Jr Software Engineer Jobs in Columbia, SC (NOW HIRING)

$40 - $60 per hour | West Columbia, SC | On-site | Consulting

We are a statewide public-sector organization dedicated to supporting students, educators, families, and communities. Our mission is to provide the resources, technology, and services needed to help ensure every student has the opportunity to succeed and reach their full potential.

Our technology organization plays a critical role in that mission by developing, modernizing, and supporting the applications and digital services used across the organization and throughout the state. With a strong focus on application modernization, cloud technologies, and emerging AI capabilities, our team is transforming legacy systems and building modern, scalable solutions that improve how services are delivered.

We are looking for talented technology professionals who enjoy solving complex problems, modernizing critical systems, and building innovative solutions that have a meaningful impact on the communities we serve.

As a Jobot consultant, you’ll have the opportunity to work on meaningful projects with leading organizations while receiving the support and resources of the Jobot team throughout your assignment.

• Competitive compensation
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance options
• 401(k) retirement plan
• Weekly payroll and direct deposit
• Dedicated Jobot support throughout your assignment
• Access to long-term and contract-to-hire opportunities
• Opportunities to work with innovative technologies and leading organizations
• Ongoing career support and access to future Jobot opportunities

Our goal is to provide our consultants with a positive experience from onboarding through the completion of their assignment, with a dedicated team available to support them along the way.

We are seeking an accomplished Lead Full Stack Software Engineer to serve as a senior hands-on technical contributor and technical leader within a modern application development team.

Application Modernization: Assess and modernize a portfolio of approximately 40 existing applications, determining the appropriate future-state architecture, technology stack, migration strategy, and Azure hosting model for each.

New Application & AI Development: Design and build new applications, features, and AI-enabled solutions that support future business initiatives.

The ideal candidate brings deep hands-on development experience, strong application architecture expertise, and advanced proficiency with React, Python, SQL, and Microsoft Azure. This individual should be comfortable evaluating existing systems, determining modernization strategies, selecting the right technologies and Azure services, and actively contributing to solution delivery.

The team is also embracing AI-assisted software development tools, including Claude Code and Claude CI, as part of its engineering workflows. Experience leveraging AI tools for development, testing, modernization, code review, and delivery is highly desirable.

This is not a purely architectural or management role. The Lead Software Engineer will remain actively involved in design, coding, troubleshooting, deployment, and technical decision-making while providing technical leadership and mentorship to other developers.

• Full Stack Software Development
• Design, build, test, deploy, and maintain production applications using React and React Native on the frontend, Python on the backend, SQL/Azure SQL for data management, and Microsoft Azure for cloud services and hosting.
• Remain hands-on with development, delivering production-quality code and complex technical solutions.
• Own solutions end-to-end, from requirements gathering and technical design through implementation, deployment, and support.
• Develop new applications and capabilities aligned with evolving business needs.
• Write clean, scalable, secure, maintainable, and well-tested code.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex issues involving performance, reliability, integrations, security, and scalability.

• Lead modernization efforts across a portfolio of approximately 40 legacy and existing applications.
• Evaluate applications and recommend whether they should be refactored, re-platformed, rebuilt, consolidated, or retired.
• Define appropriate technology stacks, architectures, Azure services, and hosting models.
• Lead migrations from legacy technologies, including ColdFusion, to modern cloud-native solutions.
• Design solutions that fully leverage Azure capabilities rather than simply relocating legacy systems to the cloud.
• Assess dependencies, integrations, databases, security requirements, scalability needs, performance considerations, and technical debt.
• Partner with infrastructure and cloud teams to establish scalable, secure, and maintainable Azure environments.

• Lead architecture and technical design efforts for new applications, modernization initiatives, and major enhancements.
• Design and deploy solutions using technologies such as Azure Container Apps, App Service, Azure SQL, Entra ID, and related Azure services.
• Evaluate hosting strategies based on scalability, security, maintainability, performance, and cost.
• Develop and maintain architecture, design, integration, and deployment documentation.
• Implement and support Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Bicep where appropriate.
• Evaluate emerging technologies, frameworks, and cloud services.

• Contribute to the design and development of AI-enabled applications, features, and proof-of-concept initiatives.
• Identify opportunities to integrate AI into existing and future solutions.
• Utilize Claude Code and Claude CI as part of modern engineering workflows.
• Apply AI tools for code generation, refactoring, modernization, testing, debugging, documentation, and code review.
• Help establish best practices for responsible and effective AI adoption.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies and recommend high-value use cases.

• Promote strong engineering practices, including code reviews, automated testing, reusable components, and architectural standards.
• Build and maintain modern CI/CD pipelines using GitLab, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, and related tools.
• Drive technical debt reduction, vulnerability remediation, performance improvements, and production stability.
• Champion secure software development practices.
• Improve development efficiency through automation and AI-assisted tooling.

• Provide technical leadership while remaining an active contributor.
• Mentor developers through design reviews, architecture discussions, pairing sessions, and code reviews.
• Help remove technical roadblocks and guide teams through complex challenges.
• Participate in sprint planning, backlog refinement, estimation, and workload planning.
• Partner with leadership on application strategy, technology selection, technical hiring, and onboarding.
• Clearly communicate technical recommendations and tradeoffs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• 5+ years of professional full-stack software development experience, including recent senior-level or lead-level hands-on development.
• Strong experience with React, Python, SQL, and modern web application development.
• Experience designing, deploying, and supporting applications within Microsoft Azure.
• Proven ability to make architecture and technology decisions.
• Experience across the full software development lifecycle.

• Deep expertise with React, React Native, TypeScript, Python, C#, SQL, and Azure SQL.
• Strong knowledge of Azure services, including Azure Container Apps, App Service, Azure SQL, and Entra ID.
• Experience developing modernization and cloud migration strategies.
• Experience migrating applications from legacy platforms such as ColdFusion.
• Experience selecting appropriate architectures, technology stacks, and hosting models.
• Experience building applications from concept through production deployment.
• Experience developing or integrating AI-enabled applications.
• Hands-on experience with Claude Code, Claude CI, or similar AI-assisted engineering tools.
• Understanding of generative AI use cases across software development workflows.
• Experience with Bicep and Infrastructure as Code.
• Proficiency with GitLab, GitHub Actions, and Azure DevOps.
• Experience establishing engineering standards, testing frameworks, and development best practices.
• Strong understanding of application security, scalability, reliability, performance, and cloud architecture.
• Product-focused mindset with an emphasis on maintainable and scalable solutions.
• Proven ability to provide technical leadership while remaining hands-on.
• Ability to thrive in fast-paced environments, navigate ambiguity, and make sound technical decisions.
• Experience within regulated, enterprise, public-sector, or similarly complex environments is a plus.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

Jobot is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We provide an inclusive work environment that celebrates diversity and all qualified candidates receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, age (40 and over), disability, military status, genetic information or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws. Jobot also prohibits harassment of applicants or employees based on any of these protected categories. It is Jobot’s policy to comply with all applicable federal, state and local laws respecting consideration of unemployment status in making hiring decisions.

Sometimes Jobot is required to perform background checks with your authorization. Jobot will consider qualified candidates with criminal histories in a manner consistent with any applicable federal, state, or local law regarding criminal backgrounds, including but not limited to the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring and the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

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