Ruby on Rails Developer

Roles and Responsibilities
Full-Stack Application Development

Design, develop, and maintain Ruby on Rails applications supporting mission-critical government and commercial systems.
Develop responsive, accessible, and user-friendly interfaces using ERB templates, HTML5, JavaScript, and modern CSS.
Build and maintain critical user workflows including forms, dashboards, reporting, user authentication, and role-based access management.
Design and develop secure RESTful APIs and integrate with external systems and cloud services.
Write clean, maintainable, reusable, and well-tested code following software engineering best practices.

Frontend Engineering

Develop responsive user interfaces using modern JavaScript, CSS, and browser-native Web Components.
Contribute to shared UI components and design systems.
Support implementation of Maryland Web Design System (MDWDS), U.S. Web Design System (USWDS), or similar government design systems.
Ensure applications meet WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards and responsive design best practices.

AI-Assisted Software Development

Leverage AI development tools such as GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, OpenAI, Amazon Q Developer, Claude, Cursor, or similar tools to improve engineering productivity.
Use AI responsibly to accelerate code generation, documentation, unit testing, debugging, refactoring, and code reviews.
Apply human judgment to validate AI-generated code for correctness, security, maintainability, accessibility, and compliance.
Utilize AI tools to generate technical documentation, test cases, API specifications, and implementation guidance.
Stay current on emerging AI software engineering practices and recommend improvements to development workflows.

Collaboration & Technical Leadership

Collaborate closely with product managers, UX designers, solution architects, and fellow engineers to translate business requirements into technical solutions.
Participate in Agile ceremonies including sprint planning, backlog refinement, daily standups, and retrospectives.
Participate in peer code reviews and mentor junior developers through constructive feedback.
Help establish engineering standards, reusable patterns, and best practices across development teams.

Quality & DevOps

Develop automated unit, integration, and end-to-end tests.
Support CI/CD pipelines and automated deployment processes.
Troubleshoot production issues and participate in root cause analysis.
Contribute to application performance optimization, monitoring, and operational excellence.

Required Qualifications
Education & Experience

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience).
4–8 years of professional software engineering experience.
3+ years of professional Ruby on Rails development experience

Technical Skills

Strong expertise in Ruby on Rails.
Experience developing applications using ERB templates.
Strong JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3 skills.
Experience with responsive web development.
Strong understanding of REST APIs.
Experience with Git and modern CI/CD pipelines.
Experience writing automated tests.
Strong understanding of secure software development practices.
Excellent debugging and troubleshooting skills.

AI Development Skills
Experience using AI-assisted software development tools such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor, ChatGPT, Claude, Amazon Q Developer, or similar platforms.
Ability to effectively prompt AI coding assistants to improve software development productivity.
Strong understanding of responsible AI usage, including verification, testing, security review, and human oversight of AI-generated code.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with Hotwire, Turbo, or Stimulus.
Experience with PostgreSQL or other relational databases.
Experience with Docker and Kubernetes.
Experience with AWS cloud services.
Familiarity with Terraform or Infrastructure as Code.
Experience designing or maintaining shared component libraries.
Experience with Lit for Web Components.
Experience with Maryland Web Design System (MDWDS), U.S. Web Design System (USWDS), or Eleventy.
Experience supporting Federal or State Government projects.
Familiarity with Section 508, WCAG, NIST, or FedRAMP compliance requirements.

What We're Looking For

Passion for building high-quality software that improves citizen services.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
Customer-first mindset with attention to usability and accessibility.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
Ability to manage multiple priorities in a collaborative Agile environment.
Self-motivated with a continuous learning mindset.
Enthusiasm for adopting AI-assisted software engineering practices while maintaining accountability for code quality and security.