Ruby on Rails Developer (Remote)

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<p style="margin: 12pt 0in; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">GovCIO is seeking a Ruby on Rails Backend Developer to design, build, and maintain backend services for VA.gov. This role is primarily focused on Ruby/Rails backend engineering, API development, system reliability, and integration work. You’ll collaborate closely with cross-functional teams and contribute to AI-enabled enhancements where they provide clear user value.</span></p><p style="margin: 12pt 0in; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;"> This is a fully remote position open to candidates within the Continental United States (CONUS).</span></p> <br><strong>Responsibilities</strong><br><br><h3 style="margin: 14.05pt 0in; line-height: 107%; break-after: avoid; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #2f5496; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;"><strong><span style="line-height: 107%; color: black;">Backend Development</span></strong></span></h3><ul style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0px;"><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Build and maintain backend components using Ruby on Rails, JSON controllers, Sidekiq, and other server-side tools.</span></li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Develop and optimize RESTful APIs and backend integrations.</span></li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Ensure performance, reliability, security, and compliance across all backend services.</span></li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Conduct system analysis to clarify requirements, data flows, program intent, and technical constraints.</span></li></ul><h3 style="margin: 14.05pt 0in; line-height: 107%; break-after: avoid; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #2f5496; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;"><strong><span style="line-height: 107%; color: black;">AI-Enabled Enhancements</span></strong></span></h3><ul style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0px;"><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Integrate AI capabilities into existing workflows with proper safeguards, observability, and monitoring.</span></li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Support operationalizing AI solutions within AWS, including Amazon Bedrock (model selection, latency, IAM, cost management, and logging).</span></li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Contribute to RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) implementation, including embedding strategy, vector search, relevance tuning, and guardrails.</span></li></ul><h3 style="margin: 14.05pt 0in; line-height: 107%; break-after: avoid; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #2f5496; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;"><strong><span style="line-height: 107%; color: black;">Collaboration & Delivery</span></strong></span></h3><ul style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0px;"><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Work closely with developers, product teams, and platform partners to deliver features for veteran-facing services.</span></li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Participate in Agile ceremonies, sprint planning, and code reviews.</span></li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Assist in defining system requirements, creating user stories, and estimating project timelines.</span></li></ul><h3 style="margin: 14.05pt 0in; line-height: 107%; break-after: avoid; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #2f5496; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;"><strong><span style="line-height: 107%; color: black;">Quality, Documentation & Testing</span></strong></span></h3><ul style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0px;"><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Prepare documentation such as reports, operational procedures, and maintenance manuals.</span></li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Participate in integration testing and ensure seamless system functionality.</span></li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Maintain proactive communication with internal and external stakeholders.</span></li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Ensure all deliverables meet contract, quality, and security standards.</span></li></ul> <br><strong>Qualifications</strong><br><br><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Required Skills and Experience</span></strong></p><ul><li><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Bachelor's  (or commensurate experience)</span></li><li><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">5–8 years of professional software development experience.</span></li><li><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Proven experience developing with Ruby on Rails and managing backend systems.</span></li><li>Strong analytical skills and experience with RSpec.</li><li><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Ability to work independently in a remote environment.</span></li><li><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Experience with Agile/Scrum methodologies.</span></li><li><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Knowledge of the software development lifecycle and version-control/project tools (Jira, GitHub, Confluence, etc.).</span></li><li><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">AI integration experience (LLM-powered workflows, agents, automations).</span></li><li><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">RAG experience (chunking, embeddings, vector search, relevance evaluation).</span></li><li><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">MCP (Model Context Protocol) or equivalent tool/agent integration experience.</span></li><li><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">AWS Bedrock experience (model operations, prompt management, security, monitoring).</span></li><li><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Must be a U.S. citizen or legally authorized to work in the U.S.</span></li></ul><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;"><strong>Clearance Required</strong> </span></p><ul><li><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Ability to obtain and maintain a Suitability/Public Trust</span></li></ul><p style="margin: 0px;"><br><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Preferred Skills and Experience</span></strong></p><ul><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Experience working with the VA or other federal agencies.</span></li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Familiarity with VA.gov, its ecosystem, and federal processes.</span></li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Experience with government cloud hosting.</span></li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Expertise in managing APIs within VA networks.</span></li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Experience with systems such as CorpDB, MPI, BDN, VBMS.</span></li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Experience deploying AI features in privacy/compliance-heavy environments (PII handling, redaction, rate limiting, incident response).</span></li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0in 0px; line-height: 107%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Exposure to modernization or replatforming efforts.</span></li><li><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">General awareness of responsible automation and VA modernization priorities, including emerging AI‑supported development tools.</span></li><li><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva;">Interest in learning or leveraging modern development accelerators, including AI‑assisted tooling where appropriate.</span></li></ul> <br><strong>Posted Salary Range</strong><br><br>USD $90,000.00 - USD $100,000.00 /Yr.

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