Senior Software Engineer

(ID: 2025-0920)

Axle is a bioscience and information technology company that offers advancements in translational research, biomedical informatics, and data science applications to research centers and healthcare organizations nationally and abroad. With experts in biomedical science, software engineering, and program management, we focus on developing and applying research tools and techniques to empower decision-making and accelerate research discoveries. We work with some of the top research organizations and facilities in the country including multiple institutes at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Axle is seeking a Senior Software Engineer, Health Data Interoperability to join our vibrant team at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) supporting the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) located in Rockville, MD.

Benefits We Offer:

• 100% Medical, Dental & Vision Coverage for Employees
• Paid Time Off and Paid Holidays
• 401K match up to 5%
• Educational Benefits for Career Growth
• Employee Referral Bonus
• Flexible Spending Accounts:
  • Healthcare (FSA)
  • Parking Reimbursement Account (PRK)
  • Dependent Care Assistant Program (DCAP)
  • Transportation Reimbursement Account (TRN)

Overview

Join the team at the forefront of revolutionizing medical research in the United States. We are building and maintaining the foundational infrastructure of the National Clinical Cohort Collaborative (N3C), the nation’s largest and most significant public repository of harmonized electronic health record (EHR) data. 

We believe that the future of health research depends on elegant, robust, and scalable software. Brittle, hand-coded scripts and opaque processes can't solve the challenges of petabyte-scale clinical data. We need engineers who can think in systems, build powerful abstractions, and create the tools that will accelerate discovery for thousands of researchers nationwide.

The Opportunity: Your Impact

We are seeking an exceptional Senior Software Engineer to design and build the core libraries and engines that power our data interoperability and harmonization efforts. Your primary challenge will be to tame the complexity of heterogeneous health data. You won't be writing one-off ETL scripts. You will be creating the declarative frameworks, data model transformers, and terminology mapping engines that make moving data between standards like OMOP and FHIR a systematic, reproducible, and even beautiful process

This is a role for a true craftsman. Someone who gets excited about API design, compiler theory, and building developer-centric tools. You will have the autonomy to architect foundational components from the ground up, influencing the technical direction of a project with national significance. If you want to build software that empowers scientists and enables discoveries that were previously impossible, this is your opportunity.

What You'll Do:

• Architect Core Interoperability Libraries: Design, build, and maintain high-performance libraries in Python (and potentially Rust) for mapping, transforming, and validating massive clinical datasets.
• Develop Declarative Data Mapping Engines: Create sophisticated tools that allow domain experts to define complex data transformations using simple, clear, domain-specific languages (DSLs), separating the "what" from the "how."
• Build Advanced Terminology Services: Engineer libraries that handle the complex logic of mapping clinical terminologies, normalizing units of measure, and ensuring semantic consistency across disparate datasets.
• Create Robust Data Model Abstractions: Develop strongly-typed data access layers and handlers that abstract away the underlying storage (e.g., SQL databases, Parquet files, JSON documents), presenting a unified interface for data manipulation.
• Champion Software Engineering Excellence: Drive best practices in API design, testing, documentation, and tooling. You will produce libraries that are not only powerful but also a pleasure for other developers to use.
• Collaborate and Innovate: Work closely with data engineers, informaticians, and scientists to understand their deepest challenges and create the foundational tools they need to succeed.

What You'll Bring (Required Qualifications):

• A profound passion for building elegant, high-quality developer tools and libraries.
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or a related engineering field with 8+ years of professional software development experience.
• Expert-level proficiency in Python, with deep knowledge of its object model, type system, and performance characteristics. You write clean, idiomatic, and highly testable code.
• Proven experience designing and building libraries or frameworks for other developers. Your resume shows a history of creating successful abstractions.
• A strong foundation in computer science fundamentals, including data structures, algorithms, and compiler/interpreter design (e.g., experience with parsing, abstract syntax trees, etc.).
• Experience with modern software development practices: version control (Git), CI/CD, comprehensive unit testing, and meticulous documentation.

What Sets You Apart (Preferred Qualifications):

• Experience with Rust. A strong interest or professional experience in Rust is highly desirable for performance-critical components.
• Deep experience with healthcare data and a clear understanding of the challenges posed by standards like OMOP, FHIR, and other Common Data Models.
• Experience building and working with Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs).
• Expertise in building high-performance data processing systems and a keen eye for optimization.
• Contributions to open-source software libraries and frameworks.

Disclaimer: The above description is meant to illustrate the general nature of work and level of effort being performed by individuals assigned to this position or job description. This is not restricted as a complete list of all skills, responsibilities, duties, and/or assignments required. Individuals may be required to perform duties outside of their position, job description or responsibilities as needed.

The diversity of Axle’s employees is a tremendous asset. We are firmly committed to providing equal opportunity in all aspects of employment and will not tolerate any illegal discrimination or harassment based on age, race, gender, religion, national origin, disability, marital status, covered veteran status, sexual orientation, status with respect to public assistance, and other characteristics protected under state, federal, or local law and to deter those who aid, abet, or induce discrimination or coerce others to discriminate.

Accessibility: If you need an accommodation as part of the employment process please contact: [email protected]

This role has a market-competitive salary with an anticipated base compensation range listed below. Actual salaries will vary depending on a candidate’s experience, qualifications, skills, and location.

#IND