ARLIS Full Stack Software Engineer

Senior Full-Stack Engineer

The Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence & Security (ARLIS) at the University of Maryland is a University-Affiliated Research Center dedicated to advancing research, innovation, and technology transition to improve decision making for U.S. national security. ARLIS combines deep scientific expertise with operational insight to address challenges in intelligence analysis, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence / machine learning, quantum science, and human-machine teaming. Researchers, scientists, engineers, and analysts at ARLIS collaborate with government agencies, industry partners, and academic institutions to deliver actionable insights and transformative solutions through research and development. Employees at ARLIS work on projects of critical importance, contribute directly to the nation's security, and are supported by a culture that values integrity, collaboration, and professional growth.

This role is for the Intelligent Human-Machine Systems Division of the Applied Research Lab for Intelligence and Security, initially supporting Command, Control, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C2ISR) Mission Area as a Senior Full-Stack Engineer. The team works on dynamic projects for government sponsors focused on operationalizing AI to augment and advance C2ISR use cases. We support the full lifecycle of applied AI development — from requirements gathering and prototyping to deployment and informing emerging standards. Most projects are greenfield with significant freedom in making technical decisions.

Key Responsibilities:

• Operate with a high degree of independence and own features end-to-end across the stack
• Contribute actively to technical direction and design decisions on projects
• Participate in code reviews, uphold best practices, and ensure technical quality
• Mentor junior engineers on the team (without direct management responsibilities)
• Collaborate with researchers, engineers, and mission leads to shape impactful solutions

Must be able to obtain a U.S. security clearance. If selected, you must meet the requirements for access to classified information and will be subject to a government security clearance investigation that includes criminal and credit history checks, as well as verification of U.S. citizenship, birth, education, employment, and military history.

Physical Demands: Sedentary work performed in a normal office environment; exerts up to 10 pounds of force occasionally and/or negligible amount of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects, including the human body. Ability to attend meetings both on and off campus. Spending long hours in front of a computer screen.

Minimum Qualifications:

• 4–5+ years building, deploying, and maintaining full-stack applications in production
• Strong proficiency in TypeScript and modern web frameworks (React, Next.js, Remix, or Angular)
• Backend development experience with Python (Flask/FastAPI or similar)
• Solid understanding of frontend development (modern CSS, responsive design, component-driven UI)
• Experience with databases (SQL or NoSQL) and designing data models
• Experience with Docker
• Familiarity with cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred, GCP/Azure acceptable)
• Ability to operate independently, make pragmatic technical decisions, and deliver under deadlines

Preferences:

• Familiarity with TailwindCSS or other CSS-in-JS frameworks
• Experience with Kubernetes for container orchestration
• Knowledge of AWS services (S3, EC2, RDS, Bedrock) and hands-on integration experience
• Experience implementing full-stack observability (especially OpenTelemetry)
• Background in AI engineering or working with V/LLMs
• Strong debugging, profiling, and performance optimization skills
• Contributions to developer experience, internal tooling, or automation (CI/CD, testing)

Licenses/Certifications:

• AWS certifications (Solutions Architect, Developer) preferred but not required
• Kubernetes certifications (CKA, CKAD) a plus