Staff/Principal Software Engineer, Consulting (U. S. Air Force)

Role overview Serve as a consulting engineer embedded with U.S. Air Force teams on multi-vendor legacy modernization efforts spanning systems overhaul, new capability development, and agile transformation. The focus is advisory work—assessing legacy systems, shaping technical strategy, and pairing with government engineers to raise engineering quality rather than shipping code directly. Expect architecture reviews, joint working sessions with vendors, and demonstrations of modern, AI-assisted practices.

Responsibilities - Assess legacy applications and technical environments to surface technical debt, instability, and improvement opportunities, then design, document, and communicate solutions. - Own the modernization strategy, technical direction, architectural decisions, and test strategy in collaboration with government engineers and partner vendors. - Advocate for and model lean-agile practices such as API-first design, simple design, continuous integration, version control, and automated testing. - Guide teams toward secure, compliant software that meets federal security standards and defends against common vulnerabilities. - Pair with and coach government engineers so that modern practices, including AI-assisted development, stick after the engagement. - Collaborate with product managers, researchers, and designers to ensure technical recommendations serve user and mission needs.

Requirements - Ability to write clean, working, and reusable code and reason about how system pieces fit together with performance, reliability, and availability in mind. - Familiarity with building secure, compliant software and defending against common vulnerabilities. - Experience evaluating existing systems and communicating technical findings to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders. - Comfort holding architectural decision rights on a multi-vendor engagement and making tradeoffs legible to non-technical audiences. - Experience working in agile software development on cross-functional teams (product, design, engineering, ops) with iterative delivery. - Interest in mentoring, coaching, and pairing with government partners so they can carry the work forward.

Nice to have - Military or government experience. - Experience leading legacy modernization efforts or reverse-engineering legacy applications where code, documentation, and stakeholder knowledge don't agree. - Web-based tech stack experience (e.g., Java/React) and cloud infrastructure. - Experience coaching engineers on the failure modes of AI-assisted development.

Benefits and work setup - Fully remote position with occasional travel to Air Force bases across the U.S., quarterly at most. - Full-time, exempt role with an anticipated start date of November 2026. - Staff/Principal-level salary band ranges from $170,000 to $230,000, determined through the interview process based on seniority. - Medical, dental, and vision insurance; short- and long-term disability; life and AD&D insurance. - Dependent care FSA, healthcare FSA, and health savings account options. - Dollar-for-dollar 401(k) match up to 10% of salary with no vesting period. - Around 25 days of flexible paid time off plus 11 paid federal holidays, and up to 12 weeks of paid leave for new birth, adoption, or foster parents. - Performance rewards including annual salary increases, annual performance bonuses, spot bonuses, and stock options, plus referral bonuses. - $2,000 annual professional development allowance, $750 annual tech purchase allowance, and $100 annual swag budget. - The role is contingent on contract award; candidates will be notified promptly if the contract is not awarded.