Lead Developer Jobs
Lead developer jobs are open across fintech, healthtech, enterprise software, and e-commerce, from senior engineer to staff and principal levels, with specializations in backend architecture, full-stack development, and platform engineering. Find a role that fits below and apply directly.
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About Peraton
Peraton is a next-generation national security company that drives missions of consequence spanning the globe and extending to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. As the world’s leading mission capability integrator and transformative enterprise IT provider, we deliver trusted, highly differentiated solutions and technologies to protect our nation and allies. Peraton operates at the critical nexus between traditional and nontraditional threats across all domains: land, sea, space, air, and cyberspace. The company serves as a valued partner to essential government agencies and supports every branch of the U.S. armed forces. Each day, our employees solve the most daunting challenges that our customers face. Visit peraton.com to learn how we’re keeping people around the world safe and secure.
About The Role
Peraton is looking for a Lead Application Developer to join our team of qualified and diverse individuals. This person will lead the design, development, modernization, and integration of enterprise applications supporting mission-critical federal operations.
This role requires a technically hands-on leader who can drive delivery across modern cloud-native environments while working closely with architects, engineers, product teams, and external partners. You will contribute directly to application development, modernization strategy, DevSecOps adoption, and system integration efforts.
You are expected to move beyond feature delivery—ensuring applications are scalable, secure, resilient, and aligned to evolving mission and compliance requirements.
Location: Suitland, MD (Hybrid)
Day to Day Roles and Responsibilities:
- Lead development and modernization of enterprise applications within a cloud-native ecosystem
- Refactor legacy and COTS applications into modular, microservices-based architectures using open-source technologies
- Design, develop, and integrate APIs, event-driven services, and messaging-based systems
- Develop secure, scalable, and highly available applications supporting high-volume and near real-time processing
- Contribute to AI/ML-enabled application workflows, including model integration and deployment support
- Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines supporting automated testing, deployment, and security validation
- Implement DevSecOps best practices, including secure SDLC, automated scanning, and compliance validation
- Support system-of-systems integration across multiple applications, contractors, and technical teams
- Ensure applications align with federal security and compliance requirements, including NIST, FedRAMP, FISMA, Zero Trust, MFA, and ATO support processes
- Design and support data ingestion, ETL pipelines, transformation, analytics, and dissemination capabilities
- Troubleshoot and resolve complex issues across application, infrastructure, integration, and data layers
- Lead code reviews, mentor developers, and enforce engineering standards and best practices
- Collaborate within Agile/Scrum and SAFe delivery environments to ensure consistent execution and delivery quality
Qualifications
Basic Qualifications:
- Bachelors degree and 12 years of experience or an Associates degree and 14 years of experience or a High School diploma/equivalent and 16 years of experience.
- Must be a U.S. Citizen with the ability to obtain a Public Trust
- 12+ years of experience in software development, application engineering, or enterprise application modernization.
Demonstrated experience leading application development teams supporting large-scale federal IT modernization or transformation initiatives.
Proven experience designing, developing, and modernizing enterprise-grade, cloud-native applications.
Experience modernizing legacy or COTS applications into open-source, microservices-based architectures.
Experience with APIs, distributed integrations, event-driven architectures, and messaging systems.
Experience implementing DevSecOps practices and CI/CD pipelines within secure environments.
Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies, including Docker and Kubernetes.
Experience with data integration, ingestion, ETL pipelines, data transformation, and dissemination workflows.
Experience with infrastructure automation and Infrastructure as Code (IaC), including Terraform.
Working knowledge of federal security and compliance requirements, including NIST, FedRAMP, FISMA, Zero Trust, MFA, and Authority to Operate (ATO) processes.
- Experience supporting highly available, scalable, and resilient applications, including performance optimization.
- Experience working in Agile/Scrum and SAFe development environments.
Experience supporting large-scale federal statistical, Census, or other mission-critical modernization programs.
Cloud certifications in AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
Experience integrating Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning capabilities into enterprise applications.
Experience with Apache Kafka or other large-scale event-streaming technologies.
Experience supporting complex system-of-systems integration initiatives.
Details
Target Salary Range: $135,000 - $216,000. This represents the typical salary range for this position. Salary is determined by various factors, including but not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the position, the individual’s experience, education, knowledge, skills, and competencies, as well as geographic location and business and contract considerations. Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay.
Benefits Statement: Peraton offers eligible employees a variety of benefits including medical, dental, vision, life, health savings account, short/long term disability, EAP, parental leave, 401(k), paid time off (PTO) for vacation, and company paid holidays. A full listing of available benefits can be viewed at https://www.careers.peraton.com/benefits.
