Associate Software Engineer - Cloud & DevSecOps

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory; Laurel (MD); On-site; USD 85,000 - 195,000; Full time

Job summary

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) is seeking an Associate Software Engineer to design, develop, and maintain critical software for national security space operations in a TS/SCI environment. You will work on scalable and secure systems for space domain applications, with emphasis on DevSecOps and cloud-native architectures.

You will contribute to distributed systems, gain mentorship from senior engineers, and participate in code reviews while building observable,

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 2+ years of full software engineering experience including design, requirements, configuration management, trade studies, and defect tracking.
• Proficiency in at least one modern language (C++, Java, or Python).
• Foundational Docker knowledge and exposure to Kubernetes concepts.
• Experience creating simple CI/CD pipelines (GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or Jenkins).
• Understanding of REST APIs, JSON, and OpenAPI basics.
• Familiarity with unit and basic integration testing.
• Git proficiency and collaboration through PRs.

Responsibilities

• Assist in designing and implementing backend services, APIs, and data pipelines for space operations software.
• Help build and maintain containerized applications and contribute to CI/CD pipelines.
• Participate in adding security controls throughout the development lifecycle (DevSecOps).
• Support development of event-driven components (Kafka/RabbitMQ) or similar messaging patterns.
• Follow compliance procedures for classified environments, including airgapped deployments and controlled updates.
• Identify and solve issues, monitor, and improve system performance and observability in test/staging environments.
• Participate in code reviews and learn from architecture discussions with mentorship.

Skills

C++/Java/Python

Docker

Kubernetes

REST APIs/OpenAPI

Git/Git workflows

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Software Engineering or related

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Git

Job description

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) is seeking an Associate Software Engineer to design, develop, and maintain critical software for national security space operations in a TS/SCI environment. You will work on scalable and secure systems for space domain applications, with emphasis on DevSecOps and cloud-native architectures.

You will contribute to distributed systems, gain mentorship from senior engineers, and participate in code reviews while building observable,