Autonomous Systems Software Engineer - Underwater Vehicles

Leidos; Lynnwood (WA); On-site; USD 131,000 - 237,000; Full time

Job summary

Leidos is seeking an Autonomous Systems Software Engineer to build the brains behind next‑generation uncrewed underwater vehicles and maritime autonomous systems. This role involves designing, writing, and deploying production software that directly controls autonomous behavior, vehicle health, and mission execution on real hardware in unforgiving environments.

You’ll collaborate across disciplines with systems, hardware, and test engineers to ensure software behaves correctly as part of a

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field with 12-15 years of experience, or Master’s with 10-13 years.
• Security clearance: Secret.
• Strong experience developing modern C++ on Linux with focus on performance and memory management.
• Ability to design clean, maintainable systems and tradeoffs under constraints.
• Familiarity with MBSE concepts and tools (Cameo, MagicDraw) and software in larger architectures.
• Experience in virtualized or containerized environments (VMware, Docker).
• Experience with Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket or equivalents in Agile/iterative environments.
• Clear communication and ownership mindset.

Responsibilities

• Build mission-critical autonomy software using modern C++ and Python on Linux-based systems.
• Translate high-level system intent into executable software and testable implementations.
• Architect and evolve scalable autonomy frameworks across multiple vehicle platforms.
• Ship real features with ownership from design through deployment.
• Collaborate in design reviews and trade studies to resolve real constraints.
• Mentor junior engineers and raise team technical rigor.
• Own quality with unit and integration tests and root-cause analysis.
• Work with systems, hardware, and test engineers to ensure correct behavior in real-world systems.
• Continuously improve build processes and workflows in an Agile environment.

Skills

C++

Python

Linux

Autonomy software

Test & debugging

Software engineering

Clear communication

Ownership

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Master’s degree (preferred)

Tools

VMware

Docker

Cameo

MagicDraw

Jira

Confluence

Bitbucket

ROS

Protocol Buffers

SCons

VS Code

Job description

Leidos is seeking an Autonomous Systems Software Engineer to build the brains behind next‑generation uncrewed underwater vehicles and maritime autonomous systems. This role involves designing, writing, and deploying production software that directly controls autonomous behavior, vehicle health, and mission execution on real hardware in unforgiving environments.

You’ll collaborate across disciplines with systems, hardware, and test engineers to ensure software behaves correctly as part of a