Seasonal Python Django Backend Developer Jobs in Virginia

Public Trust Eligibility Required

This is a contingent position, meaning employment is dependent upon the successful award of the associated contract to Aretum and completion of any required background investigation or security clearance verification.

About Aretum

Aretum is a mission-driven organization committed to delivering innovative, technology-enabled solutions to our customers across defense, civilian, and homeland security sectors. Our teams work at the intersection of strategy, technology, and transformation, helping agencies solve their most critical challenges. We believe in investing in our people and creating a culture where collaboration, inclusion, and professional growth are at the forefront.

Job Summary

Aretum is seeking a Software Engineer/Developer to join an Agile scrum team supporting a large-scale federal digital content management and systems integration program. This role is primarily backend engineering, with a secondary front-end component. Python is the primary development language on the program, and most of your work will involve building Python and Django services, REST APIs, and data transformation routines that acquire, process, validate, and exchange digital content (images, video, audio, and textual materials) and its associated metadata between major enterprise systems. Portions of the existing platform are implemented in Java, so working Java proficiency is required, though the majority of new development is expected to be in Python. You will also build and maintain accessible user-facing features in TypeScript and React for the workflow and administrative interfaces the team delivers. Working under the direction of the team's technical lead and alongside government developers, testers, and user experience staff, you will own well-defined stories end to end, from design through unit-tested, production-ready code.

Due to the nature of our work as a federal consulting organization, employees may be expected to handle Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and must adhere to applicable safeguarding and compliance requirements.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and unit test Python and Django backend services and REST APIs as a member of a scrum team working on a three-week sprint cadence, integrated with government developers, testers, and stakeholders.
• Build data transformation and ETL routines that move content and metadata between integrated enterprise systems, including mapping, normalization, validation, and reconciliation handling.
• Implement content identification and selection functions, including filtering logic, classification rules, business-rule-driven selection, and manual, scheduled, and event-driven triggers.
• Implement API integration and content transfer features, including authentication and authorization, secure transport, retry and error-handling logic, and transaction logging for end-to-end traceability.
• Develop against relational data models in PostgreSQL, writing and tuning queries and contributing to schema design and migrations for content registries, workflow state, and audit history.
• Implement background and asynchronous processing for long-running or batched content operations, including queueing, retries, and status tracking.
• Maintain and extend existing Java components where the platform requires it, following the team's established coding standards.
• Integrate existing malware scanning, integrity validation, and routing utility services into content exchange workflows through their documented APIs.
• Build backend support for workflow administration features, including work queues, role-based permissions, exception handling paths, and audit logging.
• Implement and maintain search features using Solr and Elasticsearch, including indexing and query development.
• Develop accessible, responsive user-facing features using TypeScript, React, JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3 for workflow and administrative interfaces, conforming to WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards.
• Deploy and maintain services across AWS-based development, test, staging, and production environments, contributing to Terraform infrastructure-as-code and Docker-based containerization.
• Use Jenkins and Git for continuous integration, including automated build, test, and code quality checks such as SonarQube.
• Author unit test scripts for your own code and processes, and collaborate with government QA and testing staff who perform acceptance, integration, and accessibility testing, including participating in the creation of acceptance and testing criteria.
• Participate fully in Agile ceremonies, including user story creation sessions, daily stand-ups, backlog grooming, sprint planning, sprint reviews, and retrospectives, recording and scoring all work as user stories in JIRA.
• Respond constructively to peer code review feedback and adhere to the client's coding standards and definition of done.
• Handle all project information appropriately as Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), performing all development within client-owned and client-managed systems and environments.
• Support end-of-engagement closeout activities, including finalizing documentation and closing tickets.

• Minimum 3 years of professional software development experience on Agile teams.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent additional experience.
• Strong hands-on experience building backend services and REST APIs in Python, including production experience with the Django framework.
• Experience working with relational databases, particularly PostgreSQL, including writing and tuning queries and contributing to schema design.
• Working proficiency in Java, sufficient to maintain, extend, and troubleshoot existing Java components on the platform.
• Hands-on experience building front-end features with TypeScript and React.
• Working experience with Solr and Elasticsearch.
• Experience developing microservices and REST APIs, including authentication, authorization, and error handling.
• Proficiency with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript.
• Experience developing and deploying applications in AWS environments.
• Working experience with Terraform for infrastructure-as-code.
• Experience with Jenkins continuous integration and Git-based source control.
• Experience working in Agile and Scrum environments, including user-story-based development in JIRA with story-point estimation.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to work effectively on a fully remote, integrated government and contractor team.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting federal government clients.
• Experience with digital content, digital collections, or digital asset management systems, including ingest, metadata exchange, or preservation workflows.
• Experience building ETL or data integration pipelines between enterprise systems.
• Experience with Celery or comparable distributed task queues for asynchronous processing.
• Familiarity with accessibility testing and remediation practices under Section 508 and WCAG 2.1.
• Experience with automated testing and code quality tools such as Selenium and SonarQube.
• Experience with Docker, Red Hat Linux, and Apache.
• Familiarity with Bootstrap, AJAX, or Angular.
• Experience with reporting and monitoring tools such as Grafana or Tableau.
• Experience working in environments with CUI handling or NIST SP 800-53 security control requirements.

Travel Requirements

This is a remote position; however, occasional travel may berequiredbased on project needs, client meetings, team collaboration events, or training sessions.Travel is expected to be less than 10% and will be communicated in advance whenever possible.

EEO Statement

Aretum is committed to fostering a workplace rooted in excellence, integrity, and equal opportunity for all. We adhere to merit-based hiring practices, ensuring that all employment decisions are made based on qualifications, skills, and ability to perform the job, without preference or consideration of factors unrelated to job performance.

As an Equal Opportunity Employer, Aretumcomplies withall applicable federal, state, and local employment laws.

We are proud to support our nation’s veterans and military families,providingcareer opportunities that honor their service and experience.

If you require reasonable accommodation during the hiring process due to a disability, please contact hr@aretum.com forassistance.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled

U.S. Work Authorization

Applicants must be U.S. citizensorcurrently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.This position supports a federalgovernment contract and requires the ability to obtain andmaintaina Public Trust or Suitability Determination, depending on the agency’s background investigation requirements.Sponsorship is not available.

• Salary Range: $115,000–$136,000 annually. Final compensation will be determined based on factors including education, experience, qualifications, skills, and applicable contract requirements.

• Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision)

• Retirement Plan (401k)

• Life Insurance (Basic, Voluntary & AD&D)

• Paid Time Off

• Family Leave (Maternity, Paternity)

• Short Term & Long-Term Disability

• Training & Development