Junior Software Engineer
Leidos
About the role
Build Your Software Engineering Career on a Mission That Matters
Ready to take your software engineering skills beyond the classroom and into a mission where your work has real-world impact? Leidos is seeking a talented Junior Software Engineer to join the Chinook Program supporting an Intelligence Community (IC) customer and helping evolve an application that plays an important role in national security.
As a Junior Software Engineer, you’ll work alongside experienced engineers, architects, testers, and DevSecOps professionals while gaining hands-on experience developing, integrating, testing, and delivering modern software capabilities. The Junior Software Engineer will work within an Agile development team and will receive technical guidance from senior engineers while progressively taking ownership of software components and features. You’ll have the opportunity to learn new technologies, tackle meaningful engineering challenges, and see your contributions become a part of a real operational mission.
Position may be performed in the following locations below.
Tucson, AZ
Gaithersburg, MD
Alexandria, VA
Chantilly, VA
Englewood, CO
St. Louis, MO
Clearance Level Required:
Candidate must be able to obtain and maintain a Top Secret clearance, be eligible for SCI access and successfully complete a polygraph examination.
Primary Responsibilities:
Develop, modify, test, and deploy software solutions that support our customer’s GEOINT mission under the guidance of senior engineers.
Implement software features based on established requirements and technical designs.
Write clean, maintainable, and well-documented code.
Participate in code reviews and incorporate feedback from senior engineers.
Develop and execute unit and integration tests.
Troubleshoot software defects and assist with root-cause analysis.
Support integration of application components and services.
Work with REST APIs, databases, and application services.
Participate in agile development sprints and contribute to daily stand-ups, sprint planning, and retrospectives.
Collaborate with mission users and product managers to refine requirements and improve user experience.
Use Git and established CI/CD processes to manage and deliver software.
Maintain technical documentation and development artifacts.
Support deployment and sustainment activities for the application.
Build and maintain secure, containerized applications using technologies such as Docker, Kubernetes, and AWS.
Support DevSecOps pipelines and ensure code meets security and accreditation standards.
Resolve various tasks as prioritized by the team product owner.
Basic Qualifications:
US citizenship is required per contract
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field and 2-4 years of prior relevant experience or Master’s with less than 2 years of prior relevant experience. Equivalent experience may be considered in lieu of degree
Experience with the following technologies:
Web: HTML, CSS, JSON, Ajax, and REST APIs
Object-oriented Programming: Python, Java, or JavaScript
Front-end and Back-end Frameworks: React, Angular, Vue.js, jQuery, Spring Boot, Django, Node.js, Flask, or Svelte
Cloud Development: AWS, Azure, or similar cloud platforms
Relational Database: MySQL, PostgreSQL, or SQL Server
Operating System: Windows, Linux
Version Control System: Git
Understanding of modern software design patterns and coding standards.
Experience architecting, developing, and delivering complex software systems into production.
Experience with CI/CD tools (GitLab CI, Jenkins) and agile collaboration tools (JIRA, Confluence).
Familiarity with cloud environments such as AWS (C2S or GovCloud) and containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes)
Understanding of secure coding practices and government system accreditation processes (e.g., RMF, STIGs)
Strong, self-motivated desire to learn new programming languages, tools, frameworks, and techniques.
Preferred Qualifications:
Experience working on a customer contract or in the Intelligence Community (IC).
Frontend Web Development: UI/UX.
NoSQL Database: OpenSearch/Elasticsearch.
Cloud Exposure:
Multi-cloud architectures: AWS, IBM, Google, Azure, and Oracle.
Specific AWS Services: S3, SQS, SNS, EC2, CloudFormation and RDS.
Familiarity with geospatial tools and standards:
GeoServer
PostGIS
OGC APIs
ESRI ArcGIS
Exposure to Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform, Ansible).
#Chinook
#NSBA
If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo — because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 — and moving faster than anyone else dares.
Original Posting:
November 3, 2026
For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.
Pay Range:
Pay Range $69,550.00 - $125,725.00
The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.
Responsibilities
- Develop, test, deploy, and maintain software supporting the customer’s GEOINT mission.
- Implement software features, write maintainable code, and participate in code reviews.
- Create and execute unit and integration tests; troubleshoot defects and support root-cause analysis.
- Integrate application components and work with REST APIs, databases, and application services.
- Contribute to Agile ceremonies and collaborate with mission users and product managers.
- Use Git and CI/CD processes to deliver secure, containerized applications.
- Support DevSecOps pipelines, deployments, sustainment, and technical documentation.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field with 2–4 years of relevant experience, or a master’s degree with less than 2 years; equivalent experience may substitute for a degree.
- U.S. citizenship is required.
- Must be able to obtain and maintain a Top Secret clearance, be eligible for SCI access, and successfully complete a polygraph examination.
- Experience with web technologies, REST APIs, and an object-oriented language such as Python, Java, or JavaScript.
- Experience with software frameworks, cloud platforms, relational databases, Windows or Linux, and Git.
- Knowledge of software design patterns, coding standards, CI/CD, Agile tools, cloud environments, and containerization.
- Understanding of secure coding practices and government accreditation processes such as RMF and STIGs.
- Preferred: Intelligence Community or customer-contract experience, UI/UX, NoSQL databases, multi-cloud architectures, AWS services, geospatial tools, or Infrastructure-as-Code.
Skills mentioned
About Leidos
Leidos is an industry and technology leader serving government & commercial customers with smarter, more efficient digital and mission innovations. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with 47,000 global employees, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $17.2 billion for the fiscal year ended January 2, 2026. Leidos was cited for the meaningful work employees perform that is challenging, impactful, and aligned with our customers’ missions as reasons professionals want to work and stay at our company. Leidos has also been named to lists including Forbes’ Best Employers for Diversity, Forbes’ America’s Best Employers for Women, Military Times Best for Vets Employers, and Ethisphere Institute’s World's Most Ethical Companies®. Employees enjoy career enrichment opportunities available through mobility and development and experience rewarding relationships with supportive supervisors and talented colleagues and customers. Employees appreciate our flexible work environment, allowing for and encouraging a true work-life balance. Our professionals are also excited about our Employee Resource Groups, like the Collaborative Outreach with Remote and Embedded Employees (CORE), which strives to create an environment where every employee, regardless of location, feels fully engaged as a valued employee of Leidos. Your most important work is ahead, visit careers.leidos.com for our latest opportunities.
H-1B sponsorship history
Historical employer filing data was found for Leidos. The employer record includes 364 historical certified applications. This is employer-level history, not a guarantee that this role currently offers sponsorship.