Ascension is seeking an experienced Senior Application Developer to serve as an Applications Development Expert supporting Montgomery County Public Schools’ enterprise technology, application modernization, systems integration, and custom software development initiatives.

The selected professional will lead or provide high-level technical direction for complex application development efforts across the full System Development Life Cycle. The Senior Application Developer will help MCPS modernize legacy applications, design secure and maintainable solutions, integrate cloud and on-premises systems, implement microservices and application programming interfaces, and establish reliable DevSecOps and continuous integration/continuous delivery practices.

This role is well suited for a hands-on senior developer who can move between architecture, coding, integration, testing, troubleshooting, documentation, and technical leadership. The ideal candidate will understand that application development in a large public-school environment requires more than writing code. Solutions must be scalable, accessible, secure, supportable, well documented, and designed to protect sensitive student and employee information.

MCPS identifies the Applications Development Expert as the technical lead and mentor for complex enterprise-wide software solutions and integrations. The minimum RFP qualification is a bachelor’s degree and seven years of IT industry experience, including three years serving as a high-level technical expert.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Senior Application Developer will design, develop, modernize, integrate, test, deploy, and support enterprise applications that enable MCPS business, administrative, instructional, financial, human capital, and student-service operations.

The contractor will collaborate with MCPS technical teams, business analysts, project managers, security personnel, quality assurance specialists, system administrators, vendors, and business stakeholders to translate functional needs into secure and sustainable technical solutions. Assignments may include modernizing legacy applications; creating web, cloud, mobile, or data-driven solutions; designing APIs and microservices; implementing automated build and deployment pipelines; integrating enterprise platforms; and resolving complex production issues.

The successful candidate must be:

• Self-directed and comfortable working with limited supervision.
• Capable of leading technically complex assignments from concept through deployment.
• Skilled at anticipating integration, security, performance, accessibility, and maintainability concerns.
• Able to balance multiple priorities in an environment where individual task orders may vary in scope, urgency, technology, and duration.
• Comfortable explaining technical concepts to both technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Committed to protecting student, employee, financial, and institutional data.
• Disciplined in documenting code, decisions, configurations, interfaces, and deployment procedures.

The position may function as a technical lead or Task Leader and may provide mentoring, code-review, design-review, and troubleshooting support to other developers.

Position Responsibilities and Anticipated Activities

The Senior Application Developer will:

• Lead the design, development, modernization, integration, testing, deployment, and maintenance of complex enterprise applications.
• Analyze business, functional, security, data, accessibility, and performance requirements and translate them into technical designs.
• Develop applications and services using technologies such as Java, Python, C#, .NET, JavaScript, TypeScript, SQL, and related frameworks.
• Modernize legacy applications by refactoring code, replacing obsolete components, improving application architecture, and migrating capabilities to supported platforms.
• Design RESTful APIs, microservices, reusable components, integration services, and data-exchange mechanisms.
• Integrate cloud-based and on-premises applications, databases, identity services, enterprise systems, and third-party platforms.
• Configure and maintain automated CI/CD pipelines for building, testing, scanning, packaging, and deploying software.
• Apply Agile, Scrum, DevOps, DevSecOps, and secure SDLC practices throughout application delivery.
• Create solution architecture diagrams, technical specifications, interface-control documents, data mappings, deployment instructions, and system-support documentation.
• Conduct peer reviews, code reviews, design reviews, unit testing, integration testing, and defect-resolution activities.
• Support performance, load, stress, regression, security, and accessibility testing in coordination with quality assurance personnel.
• Identify application defects, performance bottlenecks, security weaknesses, integration failures, and technical debt.
• Troubleshoot complex production and nonproduction issues and perform root-cause analysis.
• Implement role-based access, secure authentication, authorization, encryption, input validation, logging, monitoring, and error-handling controls.
• Ensure developed solutions comply with MCPS information-security, privacy, source-code, data-ownership, and configuration-management requirements.
• Build accessible applications that support keyboard navigation, screen readers, appropriate semantic structures, and applicable ADA Section 508 and Maryland Non-Visual Access requirements.
• Maintain source code, configuration files, build scripts, technical documentation, and version histories in approved repositories.
• Participate in sprint planning, daily stand-ups, backlog refinement, demonstrations, retrospectives, release planning, and technical working sessions.
• Estimate development effort, identify dependencies, communicate technical risks, and support development of realistic delivery schedules.
• Mentor junior and mid-level developers in coding standards, design patterns, testing, debugging, security, documentation, and deployment practices.
• Coordinate with business analysts and end users to validate requirements and confirm that delivered functionality addresses the underlying business need.
• Collaborate with cybersecurity, infrastructure, database, enterprise architecture, and quality assurance teams before production deployment.
• Monitor application health and recommend improvements for reliability, scalability, performance, maintainability, and user experience.
• Prepare weekly productivity reports summarizing work completed, deliverables, hours, risks, issues, and upcoming activities.
• Transfer technical knowledge to MCPS staff through walkthroughs, demonstrations, technical documentation, and mentoring.
• Protect all MCPS data and immediately escalate suspected security incidents, unauthorized access, or data exposure.

Expected Technical Environment

Depending on the individual task order, the Senior Application Developer may work with:

• Java, Python, C#, .NET, ASP.NET, JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML, and CSS.
• SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, or comparable relational databases.
• REST APIs, SOAP services, JSON, XML, message queues, and integration middleware.
• Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Oracle Cloud, or hybrid-cloud environments.
• Azure DevOps, GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins, or comparable CI/CD platforms.
• Git-based version control and branching strategies.
• Docker, Kubernetes, or other containerization and orchestration technologies.
• Microsoft Power Platform, SharePoint, Microsoft 365, and enterprise web platforms.
• Automated unit, integration, regression, performance, and security-testing tools.
• Static application security testing, dependency scanning, vulnerability scanning, and code-quality tools.
• Agile/Scrum collaboration and work-management platforms.
• Accessibility tools such as Axe, WAVE, Lighthouse, JAWS, NVDA, or VoiceOver.

Specific technologies will depend on the MCPS task order. Candidates are not necessarily expected to possess expert-level experience with every tool listed.