Application Statements: The application period for the job is estimated to be 30 days from the job posting date. However, this timeline may be shortened or extended depending on business needs and the availability of qualified candidates. By applying to this job, you are expressing interest in the role and the Company. During the review of your application, you may be required to participate in an on-camera interview, as well as participate in a process to verify your identity. Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools of any kind during Peraton interviews is strictly prohibited unless the candidate has obtained prior written authorization. All interview responses must be the candidate’s own.
EEO: Equal opportunity employer, including disability and protected veterans, or other characteristics protected by law.
About Peraton
Peraton is a next-generation national security company that drives missions of consequence spanning the globe and extending to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. As the world’s leading mission capability integrator and transformative enterprise IT provider, we deliver trusted, highly differentiated solutions and technologies to protect our nation and allies. Peraton operates at the critical nexus between traditional and nontraditional threats across all domains: land, sea, space, air, and cyberspace. The company serves as a valued partner to essential government agencies and supports every branch of the U.S. armed forces. Each day, our employees solve the most daunting challenges that our customers face. Visit peraton.com to learn how we’re keeping people around the world safe and secure.
About The Role
Peraton is looking for a Lead Application Developer to join our team of qualified and diverse individuals. This person will lead the design, development, modernization, and integration of enterprise applications supporting mission-critical federal operations.
This role requires a technically hands-on leader who can drive delivery across modern cloud-native environments while working closely with architects, engineers, product teams, and external partners. You will contribute directly to application development, modernization strategy, DevSecOps adoption, and system integration efforts.
You are expected to move beyond feature delivery—ensuring applications are scalable, secure, resilient, and aligned to evolving mission and compliance requirements.
Location: Suitland, MD (Hybrid)
Day to Day Roles and Responsibilities:
- Lead development and modernization of enterprise applications within a cloud-native ecosystem
- Refactor legacy and COTS applications into modular, microservices-based architectures using open-source technologies
- Design, develop, and integrate APIs, event-driven services, and messaging-based systems
- Develop secure, scalable, and highly available applications supporting high-volume and near real-time processing
- Contribute to AI/ML-enabled application workflows, including model integration and deployment support
- Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines supporting automated testing, deployment, and security validation
- Implement DevSecOps best practices, including secure SDLC, automated scanning, and compliance validation
- Support system-of-systems integration across multiple applications, contractors, and technical teams
- Ensure applications align with federal security and compliance requirements, including NIST, FedRAMP, FISMA, Zero Trust, MFA, and ATO support processes
- Design and support data ingestion, ETL pipelines, transformation, analytics, and dissemination capabilities
- Troubleshoot and resolve complex issues across application, infrastructure, integration, and data layers
- Lead code reviews, mentor developers, and enforce engineering standards and best practices
- Collaborate within Agile/Scrum and SAFe delivery environments to ensure consistent execution and delivery quality
Qualifications
Basic Qualifications:
- Bachelors degree and 12 years of experience or an Associates degree and 14 years of experience or a High School diploma/equivalent and 16 years of experience.
- Must be a U.S. Citizen with the ability to obtain a Public Trust
- 12+ years of experience in software development, application engineering, or enterprise application modernization.
Demonstrated experience leading application development teams supporting large-scale federal IT modernization or transformation initiatives.
Proven experience designing, developing, and modernizing enterprise-grade, cloud-native applications.
Experience modernizing legacy or COTS applications into open-source, microservices-based architectures.
Experience with APIs, distributed integrations, event-driven architectures, and messaging systems.
Experience implementing DevSecOps practices and CI/CD pipelines within secure environments.
Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies, including Docker and Kubernetes.
Experience with data integration, ingestion, ETL pipelines, data transformation, and dissemination workflows.
Experience with infrastructure automation and Infrastructure as Code (IaC), including Terraform.
Working knowledge of federal security and compliance requirements, including NIST, FedRAMP, FISMA, Zero Trust, MFA, and Authority to Operate (ATO) processes.
- Experience supporting highly available, scalable, and resilient applications, including performance optimization.
- Experience working in Agile/Scrum and SAFe development environments.
Experience supporting large-scale federal statistical, Census, or other mission-critical modernization programs.
Cloud certifications in AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
Experience integrating Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning capabilities into enterprise applications.
Experience with Apache Kafka or other large-scale event-streaming technologies.
Experience supporting complex system-of-systems integration initiatives.
Details
Target Salary Range: $135,000 - $216,000. This represents the typical salary range for this position. Salary is determined by various factors, including but not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the position, the individual’s experience, education, knowledge, skills, and competencies, as well as geographic location and business and contract considerations. Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay.
