Staff Business Apps Developer in Tucson, Arizona at Arete Associates

Areté's IT Business Systems team builds the company's internal applications, automations, and integrations with AI coding agents as a core part of its delivery model — and we are hiring the developer who will do the building. Working from requirements framed by our IT Business Systems team, you will deliver working, supportable solutions: custom applications, workflow and process automations, system integrations, and data pipelines across our ERP, engineering, and business platforms.

This is a hands-on, execution-focused role. We expect fluency in agent-assisted development paired with sound engineering judgment — readable architecture, secure handling of company data, source control discipline, and solutions that survive after their builder moves on to the next project. You will work directly with end users, process owners, and business leaders: participating in discovery, demonstrating working software, presenting proposed solutions, and training the people who use what you build. Comfort in front of a non-technical audience matters as much as the ability to build.

The candidate will work from one of our facilities in Niwot, CO, Tucson, AZ, Northridge, CA, or Falls Church, VA. Some remote work is available, but candidates must live within reasonable commuting range of one of these facilities and be able to work onsite regularly. The candidate will collaborate closely with the IT Business Systems team and Enterprise IT staff, travel occasionally, and provide some afterhours support. This is an exempt non-supervisory full-time position.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Design, build, test, and deploy custom internal applications and business process automation solutions from requirements through production release.

• Use AI coding agents as a primary development tool — working from written specifications rather than ad-hoc prompting — while owning the correctness, security, maintainability, and documentation of everything produced.

• Build and maintain integrations between disparate business platforms — ERP, PLM, HR, engineering, and SaaS systems — using APIs, connectors, and scheduled data flows.

• Take on occasional smaller builds such as Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers that connect Areté's internal systems and tools to AI agents and assistants, including the authentication, access scoping, and logging those connections require.

• Assess technical feasibility, size effort, and validate the recommended approach before work begins; own the detailed technical design — data model, integration architecture, and component structure — once an approach is selected.

• Deploy and maintain solutions in Microsoft Azure with Enterprise IT, using CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure-as-code so environments are reproducible and releases repeatable.

• Apply source control, code review, environment separation, and release practices so solutions are versioned, testable, and recoverable.

• Participate in process discovery sessions alongside the Business Solutions Analyst — interview users and observe real workflows to validate that a proposed solution will work in practice.

• Demonstrate working software, present proposed technical solutions to business audiences, and train and support end users on the applications you build.

• Produce and maintain technical documentation: architecture diagrams, data flow and interface documentation, runbooks, and end-user support material.

• Provide post-deployment support, enhancement, and troubleshooting for applications in service, ensuring solutions meet Areté's security, data handling, and compliance requirements.

• Other duties, as assigned.

Experiences and Background We Look For:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, or a related discipline, or an additional 2 years of relevant work experience in lieu of a degree.

• Minimum of 3 years building and supporting business applications, integrations, or process automation solutions in a professional environment.

• Demonstrated proficiency in at least one modern programming language (e.g., Python, C#, JavaScript/TypeScript) and the ability to read and reason about code you did not write.

• Hands-on experience developing with AI coding agents — Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or similar — working from a written spec, plan, and acceptance criteria, and reviewing and validating agent-generated code before it ships. We don't expect you to have used every tool we use; we expect you to have shipped real work with at least one agentic tool and to keep that work reviewable and reproducible.

• Working knowledge of relational databases and SQL, including the ability to query, model, and troubleshoot data across systems.

• Experience building and consuming REST APIs and integrating third-party or vendor platforms.

• Experience deploying and supporting applications in a cloud environment — Microsoft Azure preferred.

• Proficiency with Git and experience working within CI/CD pipelines (GitLab CI preferred).

• Strong stakeholder skills: the ability to sit with a non-technical end user and earn their trust, present and demonstrate solutions to business audiences, and produce clear written documentation of systems and interfaces.

• Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. Department of Defense security clearance. A clearance is not required to begin this position but may be required in the future.

Nice to Have:

• Experience across Azure services — App Service, Functions, Entra ID, Azure SQL, Logic Apps, Storage, and networking.

• Infrastructure-as-code experience (Bicep, ARM, or Terraform) — including the ability to create and update templates with the help of an AI coding agent and understand what they actually provision.

• Familiarity with the Model Context Protocol (MCP); production experience building, deploying, and maintaining MCP servers against real internal systems is a strong differentiator.

• Experience authoring GitLab CI pipelines, not just working within them.

• Experience with self-hosted or enterprise-governed workflow automation platforms such as n8n or Power Automate — including judgment about where to draw the line between low-code automation and custom code.

• Experience with containerization (Docker) and modern application deployment patterns.

• Experience producing technical diagrams with diagram-as-code tooling (Mermaid, PlantUML, or similar).

• Experience working with finance, accounting, manufacturing, or engineering stakeholders to turn business objectives into delivered systems.

• Familiarity with secure development practices, OWASP Top 10, and NIST 800-171.

Benefits We Offer:

Generous PTO and Leave Times

• Flextime Scheduling

• Bereavement

• Paid Time Off (PTO)

• Paid Parental Leave

Financial Benefits

• Company-funded 5% contribution to your 401(k) retirement plan

• Company-funded 5% contribution to your Employee Stock Ownership Plan

• Continuing Education Assistance

Health, Medical, and Wellness Benefits

• Medical Insurance

• Dental & Vision Insurance

• Life Insurance and Long-Term Disability (LTD)

• Vision Reimbursement