Prin Software Engineer - AFS

We are the Metropolitan Council, the regional government for the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area. We plan 30 years ahead for the metropolitan area and provide regional transportation, wastewater, and housing services. More information about us is on our website.

We are committed to supporting a diverse workforce that reflects the communities we serve.

Information Services is the central IT department supporting all divisions of the Metropolitan Council. Our 140 team members provide technology, practices, and innovative solutions that enable the Council's core services.

How your work would contribute to our organization and the Twin Cities region:

Principal Software Engineer will design secure, scalable, and resilient solutions, and will directly support the growth and digital transformation of Met Council, resulting in enhanced responsiveness to internal and external community members. This role will assist the IT team in delivering solutions that improve efficiency, enhance user experiences, and enable data-driven decision-making. Also accountable for ensuring that technology investments align with strategic objectives, maximizing value for the organization and positioning us as an innovation leader in the Twin Cities region.

This is a senior-level position that will mentor and guide teams, with the goal set of broadening the technical skill base of the Council's workforce, further contributing to strengthening the local talent pool. Indirectly, the Principle Software Engineer will contribute support to the regional economic growth by ensuring our services operate securely, efficiently, and sustainably benefiting both our internal teams and the broader community we serve.

• Partner with stakeholders to understand business challenges and define holistic solution architectures across software engineering, data, infrastructure, networking, and security domains.
• Design end-to-end solutions that are scalable, secure, and cost-effective,leveragingcloud technologies (Azure preferred) and SaaS platforms asappropriate.
• Modernize legacy applications through a phased, low-disruption approach that ensures continuous business operations while progressively adopting modern architectures and cloud technologies.
• Design and build new applications that align with modernization goals, support future scalability, and integrate seamlessly with both existing and evolving systems.
• Create prototypes, proof-of-concepts, and reference architectures tovalidateapproaches before implementation.
• Guide technical teams through the delivery lifecycle, ensuring alignment to architecture standards, best practices, and businessobjectives.
• Evaluate on a continual basisemergingtechnologies and recommending innovations that drive business value.
• Act as a trusted advisor, effectively communicating complex technology concepts and persuading diverse stakeholders to adoptoptimalsolutions.
• Balance short-term delivery needs with long-term architecture strategy, ensuring your designs fit the "big picture."
• Prototype fluently anddemonstratenew solutionsto accelerate decision-making.
• Document solution roadmaps, reference architectures, and implementation guidelines, and collaborate closely with technical teams to ensure the successful delivery of optimally designed solutions that adhere toestablishedstandards and best practices.

Any of the following combinations in completed education (degree field of study in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related technical field) and experience in software engineering:

• High school diploma/GED with ten years of experience
• Associate degree with eight years of experience
• Bachelor's degree with six years of experience
• Master's degree with four years of experience

• Bachelor's or advanced degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field preferred.
• Experience designing, developing, and delivering enterprise-scale applications using modern software development practices.
• Strongproficiencyin C#, ASP.NET Core, Web API development, and modern .NET platforms, including .NET 8.
• Strong experience developing modern web applications using front-end technologies such as React, Blazor, JavaScript/TypeScript, HTML5, and CSS3, with a focus on responsive and user-friendly interfaces.
• Experience designing and implementing scalable, maintainable, and high-performance software solutions using object-oriented programming principles, design patterns, and clean architecture practices.
• Strong experience with Microsoft Azure services and developing cloud-native applications.
• Experience with Azure-based application development, including application services, storage, messaging, security, monitoring, and integration services.
• Advanced SQL Server development skills, including T-SQL, stored procedures, database design, query optimization, and performance tuning.
• Experience with Entity Framework, ORM technologies, and designing efficient data access layers.
• Experience designing and integrating RESTful APIs,GraphQLAPIs, microservices, and event-driven solutions.
• Experience with enterprise integration patterns, API gateways, messaging platforms, and distributed application architectures.
• Experience with DevOps practices, including Git, Jira, Azure DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform or ARM/Bicep templates.
• Experience working with containerization technologies such as Docker and orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes or Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
• Strong understanding of application security best practices, authentication, authorization, identity management, and secure coding principles.
• Experience applying software architecture principles andprovidingtechnical guidance for complex application development initiatives.
• Ability to lead technical discussions, mentor developers, review code, and promote engineering best practices across development teams.
• Experience working in Agile development environments and collaborating effectively with product owners, business stakeholders, and cross-functional teams.

