Technical Lead

Who we are:

Raft (https://goraft.tech) is a customer-obsessed non-traditional small business with a purposeful focus on Distributed Data Systems, Platforms at Scale, and Complex Application Development, with headquarters in Reston, VA. Our range of clients include innovative federal and public agencies leveraging design thinking, cutting edge tech stack, and cloud native ecosystem. We build digital solutions that impact the lives of millions of Americans.

We’re looking for an experienced Technical Lead to support our customer and join our passionate team of high-impact problem solvers. This is a unique opportunity to help build and shape a game-changing organization where we put our customers and people first.

About the role:

Raft will be building a platform to help the unaccompanied children program better connect with the care takers at HHS. As part of this platform it is critical that the technology utilized is mitigating the risks associated with duplicative data or cumbersome user experience that care takers go through and the delays that can cause for the program. As the Tech Lead for this highly impactful system, you'll partner with Raft leaders, Government stakeholders, and care takers to make architectural decisions and implementations that lead to a system that can scale, remain resilient, and is friendly to use by multiple stakeholders. The platform will be built completely in the open source.

What we are looking for:

• 10+ years of experience building scalable platform systems and leading teams
• Hands on experience making decisions that weigh the pros and cons of a realistic production system
• Hands on experience with mix of DevOps (Terraform, AWS, IaC, CI/CD) and Software Development (Building RESTFul backend APIs in Python / Java / Scala / etc.)
• Passion for building government public facing systems in the open source
• Excellent verbal skills to explain highly complex engineering decisions in plain language

Highly preferred:

• Prior experience building production systems in the open source
• Prior experience working in the government sector

Clearance Requirements:

• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Security Clearance

Work Type:

• Remote

What we will offer you:  

• Highly competitive salary 
• Fully covered healthcare, dental, and vision coverage 
• 401(k) and company match 
• Unlimited PTO + 11 paid holidays 
• Education & training benefits 
• Annual budget for your tech/gadgets needs 
• Monthly box of yummy snacks to eat while doing meaningful work 
• Team off-site in fun places! 
• Generous Referral Bonuses 
• And More!

Our Vision Statement:  

We bridge the gap between humans and data through radical transparency and our obsession with the mission.

Our Customer Obsession:

We will approach every deliverable like it's a product. We will adopt a customer-obsessed mentality. As we grow, and our footprint becomes larger, teams and employees will treat each other not only as teammates but customers. We must live the customer-obsessed mindset, always. This will help us scale and it will translate to the interactions that our Rafters have with their clients and other product teams that they integrate with. Our culture will enable our success and set us apart from other companies.

How do we get there?

Public-sector modernization is critical for us to live in a better world. We, at Raft, want to innovate and solve complex problems. And, if we are successful, our generation and the ones that follow us will live in a delightful, efficient, and accessible world where out-of-box thinking, and collaboration is a norm.

Raft’s core philosophy is Ubuntu: I Am, Because We are. We support our “nadi” by elevating the other Rafters. We work as a hyper collaborative team where each team member brings a unique perspective, adding value that did not exist before. People make Raft special. We celebrate each other and our cognitive and cultural diversity. We are devoted to our practice of innovation and collaboration.

We’re an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.