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Guidehouse · 3 weeks ago

Software Developer (Backend – API)

US - AL, Huntsville

Full-time

Onsite

Mid, Senior Level

4+ years exp

Guidehouse is a leading consulting firm seeking a Software Developer to join their Technology / AI and Data team, supporting mission-critical initiatives for Defense and Security clients. The role involves designing and developing backend services that power advanced AI-driven platforms, focusing on building and optimizing APIs and service layers while ensuring compliance with federal security standards.

AdviceConsultingManagement Consulting

No H1B

Security Clearance Required

U.S. Citizen Only

Responsibilities

Serves as the lead backend engineer designing, implementing, and optimizing the API and service layer powering the FBI’s AI-based adjudication platform

Builds scalable backend services integrating LLM inference, retrieval pipelines, scoring engines, memo-generation tools, and analyst-facing applications

Ensures backend components meet FedRAMP High, RMF, CJIS, and FBI ATO requirements, including secure coding, access management, structured logging, and auditability

Collaborates with AI/ML engineers, cloud developers, frontend developers, and mission stakeholders to deliver a unified, mission‑aligned adjudication system

Design and implement secure REST and GraphQL APIs supporting document ingestion, inference requests, retrieval operations, scoring workflows, and memo generation

Develop backend microservices supporting adjudication logic, workflow routing, metadata extraction, entity processing, and evidence-correlation functionality

Develop schema-driven payload contracts ensuring consistency, provenance tracking, and audit trail enforcement across adjudication workflows

Implement high‑throughput request-handling patterns including async workers, job queues, batching, parallel processing, and retry frameworks

Develop workflow orchestration logic integrating LLM inference services, embedding pipelines, vector retrieval layers, SEAD‑4 scoring modules, and analyst review triggers

Implement event-driven integration using SQS/SNS, Kafka, EventBridge, or Step Functions to coordinate asynchronous scoring and memo-processing workflows

Integrate backend systems with case management solutions, identity systems, financial/criminal data feeds, and adjudication-history repositories

Ensure all integrations enforce strict authentication, authorization, validation, and audit requirements

Develop parsers and transformation functions for SF‑86 forms, attachments, investigative summaries, and multi‑component evidence files

Implement chunking, segmentation, metadata extraction, and normalization pipelines to support RAG workflows and long‑context LLM inference

Develop backend utilities for PII redaction, classification enforcement, entity labeling, and evidence tagging to support adjudication review

Ensure all document ingestion and processing steps maintain full traceability and error‑handling visibility

Apply secure coding practices aligned with FedRAMP High, RMF, OWASP, CJIS, and FBI ATO requirements

Implement structured audit logging, inference logs, retrieval traces, scoring records, and analyst‑override events for audit and compliance purposes

Collaborate with security engineers to ensure enforcement of RBAC, workload identity policies, encryption patterns, and API authorization controls

Ensure all backend components and workflows meet compliance expectations for chain‑of‑custody, evidence provenance, and adjudicator accountability

Optimize backend services using caching layers, indexing strategies, pagination, connection pooling, batching, and concurrency tuning

Implement reliability patterns such as circuit breakers, exponential backoff strategies, distributed locks, fallback mechanisms, and DLQ routing

Develop operational metrics for latency, throughput, failure modes, and degradation patterns, integrating them into monitoring dashboards

Ensure backend systems maintain stability and predictable performance under high‑volume adjudication workloads

Partner with AI/ML teams to ensure backend services support model requirements, inference routing, retrieval assembly, and structured output delivery

Collaborate with frontend developers to design and refine backend endpoints supporting dashboards, memo builders, workflow tools, and risk‑display interfaces

Participate in sprint ceremonies, architecture reviews, peer code reviews, and stakeholder briefings

Mentor junior developers in backend best practices, distributed systems, secure coding, and scalable API design

Qualification

Backend EngineeringAPI DevelopmentPythonMicroservicesRESTGraphQLAsynchronous ProgrammingDistributed SystemsAWS ServicesCollaborationLeadershipMentoring

Required

An ACTIVE and MAINTAINED 'TOP SECRET' Federal or DoD security clearance

Requires a University Degree and minimum 4-6 years of prior relevant experience; (Relevant experience may be substituted for formal education or advanced degree)

5 years of backend engineering experience, including 3 years building APIs or microservices

Proficiency in Python, Node.js, or Java with strong command of REST, GraphQL, and asynchronous programming patterns

Experience designing and building secure, scalable backend APIs (REST/GraphQL)

Experience with distributed systems, async processing, message-driven architectures, and microservices

Experience integrating with ML services or external APIs in secure systems