Belay Technologies is seeking a System Engineer to join our intel team. We have an immediate need for a Front-End Developer with a strong concentration in Section 508 accessibility compliance to ensure the RAD system's interfaces are fully usable by individuals with disabilities. The ideal candidate combines solid front-end engineering skills with deep, hands-on expertise in accessibility testing and remediation, including proficiency with screen reader technology. This role involves close collaboration with a cross-functional Agile team of software developers, system engineers, and product owners to build and validate accessible, compliant, and high-quality user interfaces.
Responsibilities:
- Accessible Front-End Development: Design, develop, and maintain front-end components and user interfaces that conform to Section 508 and WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA standards.
- 508 Testing & Remediation: Perform comprehensive accessibility testing using JAWS and other screen readers, identifying and remediating issues related to keyboard navigation, focus management, ARIA implementation, color contrast, and semantic HTML structure.
- Audit & Documentation: Conduct manual and automated accessibility audits, document findings, and produce test reports as needed to support agency compliance requirements.
- Collaboration: Partner with UX/UI designers, developers, and product owners early in the design process to bake accessibility in by design rather than retrofit it, and provide guidance on accessible design patterns.
- Integration & Delivery: Work with QA and DevOps to integrate automated accessibility testing tools (e.g., axe-core, Pa11y, Lighthouse) into the CI/CD pipeline for continuous compliance monitoring.
- Collaboration & Ceremonies: Participate actively in Agile ceremonies (sprint planning, demos) and communicate accessibility requirements and tradeoffs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Required Technical Skills:
- Proven experience developing front-end applications using modern JavaScript frameworks (Vue preferred).
- Hands-on expertise testing with JAWS screen reader, with working familiarity of other assistive technologies.
- Strong knowledge of Section 508 standards, WCAG 2.1/2.2 (Levels A/AA), and ARIA authoring practices.
- Experience with semantic HTML, accessible form design, keyboard navigation patterns, and focus management.
- Proficiency with accessibility testing/auditing tools (e.g., axe DevTools, WAVE, Pa11y, Lighthouse).
- Experience with version control systems (Git) and Agile collaboration tools such as Jira and Confluence.
Candidates should have the following qualifications:
- TS/SCI Clearance with polygraph
- Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university. Four (4) years of additional SWE or related experience may be substituted for a Bachelor’s degree. Master’s degree can be substituted for two (2) years’ experience.
- Shall have at least three (3) years’ experience in software development/engineering, including requirements analysis, software development, installation, integration, evaluation, enhancement, maintenance, testing, or problem diagnosis/resolution.
- Shall have at least three (3) years of experience as a Software engineer developing software developing software with high level languages such as Java, C, C++, JavaScript.
- Shall have at least three (3) years’ experience developing software for Microsoft Windows or UNIX/Linux/Centos family of operating systems.
- Shall have experience on the design and development of at least one Object Oriented system.
- Shall be familiar with the concepts involved in “wrapping” legacy systems or components as Web Services within a SOA framework.
- Shall have experience developing solutions integrating or extending FOSS/COTS products.
- Shall have at least two (2) years’ experience in software integration and software testing at least one of newly developed, existing, modified, FOSS, COTS, or GOTS software, to include developing and implementing test plans or related test scripts.
- Shall understand technical writing and have familiarity with technical documents in support of a software development project.
Candidates are desired to have the following skills:
- Experience producing VPATs/Accessibility Conformance Reports for federal agency review.
- Familiarity with integrating automated accessibility checks into CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitLab CI/CD).
- Experience with Cypress or similar tools for automated UI/accessibility test scripting.
- Familiarity with Cloud-based architecture and deployment (Amazon Web Services).