• Excellent analytical, troubleshooting, communication, and collaboration skills.
• Experience designing and implementing Generative AI capabilities within applications, including large language models (LLMs), prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), AI-assisted workflows, and integrating AI services into enterprise solutions.
• Experience working with diverse populations of internal and external customers.

What knowledge, skills, and abilities you should have within the first six months on the job:

• Advanced knowledge of federal, state, and local laws around data.
• Advanced knowledge of security, investigation, and response methods.
• Advanced knowledge of Application Integrations, APIs, Web Services, and/or Integrated Platform as a Service (IPaaS).
• Advanced knowledge of emerging technologies, industry trends, and providing thought leadership to the organization.
• Advanced knowledge of SDLC and software development methodologies.
• Incident and change management skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Skilled at communicating and collaborating with business and technology stakeholders to ensure data solutions meet business needs.
• Skilled at creating andmaintainingarchitecture artifacts such as architectural diagrams, models, standards, policies, and guidelines.
• Skilled at ensuring technology solutions adhere to industry best practices, architecture principles, and security standards.
• Skilled at conducting feasibility studies and cost-benefit analyses and evaluating potential technology investments and initiatives.
• Ability to analyze existing technology infrastructure,identifyareas for improvement, and recommend solutions.
• Ability to collaborate with other architects to ensure technology alignment.
• Ability to work both independently and with a team.
• Ability to develop andmaintainenterprise-wide architecture strategy.

Union/Grade: AFSCME / Pay Grade J
FLSA Status: Exempt
Safety Sensitive: No

Work Environment:
Work is performed in a standard office setting. May require travel between primary work site to other sites.

The responsibilities listed are typical of the positions included in the job classification; however, not all duties are necessarily performed by each specific position. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential duties of the position. Regular attendance is an essential responsibility.

Security Policy:
This position involves direct access to Criminal Justice Information (CJI) as defined by the FBI CJIS (Criminal Justice Information Services) Security Policy. In accordance with section 5.12.1.1 of the FBI CJIS Security Policy, final candidates if applicable must be willing to submit to a state of residence and national fingerprint-based record check. If the result of the record check reveals criminal convictions, the nature and circumstances of those convictions will be reviewed by the Metropolitan Transit Police Department and/or the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to determine if access to Criminal Justice Information would be permissible. If it is determined that access to Criminal Justice Information would not be permissible, the candidate will no longer be eligible for this position.

If you are new to the Metropolitan Council, you must pass a background check, which verifies education, employment, and criminal history. If you have a criminal conviction, you do not automatically fail. The Metropolitan Council considers felony, gross misdemeanor, and misdemeanor convictions on a case-by-case basis, based on whether they are related to the job and whether the candidate has demonstrated adequate rehabilitation.

If you are already an employee of the Metropolitan Council, you must pass a criminal background check if the job you're applying for is safety sensitive, is a supervisory or management job, is in the Finance, Information Services,Audit, or Human Resources departments, or has access to financial records, files/databases, cash, vouchers, or transit fare cards.

IMPORTANT: If you make a false statement or withhold information, you may be barred from job consideration.

The Metropolitan Council is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action, and veteran-friendly employer. The Council is committed to a workforce that reflects the region's diversity and strongly encourages persons of color, members of the LGBTQ community, individuals with disabilities, women, and veterans to apply.

If you have a disability that requires accommodation during the selection process, please email HR-OCCHealth@metc.state.mn.us.