, implementing security and privacy controls, providing technical support and training, participating in cross-training and knowledge transfer, and managing assigned projects and operational tasks. Other duties may be assigned. The selected applicant must reside in or relocate to the Washington, DC metropolitan area. The position is in the excepted service. Appointment is contingent on applicable employment and security requirements, including a background investigation and a one-year probationary period.

Requirements

Undergraduate degree from an accredited university or college in information technology or a related field.
At least three years of application development experience to qualify for JS-12.
At least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade level for the grade sought; for JS-13, this means one year of specialized experience at the GS-12 level or equivalent.
Experience developing and maintaining production Python applications using modular design, source control, testing, documentation, and secure development practices.
Experience using relational databases to transform, validate, reconcile, and load data, and translating business requirements and documented coding rules into maintainable software.
Experience extracting and processing information from PDFs, text documents, or scanned images using text parsing, regular expressions, OCR, or comparable techniques, with attention to document structure, context, and accuracy.
Experience developing and supporting ETL/ELT or automated data-processing workflows and integrating applications, databases, APIs, or other enterprise systems.
Experience implementing logging, exception handling, automated testing, monitoring, and recovery procedures, and troubleshooting application, database, or data-quality issues.
Experience analyzing user needs, designing maintainable technical solutions, documenting business logic and system behavior, and working with technical staff and subject-matter experts.
Must reside in or relocate to the Washington, DC metropolitan area.
Must satisfy applicable employment eligibility and pre-employment conditions, including the required background security investigation and favorable adjudication.
Must identify a financial institution for direct deposit before appointment.
New employees, employees converted from temporary to permanent appointments, and rehired former employees must serve a one-year probationary period.
Competencies include attention to detail, customer service, decision making, information management, interpersonal skills, oral communication, problem solving, teamwork, and technical competence.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Oracle databases, SQL and PL/SQL development, data modeling, query optimization, and enterprise data integration.
Experience with advanced document processing, including OCR, layout analysis, context-preserving segmentation, and extraction from varied or complex document formats.
Experience with applied machine learning, natural-language processing, or LLM-based information extraction, including accuracy evaluation, error analysis, and human-review workflows.
Experience with locally hosted AI models or application deployment in air-gapped, restricted-network, or other controlled environments.
Experience with data warehouses, business intelligence, analytics, and application support, including ODI, OAS/OBIEE, Oracle APEX, or comparable platforms.
Experience with AI-enabled database and application capabilities, including vector search or model integration through APIs, where relevant to document processing and data analysis.

Responsibilities

Analyze business and user requirements and design, develop, implement, and maintain software supporting data collection, document processing, data integration, business intelligence, and analytics.
Develop Python applications and automated pipelines to ingest and process PDFs, scanned documents, databases, and other structured and unstructured data sources.
Develop and enhance OCR, text-parsing, regular-expression, and document-layout techniques.
Segment documents into meaningful sections or chunks while preserving context, document identifiers, and source locations for subsequent processing and review.
Collaborate with subject-matter experts to define, document, implement, and test coding rules that transform extracted information into standardized data elements.
Address exceptions, conflicting information, and ambiguous results through documented validation and review procedures.
Develop and maintain SQL and Oracle PL/SQL solutions for data transformation, validation, reconciliation, loading, and integration with operational databases and data warehouses.
Design and support end-to-end workflows for ingestion, extraction, transformation, validation, and database loading, including scheduling, monitoring, error handling, restart, and recovery.
Evaluate and apply machine learning, natural-language processing, and locally hosted AI models where they improve document extraction, classification, search, or analysis; compare results with established methods and approved reference data before production use.
Develop and integrate secure applications for air-gapped and restricted-network environments using approved tools, APIs, and locally hosted services as appropriate.
Design, maintain, and enhance data models, ETL/ELT processes, and system interfaces as data sources, technologies, and business requirements evolve.
Develop, enhance, maintain, and validate reports, dashboards, and data visualizations for accuracy and usability.
Maintain and enhance existing applications, data warehouse processes, and analytics platforms, including configurations, integrations, upgrades, and performance tuning.
Contribute to application and data architecture by designing secure, maintainable interfaces and processing components that integrate with enterprise systems and support modernization.
Implement automated and regression testing, data-quality checks, logging, and monitoring.
Maintain traceability from source documents through extraction and transformation to database values, including applicable rule and model versions.
Implement and maintain application security, authentication, authorization, and related controls, and comply with applicable federal information security, privacy, data governance, and records-management requirements.
Monitor production systems, investigate data discrepancies and processing failures, and resolve technical issues to maintain reliable operations.
Maintain technical documentation, coding-rule specifications, test cases, and operating procedures.
Participate in cross-training and knowledge transfer to support shared responsibility for Commission systems.
Provide technical support, consultation, and training to technical staff and end users.
Manage assigned projects and operational tasks to meet established requirements, quality standards, and deadlines.
Perform other duties as assigned.

Benefits

Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program
Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program (FEDVIP)
Federal Employees Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) program
Federal retirement
Thrift Savings Plan (TSP)
Federal leave program
Flexible Spending Program for dependent care, health care, and commuter reimbursement
Long Term Care Insurance Program
Unemployment benefits
Workers' compensation benefits
Monthly transit subsidy for employees who commute using mass transit, subject to funds availability
Alternative work schedules for eligible full-time employees
Regular telework at home or an approved telework site for employees who meet approved arrangement requirements; not full-time telework
Training through LinkedIn Learning and the Judiciary's Online University, including academic and professional credit programs
Training and development, continuing education, non-credit certificates, executive education, contract training, and professional credential courses