Applications Development Lead - TS/SCI with Polygraph

What You’ll Achieve

As the Applications Development Lead, you will spearhead the modernization of mission‑critical systems for a high‑visibility national security customer. This role is ideal for a Systems Engineer who thrives on driving large‑scale transformation and providing technical oversight across full‑stack software development. You will guide development efforts across Sponsor platforms and production‑deployed applications, ensuring all work aligns with mission Technical Directives. In addition, you will help shape and execute our strategy for integrating AI‑enabled tools and capabilities into the development lifecycle by identifying opportunities for automation, improving developer productivity, and advising on responsible, mission‑aligned AI adoption.

The Application Development Lead is responsible for leading multiple agile development teams in designing, implementing, and operating DevSecOps practices across a portfolio of applications. These applications are hosted in AWS infrastructure, containers, and serverless platforms. This role owns the strategy and execution of multiple continuous Integration/continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, ensures security is integrated throughout the delivery lifecycle, and drives continuous improvement in speed, quality, and reliability. Sign-on Bonus available.

How You’ll Make an Impact

• Lead and coordinate multiple agile development teams delivering applications across web services, containers, and serverless environments.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for DevSecOps delivery, aligning teams, stakeholders, and leadership on priorities and progress.
• Define and own the DevSecOps roadmap, standards, and best practices for the organization.
• Architect and oversee implementation of multiple CI/CD pipelines supporting diverse applications and technologies.
• Standardize pipeline templates, reusable components, and infrastructure-as-code (IaC) modules to enable consistency and reuse.
• Optimize build and deployment performance, reliability, and observability.
• Oversee the design and management of build, test, staging, and production environments across cloud and/or on‑prem infrastructure.
• Ensure scalable, resilient, and secure configurations for virtual machines, container platforms (e.g., Kubernetes/EKS/AKS/GKE), and serverless services.
• Integrate security controls into every stage of the pipeline (DevSecOps).
• Collaborate with security and development teams to ensure compliance with security, governance, and regulatory requirements.
• Mentor and coach engineers and scrum teams on DevSecOps, agile delivery, and automation best practices.
• Develop AWS trusted advisor recommendations and AWS engineering standards, so the customer has a unified approach to how it should be implemented.
• Provide AWS cost analysis and reconciliation, cost optimizations, and track savings prior to and after making changes while maintaining expected levels of performance and availability.
• Stay current with industry trends, tools, and practices in DevSecOps, CI/CD, cloud platforms, containers, and serverless, and recommend improvements.
• Program Delivery Oversight
  • Monitor team roadmaps and delivery milestones
  • Identify blockers and risks impacting delivery
  • Conduct root cause analysis when teams miss objectives
• Metrics & Program Analytics
  • Track AWS cost metrics for optimization opportunities
  • Monitor Jira velocity metrics to assess team delivery health
  • Manage pilot programs (completion-based contract pilot, AI implementation pilot)
  • Gather and analyze pilot data for program decisions
• Stakeholder Communication & Governance
  • Weekly meetings with division leadership (technical strategy and program status)
  • Monthly Program Management Reviews (PMRs) - delivery health and risk reporting
  • Bi-weekly PMO sessions - program alignment and cross-cutting concerns
  • Translate technical issues into executive-level communications
• Process Improvement
  • Lead ServiceNow workflow optimization for requirements management
  • Identify and implement process improvements
• Technical Advisory
  • Serve as technical advisor to division leadership on strategic initiatives
  • Participate in executive meetings requiring deep technical expertise
  • Bridge communication between technical and non-technical stakeholders

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or equivalent experience.
• TS/SCI with Poly
• 10+ years of experience in software development, DevOps, or platform engineering roles.
• 3+ years of experience leading multiple agile teams or acting as a release train engineer, delivery manager, or similar leadership role.
• Demonstrated experience designing and operating CI/CD pipelines for complex applications.
• Hands-on experience with:
  • CI/CD tools (e.g., Maven, Gradle, Jenkins, ArgoCD).
  • Source control and branching strategies (Git, trunk-based, GitFlow, etc.).
  • Cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP) and associated services for VMs, containers, and serverless.
  • Containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, ECS, AKS, EKS, GKE).
  • Serverless architectures (e.g., AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, Google Cloud Functions).
  • Infrastructure as Code (e.g., Ansible, Terraform, CloudFormation).
  • Strong knowledge of DevSecOps practices, including automated security testing and compliance integration.
  • Solid understanding of agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe or similar scaled frameworks).
  • Excellent communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills.
  • Demonstrated experience evaluating and integrating AI‑enabled development tools, with the ability to identify automation opportunities, improve developer workflows, and guide responsible AI adoption within complex software environments.
  • Demonstrated experience working with ServiceNow and its core capabilities, including integrating workflows managing platform configuration, and leveraging their solutions to support enterprise development operational needs.

Desired Skills and Experience

• Master’s  or Doctorate degree in a related field.
• Certifications such as:
  • AWS/Azure/GCP Architect or DevOps Engineer
  • Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) or similar
  • DevOps or Agile certifications (e.g., SAFe RTE, SAFe DevOps, CSM, PSM)
  • Security certifications (e.g., CISSP, CSSLP, CCSP)
• Experience implementing policy-as-code and security-as-code (e.g., OPA, Sentinel, Conftest).

Why GDIT?

• Shape the future of mission‑critical systems with national‑level impact.
• Lead enterprise modernization efforts using advanced cloud, data, and automation technologies.
• Grow your career through GDIT’s technical leadership pathways, enterprise labs, and extensive training and certification programs.
• Join an environment that empowers architects with autonomy, supports innovation, and rewards forward‑thinking technical leadership.
• Be part of a culture built on trust, collaboration, and a commitment to advancing mission capabilities.

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