Software Engineer, Lead

Location: Rockville, MD (Hybrid) (2 Days Onsite)

Position Title: Software Engineer, Lead 

Clearance: Secret 

Required: US Citizenship

Position Summary: The Lead Software Engineer serves as the primary technical lead and Government liaison. This role is responsible for the end-to-end technical execution of DevSecOps toolchain integration, automation, deployment, and sustainment in support of U.S. Air Force.

The Lead Software Engineer provides hands-on technical leadership, ensuring CI/CD pipelines, automation frameworks, cloud and container platforms, and integrated tools operate reliably, securely, and in compliance with Government requirements. This role owns technical coordination across engineering, cybersecurity, procurement, and support staff and is accountable for delivery quality, schedule adherence, and risk mitigation.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Government Coordination

• Serve as the authoritative technical lead for the client’s DevSecOps toolchain, ensuring continuous alignment between Government mission objectives, compliance requirements, and technical implementation.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership across the full lifecycle of toolchain integration, sustainment, optimization, and modernization.
• Lead and participate in technical architecture reviews, integration planning sessions, and onboarding readiness assessments with Government engineering, cybersecurity, and program stakeholders.
• Translate high-level Government requirements, policies, and operational needs into actionable technical designs, prioritized backlog items, CI/CD pipeline enhancements, and integration tasks.
• Oversee and coordinate end-to-end technical execution across software engineering, cybersecurity, procurement, and operational support teams to ensure toolchain continuity and rapid onboarding of approved tools.
• Identify, assess, and communicate technical risks related to tool compatibility, pipeline dependencies, security controls, infrastructure constraints, and deployment timelines.
• Develop and implement risk mitigation strategies to minimize operational impact and prevent service disruption.
• Apply deep knowledge of enterprise DevSecOps architectures to ensure CI/CD pipelines, automation frameworks, and platform services are scalable, secure, resilient, and compliant.
• Serve as the primary technical interface with Government stakeholders, providing clear technical status updates, recommendations, and risk assessments to support informed decision-making and successful contract execution.

DevSecOps & CI/CD Administration

• Design, administer, and continuously optimize enterprise CI/CD pipelines supporting the onboarding, testing, deployment, and sustainment of Government-approved software tools.
• Implement pipeline-as-code practices to ensure deployments are repeatable, traceable, version-controlled, and auditable in accordance with Government and DoD requirements.
• Leverage hands-on experience with Git-based CI/CD platforms (e.g., GitLab CI/CD or equivalent) to implement build automation, artifact management, and deployment orchestration.
• Integrate automated security checks and validation gates—including scanning, compliance checks, and policy enforcement—directly into CI/CD workflows in coordination with cybersecurity personnel.
• Configure and manage pipeline credentials, secrets, and access controls using least-privilege and role-based access principles.
• Ensure CI/CD pipelines comply with DoD security, identity, and access management requirements.
• Architect pipelines to support rapid and reliable onboarding of new tools within Government-defined timelines.
• Maintain pipeline stability, performance, and resilience while supporting continuous updates and enhancements.
• Troubleshoot CI/CD failures, automation issues, and integration problems to minimize operational impact.

Automation, Integration & Deployment

• Design, develop, and maintain automation scripts and workflows to support software deployments, environment provisioning, patching, and routine updates across enterprise DevSecOps platforms, leveraging scripting languages such as Python, Bash, or PowerShell.
• Integrate existing and newly approved tools into the enterprise DevSecOps environment with minimal disruption, ensuring compatibility with CI/CD pipelines, security controls, and platform services.
• Implement infrastructure-as-code (IaC) and configuration management practices to standardize environments, reduce manual dependencies, and improve deployment consistency across development, test, and production environments..
• Execute full deployment, patching, and upgrade activities across cloud-based, virtualized, and containerized environments, ensuring adherence to Government change control and release requirements.
• Troubleshoot complex technical issues spanning CI/CD pipelines, tool integrations, container runtimes, networking components, orchestration layers (e.g., Kubernetes), and interdependent services.
• Monitor integration and deployment success using logs, metrics, and automated validation outputs, and feed results back into technical planning, backlog refinement, and regression testing cycles.
• Collaborate with quality assurance and testing teams to validate automation outcomes against defined test criteria, acceptance thresholds, and release standards prior to production deployment.
• Document automation workflows, integration configurations, and deployment procedures to support operational continuity, knowledge transfer, and audit readiness.

