Lead Software Engineer

Leidos LLC; City of Melbourne; On-site; AUD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

competitive compensation

Health and Wellness programs

Income Protection

Paid Leave

Retirement

Job summary

Leidos Australia is seeking a Software Engineering Leader to drive the design, delivery and continuous evolution of software solutions for a Defence program. You will provide technical guidance across the lifecycle, aligning architecture with customer priorities and security requirements.

You will mentor cross-functional teams, collaborate with product owners and stakeholders, and advocate modern engineering practices to deliver high-quality capabilities on time and within budget.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience leading software engineering teams in Agile environments.
• Proven ability in software architecture, systems integration and enterprise-level applications.
• Ability to guide technical decision-making and mentor engineers.
• Experience with Java and open-source tech plus modern DevOps/CI-CD practices.
• Knowledge of REST APIs and data formats such as JSON and XML.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership across the software engineering lifecycle for a Defence capability.
• Lead and mentor cross-functional Agile teams and foster engineering excellence.
• Drive architectural decisions, roadmaps and modern engineering practices for scalable, secure solutions.
• Partner with customers, product owners and stakeholders to translate complex requirements into practical solutions, manage risks and ensure delivery outcomes.

Skills

Software engineering leadership

Java & open source

REST APIs & data formats

Tools

NiFi

Kafka

ELK Stack

Solr

Jenkins

Ansible

Job description

About Leidos Australia

At Leidos Australia, our work goes beyond a job title. We design, build, operate and support the systems, services and capabilities that help protect and advance the Australian way of life. Backed by a global organisation of more than 40,000 people, our Australian team of around 2,000 has partnered with government, defence and national security customers for more than 30 years. We deliver mission-critical solutions where reliability, trust and purpose matter. Leidos is a destination for people who want their work to have purpose, their contribution to be recognised, and their career to grow without needing to fit a single mould. Meaningful work is supported by benefits, flexibility and career pathways that help you grow while balancing life outside work. This includes:

• Flex Your Way – Tailor work to your life with options including Life Days (up to 12 extra days off per year), part-time arrangements, job sharing, and compressed hours.
• Wellbeing That Matters – Free access to Headspace and MeQuilibrium, plus dedicated wellness spaces to support your mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing.
• Learn Without Limits – Access over 120,000 on-demand courses, alongside technical, project management, leadership, and professional development opportunities.
• Work That Makes an Impact – Contribute to nationally significant projects that matter, solve complex challenges, and accelerate your career through unique growth opportunities.
• Build Your Future – Whether you're deepening technical expertise or preparing for leadership, we'll invest in your development every step of the way.
• And Much More – These are just a few of the ways we invest in our people and help them thrive.

About the Team

You’ll join a team where people work with integrity, inclusion, innovation, agility, collaboration and commitment. In practice, that means sharing ownership, solving complex problems together and staying connected to the customer context, the purpose behind the work and how each role contributes to meaningful outcomes.

Mission Software Systems (MSS)

MSS brings together expertise across intelligence, software, and cloud to deliver end-to-end capability supporting the full intelligence lifecycle, from planning through to dissemination and feedback. The team fosters a culture of innovation, leveraging modern engineering practices and shared infrastructure to rapidly build, test, and deploy software solutions across a range of environments, including cloud. MSS also plays a key role in advancing technology modernisation within Government, delivering scalable and adaptable solutions for complex enterprise challenges.

The Opportunity

This role is an opportunity to contribute to a mission-critical Defence program by leading the design, delivery and continuous evolution of software solutions that support nationally significant outcomes. You will work closely with product owners, engineers, architects and customer stakeholders to shape technical direction, solve complex challenges and deliver secure, high-quality capabilities. In this role, you will:

• Provide technical leadership across the software engineering lifecycle, guiding solution design, development, integration, testing and deployment activities for a critical Defence capability.
• Lead and mentor cross-functional Agile teams, fostering engineering excellence, collaboration and continuous improvement while supporting the growth and development of team members.
• Drive architectural decisions, technical roadmaps and modern engineering practices, ensuring solutions are scalable, secure, maintainable and aligned to customer priorities.
• Partner with customers, product owners and stakeholders to translate complex requirements into practical solutions, manage technical risks and ensure successful delivery outcomes.

About You

We are looking for someone who brings technical leadership, sound judgement and a collaborative approach to delivering software solutions that make a meaningful impact.

We value different experiences and are interested in the capability and potential you could bring.

Essential for this role

• Extensive experience leading software engineering teams and delivering complex software solutions within Agile environments.
• Experience in software architecture, systems integration and enterprise-level application development.
• Ability to guide technical decision-making, mentor engineers and drive engineering best practice across teams.
• Experience working with Java and associated open-source technologies, alongside modern DevOps and CI/CD practices.
• Knowledge of integration technologies, REST APIs and data exchange formats including JSON and XML.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to build trusted relationships across technical and non-technical audiences.
• Demonstrated capability in planning, estimation, risk management and delivering outcomes within complex programs.
• This role does require the successful applicant to be an Australian Citizen and hold an NV-1 security clearance but be willing and able to uplift to an NV-2 security clearance.

Advantageous, but not essential

• Experience with NiFi, Kafka, Elastic (ELK) Stack, Solr, Jenkins, Git and Ansible.
• Exposure to Defence, National Security, Government or other highly regulated environments.
• Experience leading distributed or cross-functional engineering teams in mission-critical systems.

Pay and Benefits

Pay and benefits are fundamental to any career decision. That's why we craft compensation packages that reflect the importance of the work we do for our customers.

• competitive compensation
• Health and Wellness programs
• Income Protection
• Paid Leave
• Retirement

More details are available here.

Securing Your Data

Leidos will never ask you to provide payment-related information at any part of the employment application process. And Leidos will communicate with you only through emails that are sent from a Leidos.com email address. If you receive an email purporting to be from Leidos that asks for payment-related information or any other personal information, please report the email to [e-mail].

Commitment and Diversity

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, ethnicity, age, national origin, citizenship, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, pregnancy, family structure, marital status, ancestry, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Leidos will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with relevant laws.