Benefits Statement: Peraton offers eligible employees a variety of benefits including medical, dental, vision, life, health savings account, short/long term disability, EAP, parental leave, 401(k), paid time off (PTO) for vacation, and company paid holidays. A full listing of available benefits can be viewed at https://www.careers.peraton.com/benefits.
Application Statements: The application period for the job is estimated to be 30 days from the job posting date. However, this timeline may be shortened or extended depending on business needs and the availability of qualified candidates. By applying to this job, you are expressing interest in the role and the Company. During the review of your application, you may be required to participate in an on-camera interview, as well as participate in a process to verify your identity. Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools of any kind during Peraton interviews is strictly prohibited unless the candidate has obtained prior written authorization. All interview responses must be the candidate’s own.
EEO: Equal opportunity employer, including disability and protected veterans, or other characteristics protected by law.
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Find Lead Developer JobsLead Developer Job Market
Who's Hiring
- Vail Resorts16
- JPMorganChase11
- Robotics Technologies10
- Information Technology Senior Management Forum10
- Cognizant8
Top Industries Hiring
- Technology & Software33
- Consulting & Professional Services7
- Banking & Financial Services4
- Investment & Asset Management3
- Insurance1
What Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in lead developer jobs.
- Five or more years of professional software engineering experience, including technical leadership
- Proficiency in at least one backend language such as Python, Java, Go, or Node.js
- Experience designing and reviewing system architecture for scalable, distributed applications
- Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and lead code reviews across a team
- Hands-on experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure
- Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, containerization tools like Docker, and infrastructure-as-code practices
Tips for Your Lead Developer Job Search
Reframe your resume around ownership
Lead developer roles prioritize decision-making authority over task completion. Rewrite your bullets to show what you owned end-to-end, not just contributed to. Hiring managers want to see that you drove architecture choices, not just implemented them.
Apply early to roles that fit
Migrate Mate lists lead developer openings from across the United States in one place, so you can find roles that match and apply directly to each listing.
Target companies by their tech stack
Filter openings by the languages and frameworks in your strongest work. A lead developer hired into a Python shop who knows Go but not Django will face a steeper ramp. Matching your depth to the team's stack signals immediate productivity.
Prepare a system design narrative
Most lead developer interviews include a system design round. Walk into it with two or three real problems you architected solutions for, the tradeoffs you weighed, and what you would do differently. Vague answers about scalability cost candidates offers at this level.
Negotiate scope before negotiating compensation
Before accepting any lead developer offer, clarify what the role actually owns: team size, hiring authority, on-call expectations, and architectural decision rights. Scope mismatches are the most common reason leads leave within a year, so align on these before you sign.
Follow up with a technical observation
After your final interview, send a follow-up note that references a specific technical challenge you discussed and adds one concrete thought. It demonstrates the kind of async communication leads are expected to model for their teams and keeps you top of mind.
Lead Developer Jobs: Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies are hiring the most lead developers?
Vail Resorts, JPMorganChase, and Robotics Technologies are hiring the most lead developers right now, with openings concentrated in Texas, California, and New York, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. Demand is especially strong at companies scaling their platform or modernizing legacy infrastructure.
How many lead developer jobs are remote?
About 76% of lead developer openings are fully remote or hybrid as of November 2026, reflecting the role's sustained flexibility since the broader shift in engineering hiring. Backend-focused and platform engineering leads tend to see the highest share of remote listings, while embedded or hardware-adjacent lead roles are more likely to require on-site presence.
How do you become a lead developer?
Start by consistently taking ownership beyond your assigned tickets: volunteer to lead a feature from design through deployment, write technical specs, and give structured feedback in code reviews. Build visibility by presenting architectural decisions to your team. Most leads are promoted internally after demonstrating that they raise the output of the people around them, not just their own.
Can you get hired as a lead developer without prior lead experience?
Yes, but you need evidence of informal leadership to make the case. Contributions like driving a migration, onboarding junior engineers, or owning a critical service solo can substitute for a formal lead title. Smaller companies and early-stage startups are more willing to hire a first-time lead than larger orgs, where the expectation is proven team accountability.
What does the lead developer interview process look like?
Most lead developer processes run four to six rounds and combine a technical screen with a system design interview, a coding assessment, and a cross-functional conversation with a product manager or engineering director. Many companies also include a leadership scenario round where you walk through how you handled a conflict, an underperforming team member, or a technical disagreement with stakeholders.
Where can I find and apply to lead developer jobs?
You can find and apply to lead developer jobs on Migrate Mate, which lists current openings from across the United States. Find roles that match your stack and experience level and apply directly to each listing.
See All 379+ Lead Developer Jobs
Find roles that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
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