SME Software Engineer
Bridge Core (BCore) · Herndon, VA
$195,000–$225,000from the description
Jul 12, 2026
Herndon, VA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior full-stack development role on a government-facing program, focused on designing, building, and deploying enterprise web applications, network infrastructure, and cloud services on AWS. The position suits a deeply experienced developer with broad command of front-end technologies, Java-based back-end systems, microservices, and database management, and requires at least 16 years of relevant experience along with a TS/SCI with Poly clearance.
Senior level · 16+ years · Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV · Bachelor's required · TS/SCI clearance · Full-time
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $158,337 (middle half $126,441–$180,105). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (7)
The title 'SME Software Engineer' implies a Subject Matter Expert designation but carries no standard seniority level word (Senior, Staff, etc.), so advertised seniority is treated as Unspecified. The 16-year minimum experience requirement is very high but maps to Senior on the standard ladder — the JD describes no org-wide technical authority or cross-team direction-setting that would elevate this to Staff or Principal.
The degree requirement states 'Bachelor's or Master's degree'; Bachelor's is treated as the minimum hard gate.
A TS/SCI with Polygraph clearance is explicitly required ('TS/SCI with Poly' in the header).
Ruby on Rails experience (specifically migration from Rails to Java) and Infrastructure as Code familiarity appear under 'Desired Qualifications' and are marked preferred. 'Infrastructure as Code (IOC)' is a non-standard acronym for IaC; Terraform is used as the canonical representative tool.
The posting references 'testing frameworks and tools' generically without naming a specific product, so no testing-framework skill is emitted.
Compensation is stated as a range for the Washington, DC metropolitan area: $195,000–$225,000 annually.
Requires a TS/SCI clearance — the cleared population is a small fraction of this occupation, so the real candidate pool is materially smaller than the estimate below, which does not model clearance.
Read the full posting
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