Developer Experience Lead

Job Summary

Seeking a professional to enhance the developer experience for an enterprise DevSecOps platform used by a federal civilian agency's software teams. The platform provides source control, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and security scanning. This role involves connecting the platform with developers, removing friction, and creating templates, documentation, and training to make secure processes the easiest option. This senior technical leadership position works directly with customer leadership and application team leads.

The position is primarily remote, with occasional on-site presence required in the Washington, DC metro area with one business day's notice. U.S. citizenship is required.

Primary Responsibilities

• Developer Enablement: Act as a senior technical advisor to application teams, assisting them in adopting platform tools such as source control, CI/CD, testing, dependency management, and security tooling. Identify and drive improvements in software development processes.
• Golden Paths and Self-Service: Create shared templates, starter repositories, example pipelines, and reusable components. Collaborate with platform, security, and operations engineers to align developer workflows with architecture, cybersecurity, and privacy requirements.
• Documentation, Training, and Adoption: Manage developer documentation and onboarding experiences. Conduct workshops, tech talks, and coaching to promote tool and practice adoption. Define and track developer experience metrics.
• Support Leadership: Lead technical support and incident response for development teams, providing hands-on troubleshooting when necessary. Offer backup coverage for other technical roles.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related field with 12 years of relevant experience, or a Master's degree with 10 years of relevant experience.
• 5 years in software engineering, DevOps, or platform engineering roles, with recent hands-on experience with enterprise source control and CI/CD platforms.
• 3 years of UX engineering, UX design, or interaction design experience related to developer-facing products.
• Experience leading the adoption of shared tools or practices across multiple development teams.
• Experience creating technical documentation and training and delivering workshops and mentoring.
• Experience in coordinating complex projects across multiple teams.
• U.S. citizenship is required.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust determination at the high-risk level.
• Ability to report on-site in the Washington, DC metro area with one business day's notice.

Preferred Qualifications

• Recent experience building golden paths on GitHub Enterprise.
• Experience with internal developer portals or self-service platform workflows.
• Experience helping developers address security findings without slowing delivery.
• Experience defining and reporting developer experience and delivery metrics.
• Experience rolling out AI-assisted development with guidelines and measured results.
• Experience enabling product teams in large enterprises or federal agencies.
• Knowledge of UX research methods and recent coding experience in modern languages.
• Knowledge of Section 508 accessibility, secure coding practices, and the NIST Secure Software Development Framework.
• Relevant certifications such as GitHub Foundations, Certified Kubernetes Application Developer, or a recognized UX certification.
• Prior service as key personnel on a federal contract and residence in the Washington, DC metro area.

Location

Washington, DC is a vibrant city known for its rich history, cultural landmarks, and diverse community. It offers a dynamic environment for professionals working in federal and technology sectors.