Programmer - Expert

Provide a short description of the Position:This position will support the UI Job Assist Tool (JAT), an initiative to develop and integrate secure APIs and Model Context Protocol (MCP) services between the core Unemployment Insurance (UI) system of record and an AI-enabled Job Assist Tool. The Expert Programmer will provide technical leadership for backend development, API architecture, vendor integration, security, data integrity, performance, and knowledge transfer.

Provide a list of the day-to-day tasks to be performed by the Selected Candidate:" Build core REST endpoints, construct and optimize database queries in collaboration with the Data Architect, and implement business-logic validations. " Design and review Java-based microservices and APIs supporting integration between the core UI system and the AI Job Assist Tool. " Review, critique, and recommend approval of vendor API specifications, data schemas, and integration designs before ITS development begins. " Act as a technical liaison among the vendor AI team, NYSDOL business subject-matter experts, and ITS security/infrastructure teams. " Collaborate on establishing coding standards and branching strategies, and perform critical code reviews for security, performance, and maintainability. " Design end-to-end integration among REST APIs, the MCP server, and the core UI system of record. " Collaborate with GCP Cloud Engineering on secure egress proxies, VPC Service Controls, GKE, Pub/Sub, IAM, and related cloud-native architecture. " Design validation frameworks that prevent corrupt or unapproved AI generated data from being written back to the UI system. " Anticipate and mitigate API instability, dependency, and database change risks, and develop technical workarounds as needed. " Develop and execute load-testing strategies to support approximately 1,500 concurrent users and document-heavy workloads. " Support integration of AI capabilities and Model Context Protocol (MCP) services with enterprise Java/microservice solutions. " Create and maintain technical documentation and provide knowledge transfer and mentoring to State staff.