Applications Developer

Senior Applications Developer — 2 Positions

Agency/Client: U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)
Program: Sampling Program Enhancement / GENESIS Modernization
Location: Remote — supporting USDA NASS, Washington, DC
Duration: 24-month engagement
Pay Rate: $65.47/hour
Openings: 2
Minimum Experience: 7 years
Previous USDA/NASS Experience: Strong plus

Position Overview

SMX Services & Consulting is seeking two Senior Applications Developers to support the modernization of USDA NASS's mission-critical GENESIS application.

GENESIS currently relies on legacy SAS/AF and SCL technologies. The modernization effort will replace the legacy environment with a modern, browser-based user interface and modular service-oriented backend while maintaining the functionality required for NASS's sampling operations.

These are hands-on senior development positions. The selected developers will contribute across frontend development, backend services, API development, enterprise integration, data access, automated testing, security, accessibility, and migration from the legacy application.

Key Responsibilities

The Senior Applications Developers will:

• Lead development of the modernized GENESIS application.
• Build modern frontend user-interface components.
• Develop backend application services.
• Develop RESTful APIs and modular services.
• Implement sampling parameter-entry capabilities.
• Implement sample-size management and sample-creation workflows.
• Support replication, review, approval, and export functionality.
• Build data-exchange components and enterprise-system connectors.
• Support Sample Master export modernization.
• Integrate with NASS enterprise databases and downstream systems.
• Develop functionality supporting Sybase and Microsoft SQL Server.
• Support modular sampling algorithm services.
• Enable interoperability with statistical tools including R, Python, and SAS.
• Implement robust logging, metrics, debugging, and error handling.
• Develop automated unit and integration testing.
• Support parallel testing against the legacy GENESIS system.
• Help ensure deterministic and reproducible system outputs.
• Implement secure coding practices.
• Support RBAC, authentication, and audit logging.
• Ensure Section 508 accessibility requirements are incorporated into development.
• Participate in peer reviews and coding-standard development.
• Produce technical documentation.
• Participate in Agile ceremonies, sprint planning, backlog refinement, and risk discussions.
• Provide knowledge transfer to NASS personnel.

These responsibilities directly support the SOW's required modernization of the frontend, backend/API architecture, sampling services, integrations, testing, security, documentation, and knowledge transfer.

Required Development Experience

Candidates must have:

• Minimum 7 years of hands-on software-development experience.
• At least 3 years building and supporting enterprise-scale web applications.
• Experience leading development activities involving at least one of:
  • Application modernization
  • Cloud migration
  • Service-oriented architecture
• Ability to translate business requirements into technical tasks.
• Ability to develop reasonable level-of-effort estimates.
• Strong communication skills for working with statisticians, architects, engineers, and government technical SMEs.

Core Technical Skills

Strong experience is sought in:

• C#
• .NET
• .NET Blazor
• Java and/or Python where applicable
• Modern browser-based application development
• React, Angular, or Vue
• RESTful APIs
• Microservices
• Service-oriented architecture
• Backend orchestration
• Enterprise integration patterns
• Microsoft Azure or comparable cloud platforms
• CI/CD pipelines
• Docker/containerization
• Automated testing frameworks
• Microsoft SQL Server
• Sybase
• ORM/data-access frameworks
• Secure data-access patterns
• RBAC
• Authentication
• Audit logging
• Secure coding practices
• FedRAMP-aligned development practices

C#/.NET Blazor should receive particular attention during recruiting. Section 3 of the SOW explicitly requires replacing the legacy SAS/AF interface with a modern responsive browser-based UI built using C# and .NET Blazor.

Preferred Background

Strong candidates may also have experience with:

• USDA or USDA NASS
• Federal application modernization
• SAS/AF or SAS environments
• Statistical/sampling applications
• Legacy application modernization
• Azure
• Highly regulated data environments
• Section 508/WCAG accessibility
• Federal security requirements
• Large enterprise database applications

Security & Eligibility

Candidates must be U.S. Citizens or Lawful Permanent Residents and be able to satisfy USDA fingerprinting, background investigation, PIV, confidentiality, and security-training requirements.

The information is unclassified but includes highly sensitive PII.