Associate Space Software Engineer - Cloud DevSecOps

Talentify; 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 space-domain software for secure, distributed systems. You will work on cloud-ready, observable services with mentorship from senior engineers in a TS/SCI environment.

You will contribute to backend design, CI/CD pipelines, and security controls while collaborating in a team focused on national security missions and distributed computing challenges.

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 and defect tracking.
• Proficiency in at least one modern language (C++, Java, or Python).
• Foundational Docker knowledge and exposure to Kubernetes concepts.
• Experience creating CI/CD pipelines (GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or Jenkins).
• Understanding of REST APIs and JSON data exchange (Protobuf a plus).
• Familiarity with testing practices and Git workflows.
• Ability to collaborate in a team and communicate effectively.

Responsibilities

• Assist in designing and implementing backend services, APIs, and data pipelines for space-operations software.
• Help build and maintain containerized applications and CI/CD pipelines under guidance.
• Contribute to security controls throughout the development lifecycle (DevSecOps).
• Support event-driven components (Kafka/RabbitMQ basics).
• Follow compliance procedures for classified environments including air-gapped deployments.
• Identify and solve issues, monitor and improve system performance and observability in test and staging environments.
• Participate in code reviews and learn from architecture discussions.

Skills

C++

Java

Python

Docker

Kubernetes

CI/CD

REST APIs

Git

OpenAPI/Swagger

JSON/Protobuf

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

GitLab CI

GitHub Actions

Jenkins

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) is seeking an Associate Software Engineer to design, develop, and maintain critical space-domain software for secure, distributed systems. You will work on cloud-ready, observable services with mentorship from senior engineers in a TS/SCI environment.

You will contribute to backend design, CI/CD pipelines, and security controls while collaborating in a team focused on national security missions and distributed computing challenges.