Principal Software Engineer

With a workforce of over 25,000 people, and opportunities in more than 1,000 different job categories, the City of Philadelphia is the fifth largest city in the United States and one of the largest employers in Southeastern Pennsylvania. As an employer, the City of Philadelphia operates through the guiding principles of service, integrity, respect, accountability, collaboration, diversity and inclusion. Through these principles, we strive to effectively deliver services, to resolve the challenges facing our city, and to make Philadelphia a place where all of our residents have the opportunity to reach their potential.  

The Office of Innovation & Technology (OIT) is the central IT agency for the City of Philadelphia headed by the Chief Information Officer (CIO). OIT oversees all major information and communications technology initiatives for the City of Philadelphia - increasing the effectiveness of the information technology infrastructure, where the services provided are advanced, optimized, and responsive to the needs of the City of Philadelphia’s businesses, residents, and visitors. OIT responsibilities include: identifying the most effective approach for implementing new information technology directions throughout city government; improving the value of the city’s technology assets and the return on the city’s technology investments; ensuring data security continuity; planning for continuing operations in the event of disruption of information technology or communications services; and supporting accountable, efficient and effective government across every city department, board, commission and agency.

The Revenue IT team builds and supports critical tax and revenue systems that power how the City serves residents and businesses. We’re a small, highly collaborative engineering group that partners closely with our vendor, FAST, to configure and extend the City’s GenTax platform and surrounding services. You’ll work across the stack—owning features end‑to‑end, from discovery and design through development, testing, deployment, and production support—while contributing to shared standards and modern engineering practices across OIT.

You’ll collaborate with product owners, business analysts, QA, and stakeholders in the Department of Revenue, and coordinate frequently with FAST engineers to deliver reliable, secure, and well‑documented solutions.

Essential Functions

• Configure and extend FAST/GenTax functionality for City-specific use cases using FAST tools and C#.
• Design, build, and maintain services, integrations, and APIs that connect Revenue IT systems with other City applications and data sources.
• Write and optimize SQL for reporting, data migration, and application features across SQL Server/Oracle/PostgreSQL environments.
• Participating in agile ceremonies; scope work with product and business partners; turn evolving requirements into robust technical solutions.
• Review code, write unit/integration tests (“if it isn’t tested, it doesn’t ship”), and monitor features after launch to ensure quality and performance.
• Support production systems—triaging incidents, debugging complex issues, and implementing fixes and follow‑ups.
• Document designs, decisions, and runbooks for maintainability and knowledge sharing.
• Uphold City standards and policies—especially around data security and compliance applicable to Revenue systems.

• Completion of a bachelor’s degree program at an accredited college or university with major course work in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Mathematics, or equivalent practical experience,  – boot camps / alternative pathways are welcomed; we care more about what you can do than where you learned how to do it.

• Minimum 3 years of experience in a technical role
  • Experience in Web or software development, or design a plus
  • Experience providing technical support to a wide variety of applications a plus

Experience working in a large governmental, or non-profit agency is a plus; in particular, knowledge of the City of Philadelphia.

Competencies, Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

What You’ll Bring (Minimum Qualifications)

• Experience developing in a .NET environment (C#), building production web applications and services. 
• Proficiency with relational databases and SQL (e.g., Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL). 
• Strong communication skills—you can explain technical concepts clearly to both technical and non‑technical audiences. 
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively; strong ownership and follow‑through. 
• Comfort navigating incomplete requirements—asking the right questions to clarify needs and deliver solutions. 
• Solid source-control habits and modern development workflows.

Preferred

• Experience with FAST/GenTax configuration in government revenue/tax domains. 
• API design and integration experience; familiarity with eventing, messaging, or ETL patterns.
• Background writing clear technical documentation and conducting thoughtful code reviews. 
• Strong debugging methodology and comfort tracing complex, multi‑system issues. 
   

Salary Range: $115,000-$123,687

Salary cannot exceed $123,687

All applications must include a cover letter. Applications without a cover letter will be considered incomplete. 

Did you know?
● We are a Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program qualified employer : 25% tuition discount program for City employees (and sometimes spouses and dependents as well) in partnership with area colleges and universities

● We offer Comprehensive health coverage for employees and their eligible dependents
● Our wellness program offers eligibility into the discounted medical plan
● Employees receive paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays
● Generous retirement savings options are available

*The successful candidate must be a city of Philadelphia resident within six months of hire
Effective May 22, 2023, vaccinations are no longer required for new employees that work in non-medical, non-emergency or patient facing positions with the City of Philadelphia. As a result, only employees in positions providing services that are patient-facing medical care (ex: Nurses, doctors, emergency medical personnel), must be fully vaccinated.

The City of Philadelphia is an Equal Opportunity employer and does not permit discrimination based on race,
ethnicity, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, marital status, source of income, familial status, genetic information or domestic or sexual violence victim status. If you believe you were discriminated against, call the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations at 215-686-4670 or send an email to faqpchr @phila.gov. For more information, go to: Human Relations Website:
http://www.phila.gov/humanrelations/Pages/default.aspx