Java Software Engineer Contract Jobs in Kennewick, WA

WHAT IS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY?
A description of the business units can be found at: https://www.jobs.irs.gov/about/who/business-divisions

• Position(s) are to be filled in the following area(s):
  • IT - Taxpayer Services and Online Accounts

• Consider each location carefully when applying. If you are selected for a location, that location will become your official post of duty.

REVIEW THE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BELOW FOR FURTHER DETAILSQualifications:

Federal experience is not required. Experience may have been gained in the public sector, private sector or through Volunteer Service. One year of experience refers to full-time work; part-timework is considered on a prorated basis. To ensure full credit for your work experience, please indicate dates of employment by month/day/year, and indicate number of hours worked per week, on your resume.
You must meet the following requirements by the closing date of this announcement.
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS: You must have Information Technology related experience demonstrating each of the following nine competencies: 1) Attention to Detail, 2) Customer Service, 3) Decision Making, 4) Information Management, 5) Interpersonal Skills, 6) Oral Communication, 7) Problem Solving, 8) Teamwork and 9) Technical Competence.
GS-14 SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: You must have one year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-13 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience for this position includes:

• Leading or coordinating IT projects, application-related efforts, operational initiatives, or system-related activities that affect multiple users, teams, programs, or business processes.
• Applying advanced IT principles, concepts, methods, and practices to evaluate requirements; resolve technical issues; guide system, application, or code testing and configuration decisions; and ensure technical documentation and federal cybersecurity, privacy, or regulatory requirements are addressed.
• Engaging customers, stakeholders, users, product or business owners, and technical teams to define business or technical requirements, communicate technical impacts, and guide delivery of secure, reliable, scalable IT solutions.
• Evaluating system, service, or application performance, availability, reliability, security controls, usability, and operational effectiveness; identifying risks, issues, defects, or gaps; and leading corrective actions or improvement efforts.
• Analyzing competing technical approaches and providing authoritative recommendations to management, stakeholders, or IT specialists on the selection, design, configuration, implementation, or improvement of IT solutions with organizational impact.
• Planning and coordinating an agency-wide implementation of process improvement methods and concepts to improve the quality of software products; serving as the principal advocate within the agency/organization for the application of process improvement concepts and practices; and consulting with senior specialists and IT managers throughout the agency in the implementation of process improvement practices.
• Leading teams that design and develop agency-wide applications which included review and approval of technical requirements for projects, developing project plans; providing guidance to team members and serving as primary liaison between customers and vendors and IT management throughout the development process.
• Designing, developing, integrating, testing, and supporting conversational interfaces, virtual assistants, voice automation, or interactive voice response (IVR) solutions in a production environment.
• Developing natural language processing (NLP), speech recognition, intent-based routing, conversational workflow, or automated self-service solutions for customer interactions.
• Integrating voice or conversational platforms with enterprise applications, APIs, backend systems, authentication services, or customer data platforms.
• Demonstrating subject matter expert (SME)-level proficiency in programming language such as Java or Python, including development of backend services, automation, integrations, or conversational application logic.
• Troubleshooting and resolving complex system integration, application reliability, authentication, speech processing, or performance issues across interconnected platforms.
• Applying DevSecOps, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, version control, and agile software development practices in enterprise environments.

AND
You must also meet the following requirement(s):

• PERFORMANCE RATING: Current federal employees must have at least a fully successful or equivalent performance rating to receive consideration.
• TIME AFTER COMPETITIVE APPOINTMENT (TACA): By the closing date (or if this is an open continuous announcement, by the cut-off date) specified in this job announcement, current civilian employees must have completed at least 90 days of federal civilian service since their latest non-temporary appointment from a competitive referral certificate, known as time after competitive appointment. For this requirement, a competitive appointment is one where you applied to and were appointed from an announcement open to "All US Citizens"
• TIME IN GRADE (TIG): Federal employees must meet time-in-grade requirements. For positions above the GS-05,applicants must meet applicable time-in-grade requirements to be considered eligible. One year (52 weeks) at the next lower grade level is required to meet the time-in-grade requirements for the grade you are applying for. For positions at the GS-05, you cannot advance to the GS-05 if you have held a GS-02 in the past 52 weeks. There is no TIG restriction for GS-02, 03, or 04 positions.

For more information on qualifications please refer to OPM's Qualifications Standards.

Education:A college or university degree generally must be from an accredited (or pre-accredited) college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. For a list of schools which meet these criteria, please refer to Department of Education Accreditation page.
FOREIGN EDUCATION: Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet the requirements. You must show proof the education credentials have been deemed to be at least equivalent to that gained in conventional U.S. education program. It is your responsibility to provide such evidence when applying. Click here (Section 3, Explanation of Terms) or here for Foreign Education Credentialing instructions.
We recommend choosing an evaluator from a member organization of one of the following national associations of credential evaluation services: National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES) or Association of International Credentials Evaluators (AICE).Employment Type: OTHER