Lead Tax Model Platform Developer, ITEP

ITEP is a non-profit, non-partisan tax policy organization headquartered in Washington, DC. We conduct rigorous analyses of tax and economic proposals and provide data-driven recommendations on how to shape equitable and sustainable tax systems. ITEP’s expertise and data uniquely enhance federal, state, and local policy debates by revealing how taxes affect both public revenues and people of various levels of income and wealth as well as other demographic characteristics like race and ethnicity.

We believe that taxes are the building blocks of a thriving economy and society, providing the resources for necessary investments in our communities. To move toward a vision where federal, state, and local tax systems raise enough revenue to fund common priorities and do so in a manner that promotes shared prosperity for all, we promote common sense tax policies that are responsive to our ever-changing economy and that raise revenue in an equitable and sustainable way.

The technical engine behind our work is ITEP’s Microsimulation Tax Model. Developed in 1996, the model computes the revenue yield and incidence of federal, state and local taxes, including both current tax law and proposed tax law changes. The model is unique in its ability to produce analysis at the federal and state levels and to analyze income, consumption and property taxes.

We seek a Senior Software Engineer (Full Stack) to join ITEP’s creative, passionate and productive staff team as our Lead Tax Model Platform Developer.

• As the Lead Tax Model Platform Developer, you will begin working with an existing Python code base and complete the migration of the model from a legacy platform to the new Python platform. Completion of this project will set up ITEP’s tax model in a sustainable web-based environment, preserving our current model’s functionality and generating sufficient flexibility for longer-term development of content and user-driven enhancements.
• Beyond the platform migration, ongoing responsibilities include timely problem-solving to adapt the platform to respond to frequent tax policy proposals and changes, improving the efficiency of the platform to make users more productive, collaborating with our senior economist to integrate updated data, and developing a lengthy product roadmap (including external facing products that make our model accessible to state and national partners).

This role reports directly to ITEP’s senior economist and works closely with the entire policy analyst team.

Responsibilities

• Lead front and backend technical development work as part of the reconfiguration of ITEP’s microsimulation tax model—currently based on legacy Visual Fox Pro (VFP) code—to a Python web app (built on the Django framework) to be deployed on an Azure platform.
• Lead the technical development, integration and iterative improvement of ITEP’s tax modeling capacities.
• Communicate clearly with multiple constituencies, soliciting and digesting feedback from both technical and non-technical users.
• Ensure that all code development, data handling and version control are done efficiently, securely, transparently and in a manner that improves user productivity and timeliness.
• Support documentation of ITEP’s model processes.

Opportunities

• Contribute fundamentally to ITEP’s mission as a progressive tax policy organization. Interact with the software development communities, representing the high quality of engineering work at ITEP.
• Opportunities to deepen your technical architecture skills or develop technical management skills based on your career aspirations.

Required Experience and Skills

• Three to five years of experience as a full stack software engineer.

Specific experience with:

• managing cloud deployments (e.g., Azure, AWS and/or Google Cloud);
• managing Python web app development;
• designing server-side and client-side architecture;
• optimizing database function and management (ideally PostgreSQL);
• using object-relational mapping (ORM).
• Ability to manage two or more concurrent projects, working both independently as well as with a team.
• Ability to effectively communicate with non-technical users, responding effectively to user needs.
• Ability to write effective technical documentation.

In addition, other helpful (though not necessary) experience would include having worked remotely on a software development team and having developed and deployed software for governments and/or nonprofit organizations.

Start date: Preferred start date is August 2019.

Location: Flexible. ITEP is located in Washington, DC, however we are open to hiring a remote staff member for this position. Remote staff are required to travel to DC a minimum of 4 times a year.

Work Schedule: Full time

Salary: $70,000-$90,000

Benefits: Generous package including 100% coverage for health and dental premiums; vision, disability and life insurance; paid family leave; flexible sick and vacation leave; 10% salary paid into SEP IRA retirement plan; and other ancillary benefits.

To Apply: Send a resume, cover letter, and three references as a pdf attachment with the subject line, Lead Tax Model Platform Developer, to [email protected].

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) is an Equal Opportunity Employer that values and welcomes diversity in the workplace and strongly encourages all qualified persons to apply regardless of any protected status under federal or local law including Minorities/Women/Disabilities/Veterans.