Software Developer II Backend

Volkswagen - Reston, VA

Full-time

Reston, VA

Motor Vehicle and Parts Dealers

About the position

Electrify America is seeking a Software Developer II - Backend to support the development of its back-end systems. This role is crucial in creating technology-forward, cutting-edge software solutions that address the backend and downstream systems, including website and mobile app goals. The selected candidate will be responsible for creating and managing APIs that work across devices and with multiple external partners. The Backend Developer will leverage their experience to facilitate communication between servers, applications, and databases, ensuring that data is efficiently processed and served back to users in front-end code. As an expert in backend software development, the candidate will collaborate closely with front-end developers, backend developers, and vendors to provide server-side algorithms for user-facing web application elements. This position requires coding and creating logic to support the optimal functioning of web applications, with a focus on optimizing applications for response time and efficiency. The Backend Developer will be a key member of a team responsible for the software development lifecycle of applications that support and manage Electrify America's EV charging hardware. The role demands quick problem-solving skills, with a focus on long-term solutions that ensure optimal performance while managing load effectively. The candidate will analyze and translate business or functional requirements into technical requirements, conduct reviews, and resolve bugs or errors. Additionally, the Backend Developer will help build, maintain, and improve a system architecture that supports frequent enhancements and updates, keeping pace with trends and innovations as well as future business needs.

Responsibilities

• Backend development 100% of the time
• Develop and refactor high-quality, reliable, secure, and performing code
• Develop unit tests covering the entirety of the code base
• Perform regular code reviews, identifying improvements for readability, maintainability, security, performance, and other aspects of code quality
• Participate in Agile rituals and assist in work sizing/estimation
• Participate in the secure development lifecycle leveraging best development practices
• Continuously evaluate the current code base to identify risks and technical debt, implementing improvements
• Optimize solutions for scalability, speed, and resiliency
• Create, test, enhance, and manage APIs that work across devices, including with external partners
• Meet regularly and work closely with internal and external developers, project managers, and Technology team members to develop modern innovative software solutions
• Support functional, performance, scalability, cybersecurity, and other testing
• Configure backend usability of frontend applications
• Review, analyze, and triage bugs/issues and create long-term solutions
• Work alongside the DevOps team to use and evolve the CI/CD pipeline
• Help build, maintain, and improve upon a system architecture that supports frequent enhancements and updates
• Continuously learn to stay ahead of technology trends and innovate relentlessly
• Develop and document technical designs and specifications associated with the software modules
• Write and maintain technical documentation in Confluence or other tools
• Attend and/or lead technical meetings with other Developers and Vendors
• Mentor junior developers and promote robust architecture and best development practices

Requirements

• 5+ years of software development experience
• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering or related field
• Computer literacy - set up and use software development tools, office software, productivity tools
• Critical thinking and problem solving - planning and developing test plans and test cases, analyzing faults and troubleshooting software; developing new solutions to support efficiencies
• Communication skills - interaction and collaboration within the development team, other teams, departments, and customers, excellent written and spoken communication, including presentation skills
• Organization and task management - managing personal workload in alignment with goals and priorities; assisting the development team to self-organize and coordinate work; attention to details
• 2+ years of experience technical gathering requirements, designing and developing software solutions
• 5+ years of hands-on experience as a backend software developer
• Experience in all phases of Software development life cycle (SDLC)
• Growth mindset; demonstrated ability to adapt to new technologies or priorities and learn or pivot quickly
• Curiosity to keep learning
• Excellent teamwork and cross-functional team management skills
• Ability to work closely with the Solutions Architect, Data Architect, DevOps Lead and cross teams
• Strong proven experience and success record developing distributed and cloud-native SOA back end applications
• Experience developing and managing APIs
• Proficiency in backend coding/development using Java and working knowledge of Python, Javascript
• Proficiency using no-sql databases such as MongoDB; experience using Postgres
• Knowledge of backend frameworks, such as Spring Boot, Redis, and similar
• Basic understanding of at least one front-end tech such as Java/JavaScript, HTML, CSS, to support efficiency and alignment with front-end developers
• Knowledge of software design patterns and proven experience implementing software patterns in the application code
• Strong experience debugging the code, using tracing, logging and profiling
• Experience writing unit tests as part of an automated test harness
• Working knowledge of cryptography, secure communications, secure software development practices
• Knowledge of good coding practices and experience performing code reviews
• Familiarity with Linux command line environment

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with developing high-availability software
• Experience developing highly scalable applications
• Experience with PKI, TLS, X.509 certificates