Software Engineer, Cloud & Agenic Applications at Capstone Research Corporation in Huntsville, AL, USA

Job description

• Capstone Research Corporation is seeking to expand our team. Capstone Research Corporation is headquartered in Huntsville Alabama. We are a customer-oriented engineering services company providing world class research and development support across the Department of Defense (DoD): Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Missile Defense Agency (MDA). Capstone offers 100% Company Provided Medical and Dental Insurance, Matching 401K, and Profit Sharing as part of our top-notch benefits package. Compensation for this position will be determined, but not limited to, factors such as responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, abilities, alignment with market data, and internal equity.
• We have an immediate opening for a hands-on Software Engineer to help build, extend, and operate cloud-based applications and automation tooling that support NASA customers. You will work alongside senior engineers, architects, and NASA stakeholders to turn defined requirements into working software - writing code, building data pipelines, standing up cloud infrastructure, and iterating based on feedback from users and teammates.
• This is a delivery-focused engineering role, not a strategy or advisory position. You will spend most of your time in the codebase: implementing features, fixing bugs, writing tests, deploying to the cloud, and collaborating on architecture decisions that senior staff have already scoped.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain backend services and APIs in Python (e.g., FastAPI) and/or TypeScript (e.g., Node/Express), following existing patterns and conventions in the codebase.
• Contribute end to end to internal dashboards and tools - usage/cost analytics and similar applications - implementing features across the API, database, and UI layers.
• Write and maintain data pipelines that ingest, transform, and load structured data (spreadsheet exports, API responses, log data) into PostgreSQL, including schema design and reasonably efficient queries.
• Implement and extend agent-based workflows using frameworks such as Pydantic AI or LangChain - defining tools, prompts, and structured outputs under the guidance of senior engineers, rather than designing agent architecture from scratch.
• Deploy and operate applications in AWS (including AWS GovCloud) using containers, and read and make guided changes to existing Terraform/OpenTofu modules that provision supporting infrastructure such as object storage, managed databases, and container clusters.
• Write unit and integration tests, and keep test suites and CI checks (lint, build, test) passing as a normal part of shipping code, not an afterthought.
• Debug production issues using logs, traces, and database queries, and implement fixes with appropriate test coverage.
• Participate actively in code review - both giving and receiving feedback - as a way of learning the codebase and improving the quality of the team's work.
• Document your changes (README updates, code comments, short design notes) so teammates can pick up where you left off.
• Pair with senior engineers and architects to learn NASA-specific constraints - security, compliance, and approved platforms - and ask questions early rather than guessing.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 3–5 years of professional software engineering experience, with solid fundamentals in at least one of Python or TypeScript/JavaScript.
• Working knowledge of cloud computing concepts and at least some hands-on experience with a major cloud provider (AWS preferred) - for example, deploying an application, VPC networking, working with a managed database, using object storage, or writing basic infrastructure-as-code.
• Comfortable working with relational databases (PostgreSQL preferred): writing queries, understanding schema design, and reasoning about basic performance.
• Experience with, or strong interest in, agentic or LLM application frameworks such as Pydantic AI or LangChain - production experience is not required, but you should be comfortable picking up one of these frameworks quickly and enjoy working with LLM-backed tooling.
• Experience with Git-based version control, code-review workflows, and automated testing (unit and integration tests).
• Ability to take a defined task or user story and implement it independently, asking clarifying questions when requirements are ambiguous.
• Clear written and verbal communication with teammates, including the ability to document your own work.
• S. citizenship or other status required to support applicable NASA contracts and access requirements.
• 1+ year of hands-on experience with an agentic or LLM application framework such as Pydantic AI, LangChain, or a comparable tool.
• Experience with Docker and container-based deployment.
• Exposure to Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform or OpenTofu) - reading and modifying existing modules.
• Experience with FastAPI, Express/Node.js, React, or a comparable modern web framework.
• Familiarity with vector databases, embeddings, or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) concepts.
• Experience working with or supporting a federal, aerospace, or other regulated environment.
• Interest in data engineering: ETL scripting, pandas, or similar tabular data-processing tools.
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices (linting, build/test gates, automated).

Skills

Required

• Python
• TypeScript/JavaScript
• Cloud computing (AWS preferred)
• Git-based version control
• Automated testing (unit and integration)
• Clear written and verbal communication

Preferred

• Docker
• Terraform/OpenTofu
• FastAPI
• Express/Node.js
• React
• Vector databases, embeddings, RAG
• ETL scripting, pandas
• CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices