Sr. Software Engineer

About ICA

International Consulting Associates, Inc. (ICA) is a rapidly growing, woman-owned small business located in the Washington, D.C. Metro area. Founded in 2009, we partner with federal agencies and large government services primes to achieve their mission-critical objectives. We're a trusted advisor, delivering cutting-edge innovation and solutions in three key areas: Research and Data Analysis, Advanced Data Science, and Strategic Services. Our current focus is on supporting multiple analytics and research programs across the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

At ICA, we believe our success starts with our people. We foster a collaborative "one-team" environment where work-life balance is prioritized. We're building dynamic, highly skilled teams in a welcoming and supportive atmosphere. If you're passionate about using your technical expertise to make a difference in federal healthcare, we want to talk to you.

About the Role

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Senior Software Engineer to join our team and play a key role in building a next-generation, AI/ML-driven data science platform for a critical federal health client. This platform will empower users with advanced analytics, enabling them to process large volumes of unstructured data and gain valuable insights to improve healthcare outcomes. You will be a technical leader, contributing to the full software development lifecycle, from design and development to deployment and maintenance, while collaborating closely with data scientists, other engineers, and client stakeholders.

This role requires a strong understanding of modern web application development, cloud-native architectures (specifically AWS), and experience with integrating machine learning models into production systems. You will be working with a modern tech stack including:

• Frontend: React with Material UI

• Backend: Django, PostgreSQL

• Cloud: AWS (S3, Keycloak, Aurora, Amplify, Lambda, Glue, and potentially others)

• Data Science Focus: Document processing, unstructured data analysis, analytics generation

About You

You are a seasoned software engineer with a passion for building impactful, data-driven applications. You are comfortable and confident in providing technical knowledge and direction, mentoring junior engineers, and driving innovation. You possess excellent communication skills, enabling you to effectively collaborate with both technical and non-technical stakeholders. You thrive in a collaborative, "one-team" environment and are eager to contribute to a project that has a real-world impact on federal healthcare. You are proactive in identifying and solving problems, and you are committed to continuous learning and staying up-to-date with the latest technologies.

Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, and maintain high-quality, scalable, and secure web applications using React, Django, and PostgreSQL.

• Implement and integrate RESTful APIs to connect frontend and backend components.

• Deploy and manage applications on AWS, leveraging services such as Amplify, Lambda, S3, Aurora, and Glue.

• Collaborate with data scientists to integrate machine learning models for document processing, unstructured data analysis, and analytics generation.

• Implement robust data pipelines for ingesting, processing, and storing large datasets.

• Optimize application performance for speed and scalability.

• Write unit and integration tests to ensure code quality and reliability.

• Participate in code reviews and contribute to improving engineering best practices.

• Troubleshoot and resolve production issues.

• Stay up-to-date with the latest technologies and trends in web development, cloud computing, and machine learning.

• Work closely with client stakeholders to understand requirements and provide technical guidance.

• Mentor junior engineers and provide technical leadership.

• Contribute to technical documentation.

• Ensure compliance with relevant federal regulations and security standards (e.g., FISMA, HIPAA – mention these if applicable).

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field. (Master's degree preferred)

• 7+ years of professional software development experience.

• 4+ years of experience with AWS services, including:

  • Core Services: S3, Lambda, IAM

  • Database: Aurora (PostgreSQL)

  • Serverless/Compute: Amplify, Lambda, Glue

  • Authentication: Keycloak (or Cognito)

  • Advantageous: Experience with AWS services related to data science (e.g., SageMaker, Comprehend, Textract, Rekognition)

• Strong proficiency in:

  • Frontend: React, Material UI (or similar component library)

  • Backend: Python, Django

  • Database: PostgreSQL

• Experience with RESTful API design and development.

• Experience with containerization (Docker) and container orchestration (Kubernetes, ECS, or Fargate).

• Experience integrating machine learning models into production applications.

• Experience with CI/CD pipelines (e.g., AWS CodePipeline, Jenkins, GitLab CI).

• Experience with data processing and ETL pipelines.

• Strong understanding of software engineering best practices, including version control (Git), testing, and code reviews.

• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

• Experience working in an Agile development environment.

Highly Desirable (Bonus Points):

• Experience working with federal health data or in a regulated environment (HIPAA, FISMA).

• Experience with Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques and libraries.

• Experience with data visualization tools (e.g., AWS QuickSight, Tableau).

• AWS Certifications (e.g., AWS Certified Developer, AWS Certified Solutions Architect).

• Experience with infrastructure-as-code (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation).

• Experience with other database technologies is a plus (DynamoDB)

Nice to Have:

• Familiarity with Agile methodologies in government settings

• Background in natural language processing or computer vision

• Prior experience working with FDA or other federal health agencies