Senior Software Engineer

About the Role Bluestaq is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to lead medium-sized features, improve code quality, and mentor early-career teammates on mission-critical systems. You'll own features and modules that span multiple components and services, working with product, design, and other engineering teams to deliver reliable, maintainable software that supports national security and defense missions. Why This Role Matters Senior Software Engineers are the technical anchors of our teams. You'll be the go-to person for a domain or service, ensuring that what we ship is not only functional but well-designed, tested, and sustainable. Your work will directly impact mission readiness, and your mentorship will shape the next generation of engineers at Bluestaq. You'll balance hands-on delivery with technical leadership, raising the bar for code quality and system design. Key Responsibilities Own features and modules that span multiple components/services and require coordination with other teams or roles Design and implement non-trivial features with clear tradeoffs (performance, readability, complexity, security) Write solid tests (unit, integration, basic end-to-end) and help improve test coverage and reliability Identify and address code smells, refactoring opportunities, and tech debt in your area Understand core architecture patterns in use (microservices, event-driven, SPA, component-based UI) and work within them effectively Operate independently within your product area: scope work, make reasonable design decisions, and proactively raise risks Act as an escalation point for junior engineers when debugging issues or clarifying designs Mentor others via pairing, feedback, and sharing context, not just fixing things yourself Lead medium-sized features from idea → design → implementation → production → follow-up Debug complex issues that span multiple components or services, including production incidents Make incremental improvements to architecture, patterns, and tooling in your domain Required Qualifications Strong proficiency in multiple programming languages and frameworks Proven ability to design and deliver complex features across the full stack Deep understanding of software architecture patterns and design principles Experience with automated testing strategies and test-driven development Track record of mentoring junior engineers and improving team practices Strong debugging and problem-solving skills across distributed systems Experience with cloud platforms, containerization, and modern deployment practices Excellent communication skills and ability to explain technical concepts clearly Preferred Qualifications Experience with microservices architectures and distributed systems Familiarity with event-driven architectures and asynchronous processing Background in performance optimization and scalability Experience working on government, defense, or mission-critical systems Knowledge of security best practices and secure coding standards Contributions to open-source projects or technical communities Experience with observability tools and practices (logging, metrics, tracing) Familiarity with customer-facing environments, including Technical Exchange Meetings (TEMs) or similar collaborative forums with stakeholders Required Experience and Education: PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field and 0+ years of software engineering or related experience, OR Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field and 2+ years of software engineering or related experience, OR Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field and 4+ years of software engineering or related experience, OR Associate degree in a related field and 6+ years of software engineering or related experience, OR High School Diploma/GED and 8+ years of software engineering or related experience. You use modern AI tools with judgment: integrating them into workflows where they're impactful, reviewing th…