System Administration & Platform Support

• Perform system administration for cloud-native and containerized platforms, ensuring high availability, performance, scalability, and operational resilience in support of enterprise DevSecOps services
• Support, configure, and maintain container orchestration environments (e.g., Kubernetes or Government-approved equivalents), including cluster configuration, namespace management, and workload scheduling.
• Administer and troubleshoot compute, storage, and networking layers supporting DevSecOps platforms, including virtual machines, container runtimes, persistent storage, and network routing.
• Configure and manage platform services required for CI/CD operations, including build agents, runners, artifact repositories, and supporting middleware.
• Monitor system health using logs, metrics, and alerts to proactively identify performance degradation, capacity constraints, configuration drift, and security-relevant anomalies.
• Perform incident response and root-cause analysis for platform outages, failed deployments, and degraded services, coordinating remediation across engineering and cybersecurity teams.
• Manage user access, roles, and permissions using role-based access control (RBAC) and least-privilege principles in accordance with DoD identity and access management requirements.
• Validate service, platform, and tool functionality before and after deployment events, including smoke testing, configuration verification, and post-deployment health checks.
• Apply patching and maintenance updates to platform components and underlying infrastructure in alignment with Government change control and security requirements.
• Support configuration management and baseline enforcement, ensuring environments remain consistent with approved technical architectures and accreditation boundaries.
• Document system configurations, environment baselines, operational procedures, and recovery processes to support continuity of operations, knowledge transfer, audits, and accreditation activities.
• Provide technical input and artifacts to support required Government deliverables, including Software Toolchain Reports and Security Accreditation documentation.

Quality, Security & Compliance Support

• Collaborate closely with cybersecurity engineers to ensure RMF, FedRAMP, and DoD compliance activities are integrated into the DevSecOps lifecycle.
• Assist in producing and reviewing technical documentation, security artifacts, configuration baselines, and accreditation deliverables.
• Support ongoing security monitoring and control enforcement, ensuring tools adhere to NIST, DoD, and Air Force standards.
• Participate in security risk assessments, vulnerability tracking, and remediation tracking.
• Ensure system and pipeline configurations are compliant with change control, audit requirements, and accreditation boundaries.
• Provide technical input to compliance reports, system security plans, and control implementations.
• Work with Quality Assurance to ensure configurations and deployments meet defined acceptance criteria.

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field
  OR equivalent professional experience

• 7+ years of progressive experience in:
• Demonstrated experience leading technical teams or serving as a technical lead

Preferred Certifications

• Cloud certifications (AWS, Azure, or equivalent)
• DevSecOps or CI/CD certifications
• Kubernetes or container platform certifications

Technical Skills

• Strong experience with CI/CD tools (GitLab CI/CD or equivalent)
• Proficiency in scripting languages (e.g., Bash, Python, PowerShell)
• Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or equivalent)
• Experience with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Ability to troubleshoot complex system, integration, and deployment issues

Compensation and Benefits 

The projected compensation range for this position is $120,000 to $180,000 per year benchmarked in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The salary range provided is a good faith estimate representative of all experience levels.  Salary at LCG is determined by various factors, including but not limited to role, location, the combination of education/training, knowledge, skills, competencies, certifications, and work experience. 
 
LCG offers a competitive, comprehensive benefits package which includes health insurance options (medical, dental, vision), life and disability insurance, retirement plan contributions, as well as paid leave, federal holidays, professional development, and lifestyle benefits. 

Devoted to Fair and Inclusive Practices  

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, ethnicity, age, national origin, citizenship, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, pregnancy, family structure, marital status, ancestry, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law.  

If you are interested in applying for employment with LCG and need special assistance or an accommodation to apply for a posted position, contact our Human Resources department by email at [email protected]. 

Securing Your Data 

Beware of fraudulent job offers using LCG's name. LCG will never request payment-related details or advancement of money during the application process. Legitimate communication will only come from lcginc.com or [email protected] emails, not free commercial services like Gmail or WhatsApp. If you receive suspicious emails asking for payment or personal information, contact us immediately at [email protected]. 

If you believe you are the victim of a scam, contact your local law enforcement and report the incident to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.