Lead Software Engineer

Job Description Title: Lead, Software Engineer

Location: Herndon, Virginia

Employment Type: Full-Time

Work Schedule: 9/80 schedule – employees work 9 out of every 14 days, with every other Friday off

Salary Range: $170,000

Security Clearance: Active Secret Clearance Required

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced Lead Software Engineer to support multiple software product deliveries, system modernization initiatives, and future growth programs. The successful candidate will provide technical leadership, take ownership of software products, and contribute throughout the complete software development lifecycle, from requirements and architecture through development, testing, deployment, and sustainment.

Key Responsibilities

Provide technical leadership across software engineering teams and mentor junior engineers.

Take ownership of software products and drive successful delivery throughout the development lifecycle.

Utilize modern AI-assisted development tools to improve software design, implementation, testing, debugging, and delivery.

Develop and maintain high-quality, scalable software applications.

Participate in requirements analysis, architecture, system design, development, testing, deployment, and sustainment.

Apply Agile software development methodologies.

Troubleshoot complex technical issues and perform root-cause analysis.

Collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver enterprise-scale software solutions.

Maintain strong engineering standards related to quality, security, performance, and reliability.

Required Qualifications

Bachelor’s Degree with at least 9 years of relevant experience , or Graduate Degree with at least 7 years of related experience .

In lieu of a degree, 13 years of relevant experience may be considered.

Active Secret Security Clearance is required.

Strong technical leadership and ownership mindset.

Experience across the full software development lifecycle.

Strong software architecture and system design experience.

Experience working in Agile software development environments.

Preferred Technical Skills

10+ years of professional software engineering experience.

Strong Java and C++ development experience.

Strong experience with Java Spring Boot and REST APIs .

Multi-threaded application development.

Database design and integration.

Linux development environments.

CI/CD pipeline development and maintenance, including Jenkins .

Containerized software development and deployment.

Docker and Kubernetes administration.

Kubernetes and cloud/hybrid-cloud deployment experience.

AWS GovCloud or cloud-native application development.

DevSecOps practices and automated testing frameworks.

Strong debugging, troubleshooting, and root-cause analysis skills.

Cybersecurity-aware software development experience.

Distributed systems and enterprise-scale application development.

Experience in DoD, SATCOM, networking, gateway, or telecommunications environments is highly preferred.