Principal Software Engineer (Mainframe Modernization)

Nava is a consultancy and public benefit corporation working to make government services simple and effective. In this role, you will lead technical innovation efforts to transform legacy systems into modern, scalable solutions while coordinating across teams to ensure that solutions meet business needs and technical standards.

Responsibilities:

• Productize new technologies to provide innovative solutions that facilitate modernization of legacy systems
• Create playbooks and training for Nava engineering to train up on Nava capabilities
• Develop demo applications showcasing the capabilities of these solutions
• Work with project teams to deploy capabilities within their projects and iterate based on their feedback
• Ensure that modernized systems solve legacy system pain points
• Coordinate with government partners, subject matter experts, and Nava's project teams to capture critical business rules and constraints
• Facilitate interdisciplinary coordination across teams to unlock dependencies and ensure successful application of new technologies across modernization efforts

Requirements:

• Proven experience leading end-to-end modernization efforts, including transitioning from legacy systems (e.g., mainframes, monoliths) to modern architectures (e.g., microservices, cloud-native)
• Strong architectural skills with the ability to design scalable, maintainable and secure systems
• Advanced proficiency in mainframe programming languages, technologies, and implementation patterns (e.g., COBOL, JCL, QSAM, VSAM)
• Advanced proficiency in modern programming languages and frameworks (e.g., Java, Python, Node.js, or equivalent)
• Experience with legacy system integration, interface development, and data migration strategies
• Familiarity with APIs, messaging systems, and event-driven architecture
• Strong understanding of DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, and automated testing
• Legal authorization to work in the United States
• Ability to meet any other requirements for government contracts for which candidates are hired
• Work authorization that doesn't require visa sponsorship, now or in the future
• May be subject to a government background check or security clearance, depending on the contract
• Familiarity with modern LLM technologies
• Experience with various data synchronization patterns and technologies used with mainframe systems (e.g., DB2, IBM API Connect, Change Data Capture)