Principal Developer - OIT Internal Recruitment (Remote From Anywhere In CO)

We’re looking for a strategic and collaborative Principal Developer to be a top team member in the operations of an applications delivery work unit to drive the modernization and architectural evolution of our systems. In this role, you will be the technical cornerstone for our development team, guiding the migration of legacy infrastructure to modern, Cloud centric microservice architectures while maintaining high-stakes, data-intensive applications.

If you are passionate about reducing technical debt, enforcing robust engineering standards, and mentoring developers to elevate code quality, we invite you to lead our efforts in transforming our technology landscape.

Essential Duties:

• Engineer Full-Stack Solutions: Develop and deliver end-to-end software solutions across user interfaces, server-side services, and data persistence layers while authoring automated tests, building deployment assets, and executing releases.

• Architect Systems & Interoperability: Design and guide end-to-end architectures across applications of varying sizes, establishing clear data exchange interfaces and system interoperability standards.

• Support Agency Modernization: Provide technical guidance for the agency’s modernization roadmap, partnering with stakeholders to evaluate options and advocate for viable migration pathways from legacy environments to modern platforms.

• Establish Engineering Standards & Best Practices: Define, champion, and lead by example in adopting reusable engineering patterns, coding guidelines, automated testing practices, and modular design principles for a single dedicated team supporting one state agency.

• Govern Data & Security Pipelines: Plan and execute data migration tasks across structured and unstructured datasets, implementing secure pipelines, validation checks, and strict controls for regulated data classifications (e.g., PII, CJIS, HIPAA).

• Enforce Security Compliance & Accessibility: Apply digital accessibility regulations (e.g., WCAG 2.1) and security standards across business processes, content, tools, and documents, while leveraging the Nationwide Cybersecurity Review (NCSR) maturity model to address aging infrastructure, reduce technical debt, and enhance overall system resilience and reliability.

• Lead & Mentor Developers: Coach engineering team members through 1-on-1 sessions, pair programming, detailed code reviews, and technical design discussions to continuously elevate code quality and foster professional growth.

• Manage Lifecycle Operations: Oversee development activities across the full Software Development Life Cycle-from requirements gathering and secure programming to deployment, release management, and operational support (ranging from minor bug fixes to major enhancements).

• Foster Strategic Alignment: Participate in technical strategic discussions, collaborate across matrix management environments, and consult with stakeholders to ensure application designs align with organizational strategies and customer requirements., OIT employees must comply with any screening procedures in place at state agency locations where they might perform work.

A pre-employment background check will be conducted as part of the selection process. Post-employment background checks will be required for specific agencies as business needs dictate, which may include a polygraph exam, fingerprint-based criminal history search, reference checks, and a drug test.

This position may require travel within the specified geographic area, and to locations across the state as needed.

This position may require on-call duties as needed by the position.

A wide salary range is posted for this position and any job offer is based upon a salary analysis to comply with the Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act. The salary analysis considers relevant experience, education, certifications, and state seniority as compared to others doing substantially similar work. While most salary offers are made within the posted range, occasionally an offer is made below or above the posted range based upon this salary analysis.

This is a skills-based job announcement. The required minimum qualifications and/or education (if substituting for the proven experience, knowledge, and skills), are as follows, * A minimum of seven (7) years of progressive software engineering experience across full-stack development, systems architecture, and support operations.

• Documented experience applying digital accessibility regulations and standards (e.g., WCAG 2.1) to business processes, content, tools, and documents, with specific examples of improvements made.
• Background in evaluating migration pathways from legacy environments to modern platforms, designing interoperable systems, and managing technical debt.
• Familiarity with implementing security controls and governance for sensitive data classifications (e.g., PII, CJIS, HIPAA) and aligning with security maturity frameworks (such as the NCSR).

Substitutions:

• Additional appropriate education will substitute for the required experience on a year-for-year basis, but cannot completely substitute for these qualifications.
• Training or Certification related to the work assigned to the position will be assigned credit towards substitution for experience and/or education, but cannot completely substitute for these qualifications., * Technical Leadership & Mentorship: Demonstrated capability in guiding engineering standards, establishing best practices, and mentoring developers through code reviews and technical design.
• Architecture Transformation: Proven expertise in transforming monolithic legacy applications into microservice or cloud-native architectures.
• Technology Proficiency: Strong proficiency in at least two of: C# (.NET Core, ASP.NET Core, Blazor/WASM), Python (Terraform), JavaScript/TypeScript (Angular/React, Vue, NodeJS).
• AI-Assisted Development: Strong proficiency in Claude.AI as it applies to development practices and activities to improve accelerated coding, security, and debugging.
• CI/CD & Automation: Experience designing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines in Azure DevOps or equivalent tooling.
• Cloud Services: Working knowledge of AWS services in the context of enterprise application hosting and integration.
• Agile Leadership: Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional engineering teams using Agile/Scrum methodologies.
• Public Sector Experience: Experience in Colorado state government or other public-sector enterprise IT environments.
• Sensitive Data Handling: Experience with sensitive data types (PII, CJIS, HIPAA, tax records).
• Domain Experience: Experience with CDPHE data and services.

Together, we innovate for a stronger Colorado

The work of employees at the Governor’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) is challenging and diverse because the needs of agencies, customers and Coloradans constantly evolve. But our focus never changes: improve the lives of all Coloradans through innovation and collaboration. We’re building one of the nation’s leading government IT organizations by reimagining how we support agencies, building first-of-their-kind applications, and creating an inclusive, collaborative culture, together. Join us in the important work of providing equitable access to services.

Watch this video to learn more about how we’re Serving People. Serving Colorado., The State of Colorado strives to create a Colorado for All by building and maintaining workplaces that value and respect all Coloradans through a commitment to equal opportunity and hiring based on merit and fitness. The State is resolute in non-discriminatory practices in everything we do, including hiring, employment, and advancement opportunities.