Open Data Backend Engineer, (Senior Consultant, Engineering & Technical Services)

Fearless is a digital integration consultancy on a mission to build a better tomorrow. They are seeking a Senior Consultant, Engineering & Technical Services, to lead the design, architecture, and maintenance of modern digital experiences for a federal healthcare platform, focusing on performance, security, and scalability.

Responsibilities:

• Design, build, and maintain Drupal 11 backend features and custom modules with a focus on performance, security, and scalability
• Extend, customize, and upgrade DKAN-based data portals, including dataset schemas, harvesting jobs, and metadata workflows
• Architect and integrate APIs that expose CMS healthcare data to the public
• Manage configuration-as-code using the Drupal Configuration API
• Develop code collaboratively in Git (forks, branching, pull requests, conflict resolution) and take part in peer programming and code reviews
• Set up and maintain local Drupal sandbox environments using Docker-based tools (e.g., DDEV, docker-compose)
• Write unit, integration, and behavioral tests (PHPUnit, Cypress) to validate features
• Draft and maintain user-story acceptance criteria, implementation notes, and risk/assumptions
• Coach and mentor peers on backend best practices, security awareness, and Drupal architecture patterns
• Participate fully in Agile ceremonies, project meetings, and internal knowledge-sharing sessions

Requirements:

• 7+ years of engineering experience
• Bachelor's degree or 4 years of additional experience
• Deep experience with Drupal 10–11 core and contributed APIs (Entity, Form, Plugin, Configuration, etc.) and custom module development
• Firm grasp of object-oriented principles in PHP and software engineering best practices
• Comfortable reading external API documentation and integrating RESTful or GraphQL services
• Familiarity with open-data standards, publishing workflows, or platforms (e.g., DKAN, CKAN, Socrata, data.gov, DCAT, FHIR)
• Ability to craft optimized SQL as well as Drupal EntityQuery/Database-API calls
• Experience with command-line tools, including Drush and common Unix utilities
• Ability to develop unit and/or behavioral tests using automated testing tools (e.g., Cypress, PHPUnit) and efficient debugging practices (e.g., Xdebug)
• Strong understanding of Git workflows and CI/CD pipelines
• Drupal.org username required
• U.S. residency for at least 3 of the last 5 years and ability to pass a federal background check
• Ability to obtain and maintain Public Trust clearance
• Demonstrated hands-on experience with the DKAN distribution (dataset creation, harvesting, catalog search, custom module development)
• Experience with large-scale data ingestion, ETL pipelines, or data normalization
• Knowledge of healthcare data formats or interoperability standards (e.g., HL7 FHIR, C-CDA)
• Strong understanding of caching systems (Drupal, Varnish, Akamai CDN)
• Familiarity with accessibility (Section 508 / WCAG) and performance optimization for query-heavy public websites