- Familiarity with domain knowledge surrounding government agency reporting and dissemination policies
- Shall have familiarity with one or more of the skills and technologies listed in Table1.TS/SCI Clearance with polygraph
Table 1 - Desired Skills and Technologies
Skills
Front End User Interface (UI) Development, Middle-Tier Development, Back-End Development, Full Stack Development, Agile Software Development Practices, Application Programming Interface (API) principles, Artificial Intelligence, Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC), Automated Testing, Cloud Analytics, Cloud-based System Administration, Containerization, Continuous Integration / Continuous Development (CI/CD), Data Modeling, DevOps, Distributed Web Applications, Firewall Administration, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Kanban Software Development Practices, Large Language Models, Machine Learning, Microservices, Monitoring and Alerting, Network Engineering, Recommender Services, Relational Databases, Role Based Access Control (RBAC), Scripting, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Systems Engineering, Technical Documentation, User Accessibility, Virtual Machines, Web Services
Commercial Technologies
Accumulo, ActiveMQ, Akka, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Angular, Ansible, Apache, Apache NiFi, Apollo, Artemis, ASP.NET, Atlassian, Backbone.js, Bash scripting, Bootstrap, Cassandra, CentOS, CoffeeScript, CSS, Cypress, Docker, Docker Compose, Docker Swarm, Drools, Eclipse, Elasticsearch, ExtJS, Flink, Git, Gitlab, Gradle, Grafana, GWT, Hadoop, HAProxy, Hazelcast, Heron, Hibernate, HTML, IDE, Firebug, Java, JavaScript, JBlocks, Jenkins, Jetty, Jira/Confluence, JMS, jQuery, JSON, Kafka, KeyDB, Kibana, Kubernetes, Linux, Logstash, Maven, MongoDB, MBatis, MySQL, nginx, Node.js, OpenSSL, Oracle, PKI Certificate Administration, Percona, Postgres, Prometheus, Pulsar, Puppet, Python, Rancher, React.js, Redis, RESTful Web Services, SaltStack, Scala, Selenium, SOAP Web Services, Splunk, Spring, Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, Spring MVC/Beans, SQL, Squirrel, Storm, Subversion, Swagger, Sybase, Terraform, Terragrunt, Tomcat, Typescript, Vue.js, Web Security, XML, Zookeeper
Perks and Benefits:
- 8 weeks paid leave - 4 weeks of personal leave, 3 Yay! days, take off on your birthday,11 paid holidays and optional leave up to 6 days through Belay's volunteer program
- 10% matching in 401(k) contributions vested on day one
- $5,000 annual training/tuition
- Student Loan Repayment Program
- 100% company-funded HSA
- Rich medical coverage (100% coinsurance)
- Dental coverage including orthodontia
- Up to $420,000 in life insurance, premiums 100% company funded
- Amazon Prime, gym reimbursement, monthly lunches, games and prizes
- Pet adoption program, generous referral bonus program, fun events, and more!
At Belay, we are committed to creating an environment where you can thrive both professionally and personally. We believe in transparency and fairness in compensation. Several factors influence final salary including, but not limited to, geographic location, Federal Government contract labor categories and contract wage rates, relevant prior work experience, education, specific skills and competencies and certifications. Belay offers a competitive total compensation package that includes benefits and perks, a flexible work-life balance, and career development.
Salary Range: $168,000 to $200,000
Belay Technologies is a certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business located in Columbia, Maryland (Baltimore/Washington area). Belay Technologies specializes in systems automation and full stack development. Belay Technologies provides leading technology and engineering solutions to the DoD, as well as state-of-the-art commercial products. We hire software engineers, web designers, test engineers, systems engineers, systems administrators, database engineers and other tech services. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, physical or mental disability, genetic factors, military/veteran status or other characteristics protected by law.
Skills Required
- TS/SCI clearance with polygraph
- Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university, or four additional years of software engineering or related experience substituted for the degree
- At least three years of software development or engineering experience, including requirements analysis, development, integration, evaluation, maintenance, testing, or problem diagnosis and resolution
- At least three years of software engineering experience using high-level languages such as Java, C, C++, or JavaScript
- At least three years of software development experience for Microsoft Windows or Unix, Linux, or CentOS operating systems
- Experience designing and developing at least one object-oriented system
- Familiarity with wrapping legacy systems or components as web services within a SOA framework
- Experience developing solutions that integrate or extend FOSS, COTS, or GOTS products
- At least two years of software integration and software testing experience, including developing and implementing test plans or test scripts
- Familiarity with technical writing and technical documents supporting software development projects
- Experience developing front-end applications with modern JavaScript frameworks, preferably Vue
- Hands-on experience testing with JAWS screen reader and familiarity with other assistive technologies
- Knowledge of Section 508, WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 Levels A/AA, and ARIA authoring practices
- Experience with semantic HTML, accessible form design, keyboard navigation, and focus management
- Proficiency with accessibility testing and auditing tools such as axe DevTools, WAVE, Pa11y, or Lighthouse
- Experience with Git and Agile collaboration tools such as Jira and Confluence
What We Do
Belay Technologies, Inc. is a certified Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) located in the Baltimore-Washington area providing technology and engineering services to the Department of Defense (DoD) and expanding into the commercial market. Belay Technologies specializes in technical IT services including; software development, virtualization, systems administration, networking, and testing. Belay continues to expand, and we are always seeking top talent. Belay is more than just a company.....It's a culture. With our work hard, play hard edge and a family-like feel, our employees feel at home with Belay. We are a laid back, fun, innovative team that gets together monthly for lunches, enjoys company parties, bbq's and fun adventures together, and joins in volunteer and charity events as a socially aware company.
