Position Summary
The Software Developer II is a capable engineer who independently builds, tests, and deploys production-grade application features and services across RS21's client engagements. This role is designed for a practitioner who can take a feature or service from requirements through production deployment without day-to-day direction, make sound technical decisions within a defined architecture, and deliver reliable, well-documented software consistently.
At the Core level, this person works confidently across the full development stack, writes clean and testable code, participates meaningfully in architecture discussions, implements CI/CD and observability practices independently, and brings structured support to junior developers through code review and coaching. They understand that software quality is not just about passing tests; it is about building systems that teammates can understand, maintain, and extend.
This role is embedded in real client delivery and expected to take full ownership of assigned application workstreams. The Software Developer II does not wait for technical direction on every decision; they understand the architecture, make sound implementation choices within it, and escalate when a decision has implications that extend beyond their scope.
Critically, the Software Developer II is developing into the kind of engineer RS21 depends on across engagements: someone who ships reliable, maintainable, well-tested software, communicates technical decisions clearly, coaches junior teammates generously, and brings enough architectural curiosity to grow into senior-level ownership.
Key Responsibilities
Application Development
• Independently build and deploy web or application features using one or more languages proficiently; make sound implementation decisions about code structure, error handling, and testability within the established architecture.
• Write complex SQL queries independently; optimize performance, apply appropriate indexing and query patterns by workload, and write queries that are readable and maintainable.
• Design and implement REST APIs and application services that are well-documented, versioned appropriately, and built to handle failure gracefully.
• Write comprehensive unit and integration tests for developed features; treat testing as part of development, not a separate activity, and design code with testability in mind from the start.
• Participate in code review as both reviewer and reviewee; apply feedback consistently, provide specific and actionable feedback to junior developers, and use review as a tool for shared code ownership.
Cloud and Infrastructure
• Independently design and operate serverless and containerized compute architectures on AWS using Lambda, ECS, EKS, and related services; make platform decisions with awareness of cost, performance, and operational complexity.
• Independently design and manage API Gateways and VPC configurations for production application workloads; understand networking fundamentals well enough to debug connectivity issues.
• Independently build and manage CI/CD pipelines using AWS CodeSuite or equivalent; design pipelines that include testing gates, deployment validation, and rollback capability.
• Configure comprehensive monitoring and alerting for production application systems; implement observability so failures are detected and triaged before they affect client outcomes.
• Independently containerize applications and manage Kubernetes workloads in production environments; apply sound practices for resource allocation, health checking, and workload scaling.
LLM and AI Integration
• Independently build LLM-powered application features; apply prompt engineering, manage model behavior and token budgets, and design AI interactions that are reliable and appropriate for production use.
• Integrate RAG pipelines and vector search components into application layers; work with data scientists to ensure retrieval quality meets application requirements.
• Leverage AI coding assistants to accelerate development, testing, and code review tasks; validate AI-generated code critically and apply it with the same engineering discipline as hand-written code.
Quality and Documentation
• Write and maintain technical documentation for APIs, application components, and architectural decisions; document at the level of detail that enables a teammate unfamiliar with your work to use, maintain, and extend it.
• Maintain high-quality code history; write commit messages, pull request descriptions, and changelogs that make the evolution of the codebase understandable.
• Participate in architecture discussions and contribute well-reasoned technical opinions grounded in both current requirements and long-term maintainability.
Collaboration and Mentorship
• Provide structured support to junior developers through hands-on coaching, code review, documentation, and pairing; help them develop the engineering habits and communication skills that will carry them toward independent contribution.
• Collaborate with data engineers and data scientists to integrate data pipelines and model outputs into application layers; understand the full system well enough to design application code that works with data and ML constraints.
• Partner with project managers to keep software delivery aligned with client expectations and contractual constraints; surface scope and timeline risks early with enough context for leadership to act.
• Participate in sprint planning, retrospectives, and estimation ceremonies; manage work in Jira with accuracy and discipline and communicate progress and blockers proactively.
Qualifications
Required
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field.
• 3 to 5 years of hands-on software development experience, including production feature delivery with full lifecycle ownership.
• Proficiency in one or more backend languages (Python, Java, TypeScript/Node.js, or Go) and familiarity with modern front-end frameworks such as React.
• Hands-on experience with AWS services including Lambda, ECS/EKS, API Gateway, DynamoDB, RDS, and S3 for production application workloads.
• Experience with CI/CD pipeline design and implementation, version control workflows, and containerization using Docker.
• Demonstrated ability to write clean, tested, production-grade application code with appropriate observability and error handling.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; able to collaborate effectively across technical and analytical disciplines and document work clearly.
Preferred
• AWS Developer Associate or Solutions Architect Associate certification.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform or CDK.
• Experience integrating LLM API endpoints, RAG pipelines, or AI service components into production applications.
• Familiarity with Kubernetes cluster management and production container orchestration.
• Background in consulting, professional services, or multi-client delivery environments.