Software Development Contractor Jobs in Newark, NJ

About Aspen Power

Aspen Power is a distributed energy generation platform with the dual mission of accelerating and democratizing decarbonization. We partner with businesses, communities, and others in the industry to develop, construct, and operate renewable energy assets. Our experienced team is passionate about solving our clients' energy challenges to deliver a sustainable future throughout the U.S. For more information, please visit aspenpower.com.

Position Overview:

Reporting to the Lead Software Engineer, AI & Software Engineering the role will help design, build, and maintain internal automation and agentic AI systems that improve how the organization works. This is a hands-on role for an emerging engineer or self-taught automation builder who already has strong software fundamentals and can reason through technical trade-offs, while working closely with project management and software engineering.

The candidate should have a solid foundation in programming, APIs, basic infrastructure concepts, and structured technical problem-solving. Guidance will focus on Aspen's systems, business context, project priorities, higher-level design decisions, and how to choose the right approach for production workflows. Practical experience with automation, OpenClaw, Hermes agents, LLM APIs, or similar agent frameworks is more important than a traditional credential alone.

This is a two-month contractor contract role (40 hours/week), and then transition to full-time employment upon good performance.

Responsibilities:

• Work with project management and software engineering to identify automation and AI-driven process improvement opportunities, then help carry solutions from discovery through delivery.
• Design and build agentic workflows using tools such as OpenClaw, Hermes agents, LLM APIs, or similar frameworks to streamline repetitive tasks and accelerate decision-making.
• Develop Python-based automation programs, scripts, and integrations to support data flow, validation, reporting, and business operations.
• Build and support internal tools as web applications, serverless functions, scripts, and APIs, with attention to reliability, maintainability, and practical deployment needs.
• Evaluate technical approaches, infrastructure choices, and implementation trade-offs with the engineering team; explain why one approach is better than another for the problem at hand.
• Measure, quantify, and report the time savings, performance gains, and decision-making improvements delivered by implemented solutions.
• Document technical designs, agent workflows, implementation decisions, and best practices so solutions remain maintainable and easy to build on.

Qualifications:

Must be passionate about AI, engineering, automation, and practical problem-solving. The candidate should be curious, coachable, comfortable learning quickly, and able to propose new approaches, understand solution trade-offs, and execute within a project-managed software development environment. In addition, the candidate should possess:

• A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Data Science, or a related technical field is helpful, but equivalent self-taught and practical engineering experience will be strongly considered.
• Strong software fundamentals: object-oriented design, version control, testing, debugging, and clean, maintainable code.
• Ability to reason through technical trade-offs, ask good questions, compare implementation options, and justify the approach taken.
• Strong proficiency in Python as the primary development language, with basic familiarity in C#, JavaScript/TypeScript, or similar languages to understand existing code, integrations, and core programming fundamentals.
• Hands-on experience building AI-assisted or automation-focused applications using LLM APIs, LangChain, OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, agent frameworks, workflow tools, or similar automation systems.
• Practical understanding of APIs, web services, authentication, data flow, deployments, and cloud concepts such as Azure or AWS; deep cloud specialization is not required.
• Evidence of staying current with the AI and automation ecosystem, such as shipped projects, internal tools, prototypes, OpenClaw or Hermes agent work, open-source contributions, or a portfolio of practical builds.
• Detail-oriented and organized, able to break complex problems into actionable steps and execute assigned work within a collaborative software development workflow.
• Clear communication skills, with the ability to explain technical trade-offs to project managers and software engineers.

Personal Characteristics:

• Collaborative and engaging team member who partners well with others
• Strong team orientation and demonstrated client management skills
• Results-driven, with a strong work ethic and commitment to excellence
• Executive presence, outgoing with strong communication and presentation skills
• Builds trust by demonstrating high ethical standards and personal integrity
• Ability to adapt and learn quickly
• Analytical problem solver who views obstacles as challenges
• Self-motivated builder who works well with direction, project priorities, and engineering feedback

Location: NYC - on-site

Compensation Range: $45 per hour (40 hours per week)

Learn more about our generous employee benefits and perks by visiting Aspen Careers.

Equal Employment Opportunity

We are committed to equal-employment principles and are dedicated to diversity and the strength it brings to the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth or medical condition related to pregnancy or childbirth), gender identity or expression, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, legally protected genetic information, marital status, veteran status, military status, sexual orientation or any other protected category or class that may be applicable.

NOTE: Due to the large volume of applicants, only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.