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 is partnering with the IRS to build a Direct File product that is easy and intuitive for all taxpayers to use. As such, it is critical to build this solution to keep scale in mind. As the Tech Lead for this highly impactful project you'll be responsible for building an elastic, resillient, and performant system that is also easy and intuitive to use.

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
• Has led a team of 5 to 6 engineer

Highly preferred:

• Prior experience building systems in the open source
• Experience building systems that have been used by a million+ users

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.