Lead AI Software Developer

Zachary Piper Solutions is seeking a Lead AI Software Developer to join a federal program located in Gaithersburg, MD on a hybrid basis. The Lead AI Software Developer will design and implement software solutions independently while working closely with systems engineering, product delivery, and DevSecOps teams., * Participate in sprint planning, daily standups, reviews, and retrospectives

• Collaborate with systems engineering and program teams to translate requirements into working software solutions
• Develop clean, maintainable, and testable code following CI/CD and DevSecOps practices
• Contribute to system design discussions and technical decision-making
• Integrate services with databases, messaging systems, and external APIs
• Support troubleshooting, performance tuning, and continuous improvement
• Work closely with QA, DevOps, and platform teams to ensure reliable delivery
• Implement modern automated testing strategies, including unit, integration, contract, and end-to-end testing
• Use AI-assisted development tools to accelerate coding, refactoring, debugging, and test creation, Key Words; ai, developer, software, federal, cleared, government, faa, artificial intelligence, api, agile, safe, microservices, java, puthon, c, programming, ml, machine learning, claude, sql, database, kafka, reverse engineering

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field (or equivalent experience)
• 4+ years of relevant experience or a Master’s Degree and 2+ years of relevant experience
• Hands-on experience building and supporting microservices-based systems
• Proficiency in at least one modern programming language (e.g., Java, Python, C++, or similar on a Linux-based system)
• Effectively leverage AI-assisted engineering tools to understand unfamiliar codebases, analyze system behavior, develop implementation strategies, accelerate development, and improve software quality.
• Experience or exposure to AI/ML-enabled systems (Claude-Code), automation, or intelligent platforms.
• Ability to analyze and understand large, complex software systems with many interacting components.
• Analyze existing software interfaces and data flows to implement new capabilities within a complex distributed system.
• Experience enhancing and maintaining existing software systems while preserving operational stability.
• Ability to abstract complex implementation details into higher-level architectural concepts and communicate those concepts effectively.
• Experience working in Agile environments
• Understanding of APIs and distributed system concepts
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust, * Experience with large-scale distributed systems
• Experience working with safety-critical or high-availability software
• Experience reverse-engineering existing software designs
• Experience integrating with legacy systems
• Experience reading and understanding large existing codebases
• Experience with Git-based version control and CI/CD pipelines
• Familiarity with Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
• Experience working with relational and/or NoSQL databases
• Hands-on experience with Kafka or other event-streaming technologies
• Cloud experience (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
• Containerization and orchestration experience (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Experience working in DevSecOps environments
• Experience with test automation frameworks and integration of automated test suites into CI/CD pipelines

• Salary Range: $140,000+ flexible based on experience
• Comprehensive Benefits: Medical, Dental, Vision, PTO, and Sick Leave as required by law
• Flexible working schedule
• Unlimited opportunities for growth