NIRA, Inc. is seeking a Development Lead to direct hands-on software delivery for a U.S. Department of Justice cloud-based digital evidence management program serving U.S. Attorneys' Offices nationwide. The lead will manage an Agile development team building custom services and COTS integrations around a FedRAMP High SaaS evidence platform - owning technical delivery from sprint planning through release in accordance with DOJ incremental IT and Agile development methodologies.
Responsibilities- Lead a team of developers through sprint planning, backlog refinement, code review, and delivery while remaining hands-on in design and development
- Build and maintain custom services around the core SaaS platform, including data export services, system adapters, reporting/analytics, and production-tracking synchronization
- Implement integrations with enterprise COTS systems (identity/SSO, identity governance, ITSM, eDiscovery review, SIEM) using REST APIs and event-driven patterns
- Establish and enforce engineering standards: secure coding practices, peer review, automated test coverage, and CI/CD pipeline discipline
- Manage release execution - regression testing, deployment planning, and rollback procedures - ensuring releases preserve existing functionality under approved change control
- Translate solution architecture into implementation plans; estimate effort and report progress, risks, and issues to program leadership and the Government project manager
- Author and maintain the Software Development Plan, technical documentation, and developer contributions to training materials
- Triage and resolve defects; drive root-cause analysis and corrective action for production issues
Required Qualifications- 15 years of software development experience, including at least 3 years leading development teams or serving as technical lead
- Strong hands-on backend and API development skills (e.g., Python, Java, or Node.js), including REST API design and data persistence
- Experience developing and deploying cloud-native services on AWS
- Working command of CI/CD tooling, automated testing, and DevSecOps practices (SAST/DAST, dependency scanning)
- Track record of delivery in Agile/Scrum environments, including sprint leadership and stakeholder reporting
- Experience integrating with enterprise COTS platforms via APIs
- U.S. citizenship required; must be able to obtain and maintain a DOJ High-Risk Public Trust (Tier 4) background investigation
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field
Preferred Qualifications- Federal delivery experience, ideally with DOJ; familiarity with FedRAMP High environments and DOJ SDLC/Agile guidance
- Secure development in regulated environments (NIST 800-53, STIG hardening)
- Experience with event streaming, messaging, and high-volume data processing
- Familiarity with digital evidence, forensics, or eDiscovery platforms
- Certifications such as AWS Certified Developer/DevOps Engineer, Certified Scrum Master, or Security+
