Senior Backend Engineer

About Agile Defense
 
At Agile Defense we know that action defines the outcome and new challenges require new solutions. That’s why we always look to the future and embrace change with an unmovable spirit and the courage to build for what comes next.
 
Our vision is to bring adaptive innovation to support our nation's most important missions through the seamless integration of advanced technologies, elite minds, and unparalleled agility—leveraging a foundation of speed, flexibility, and ingenuity to strengthen and protect our nation’s vital interests.

Job Description
Role Overview: The Senior Backend Engineer is responsible for designing, building, and optimizing the core services, APIs, and data processing components that power desktop and distributed software applications. This role focuses on performance, reliability, security, and scalability at the service and data layers, ensuring seamless integration with thick client applications such as Electron-based platforms. The position requires deep expertise in backend architecture, structured data handling, and service design within secure and performance-sensitive environments. Key Responsibilities: Design and implement scalable backend services and APIs to support thick client desktop applications. Architect service-layer logic for validation, analytics, and business rule enforcement. Develop and maintain data processing pipelines for structured and semi-structured data. Optimize backend systems for performance, concurrency, and efficient resource utilization. Design clean, well-documented RESTful APIs and service contracts for client-server communication. Implement authentication, authorization, and secure data handling mechanisms. Support secure communication between backend services and Electron or other desktop client frameworks. Contribute to database schema design and data modeling strategies. Participate in code reviews and maintain backend engineering standards. Collaborate with DevSecOps teams to support containerization, CI/CD pipelines, and automated testing.

Education and Background
Typically has a Bachelor's or masters degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field, and 7+ years of experience, or equivalent relevant work experience; e.g., each year of work experience may be substituted for each year of education required.

Years of Experience
7+ years of professional software development experience with strong backend focus

Required Skills
Required Qualifications Expertise in one or more backend languages and frameworks such as: Java / Spring Python / FastAPI / Django C# / .NET Node.js Strong experience designing and building RESTful APIs. Experience working with relational and/or NoSQL databases, including schema design and performance tuning. Experience with structured data formats such as JSON, XML, CSV, or schema-driven models. Solid understanding of concurrency, memory management, and system performance. Experience supporting client-server architectures that include thick client applications. Experience delivering software in Agile/Scrum environments.

Preferred Skills
Preferred / Nice-to-Have Skills: Experience supporting or integrating with Electron-based desktop applications. Familiarity with inter-process communication models and secure client-server messaging patterns. Experience with large file processing, streaming data, or batch analytics. Exposure to DevSecOps tooling, including: Docker and containerized deployments CI/CD pipelines Static code analysis and security scanning tools Experience operating in restricted, air-gapped, or regulated environments. Experience with audit logging, traceability, and compliance-driven systems.

Working Conditions
Office environment

Our Core Values
 
Employees of Agile Defense are our number one priority, and the importance we place on our culture here is fundamental. Our culture is alive and evolving, but it always stays true to its roots. Here, you are valued as a family member, and we believe that we can accomplish great things together. Agile Defense has been highly successful in the past few years due to our employees and the culture we create together. 
 
What makes us Agile? We call it the 6Hs, the values that define our culture and guide everything we do. Together, these values infuse vibrancy, integrity, and a tireless work ethic into advancing the most important national security and critical civilian missions. It's how we show up every day. It's who we are.
 
Happy - Be Infectious. Happiness multiplies and creates a positive and connected environment where motivation and satisfaction have an outsized effect on everything we do.
Helpful - Be Supportive. Being helpful is the foundation of teamwork, resulting in a supportive atmosphere where collaboration flourishes, and collective success is celebrated.
Honest - Be Trustworthy.Honesty serves as our compass, ensuring transparent communication and ethical conduct, essential to who we are and the complex domains we support.
Humble - Be Grounded.Success is not achieved alone, humility ensures a culture of mutual respect, encouraging open communication, and a willingness to learn from one another and take on any task.
Hungry - Be Eager.Our hunger for excellence drives an insatiable appetite for innovation and continuous improvement, propelling us forward in the face of new and unprecedented challenges.
Hustle - Be Driven.Hustle is reflected in our relentless work ethic, where we are each committed to going above and beyond to advance the mission and achieve success.
 
Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities