Full Stack Developer Startup Jobs in Washington, DC

We are looking for a highly skilled Full-Stack Developer to design, build, and optimize advanced AI solutions across predictive, generative, and autonomous system domains. This role requires strong hands-on engineering capabilities, deep familiarity with modern AI architectures, and the ability to translate mission needs into robust, production-ready AI capabilities. The Developer will work across the full stack of AI development, from data ingestion and model experimentation to application integration, orchestration, and deployment, and will collaborate closely with product teams, LLMOps engineers, designers, and mission stakeholders.

As a Steampunk Full Stack Developer, you'll be working with a team of software engineers, test automation engineers, designers, and product owners to bring our teams conceptual solutions to life in a mature Agile/DevSecOps environment. You will be leveraging your experience by working with  different application teams and technology stacks in order to provide our clients with exceptional solutions and functional products. As a developer, you will be hands on with the development of new functionality and will be expected to not only deliver product releases, but also to ensure solutions follow Steampunk's philosophy of human centered design and co-created experiences. Steampunk developers are committed to continuously learning and aren't afraid of solving a challenging problem with self-motivation and determination. 

• Ability to hold a position of public trust with the U.S. government.
• Bachelor's Degree and 5 years of relevant experience
  • Master's Degree and 3 years of experience OR
  • No degree and 7 years of relevant experience.
• 5+ years of experience withsoftware development, software architecture, APIs, and microservices 
• 5+ years of experience with building software using agile methods 
• 5+ Experience with multiple back-end languages (e.g. C, C#, Java, Python, Ruby on Rails) and JavaScript frameworks (e.g. Angular, React, Node.js) 
• 5+ years of experience with build, deployment, and release automation and orchestrationin a DevOps environment 
• 3+ years of experience supporting enterprise Cloud applications or infrastructure 
• 3+ years of experience with database engineering,and manipulatingrelational and NOSQLdatabases 
• 3+ years of experience with infrastructure as code environments, including any activities around automated server or network configurations, large-scale software deployments, and monitoring and testing, such as CI/CD 
• 3+ years of experience with automating tests for determining quality, security, performance and usability of a system. 
• Experience with containerization technologies such as OpenShift, EKS, and Docker 
• Experience writing and evaluating user stories, acceptance criteria, and pull-requests 
• Experience working in HCD, Agile and DevSecOps environments 
• Possess and maintain at least one professional active certification relevant to the technical services provided. 

Preferred Skills: 

• Experience with Infastructure as Code technologies such as Ansible or Terraform.
• Experience Lean Design, Test Driven Development (TDD), and Behavior Driven Development (BDD)
• A passion to contribute to the full stack - the front-end, backend and anything in-between (middleware or otherwise).
• Ability to mentor younger software engineers
• Familiar with AI/ML, generative AI, or LLM-driven application development.
• Familarwith modern AI frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, Hugging Face Transformers, LangChain, LlamaIndex, or similar.
• Experience implementing RAG architectures, embeddings, vector stores, and context retrieval patterns.
• Familiarity with multi-agent orchestration frameworks, prompt engineering strategies, and advanced LLM interaction design.
• Experience with structured and unstructured data, document processing, and application integration with existing enterprise systems.
• Understanding of responsible AI principles including safety, fairness, privacy, and model risk mitigation.
• Strong analytical and communication skills with the ability to collaborate across engineering, design, and mission domains.

Steampunk relies on several factors to determine salary, including but not limited to geographic location, contractual requirements, education, knowledge, skills, competencies, and experience. The projected compensation range for this position is $85,000 to $170,000.  The estimate displayed represents a typical annual salary range for this position. Annual salary is just one aspect of Steampunk's total compensation package for employees. Learn more about additional Steampunk benefits here. 

Identity Statement

As part of the application process, you are expected to be on camera during interviews and assessments. We reserve the right to take your picture to verify your identity and prevent fraud.

Steampunk is a Change Agent in the Federal contracting industry, bringing new thinking to clients in the Homeland, Federal Civilian, Health and DoD sectors.  Through our Human-Centered delivery methodology, we are fundamentally changing the expectations our Federal clients have for true shared accountability in solving their toughest mission challenges.  If you want to learn more about our story, visit http://www.steampunk.com.

We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Steampunk participates in the E-Verify program.