Embedded Software Engineer

Leidos; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

A defense technology company is seeking an Embedded Software Engineer to contribute to the design and development of advanced embedded systems in San Diego, CA. Candidates should have a Bachelor's degree in a relevant field and over 4 years of software development experience, particularly in C/C++. The role includes developing software for various microarchitectures and working within multidisciplinary teams under agile methodologies. An active Secret level security clearance is required for this position.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of software development experience in embedded systems.
• Experience with build tools and integrated development environments.
• Demonstrated ability to learn new technical skills.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to the design and development of embedded systems.
• Develop software for various microarchitectures.
• Document software performance and create technical documentation.

Skills

C/C++

Embedded systems

Linux

Version control (Git)

Hardware/software interaction

Software testing

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related discipline

Tools

VS Code

Eclipse

GCC

CMake

Make

Job description

About the Role

Electronic Warfare is a growing enterprise—protecting the warfighter and our national security against ever‑adapting threats. Our Electronic Warfare division currently has an exciting opportunity for an Embedded Software Engineer to perform design, development, and hardware/software integration in San Diego, CA. Leidos is a DOD leader in electronic design and chiplet manufacture. Our division focuses on research & development and advanced prototyping, transforming state‑of‑the‑art processing algorithms into real‑time software systems. Projects involve small multi‑disciplinary teams of engineers working together in spiral or agile development environments to meet aggressive customer schedules aimed at near‑term field demonstrations. Leidos utilizes its proprietary design methodology for hardware‑software co‑design to manufacture custom SoC and IP for high‑performance applications.

Responsibilities

• Contributing to the design and development of advanced embedded systems as part of multidisciplinary teams.
• Developing software for a variety of microarchitectures, including DSP, ARM, or RISC‑V.
• Developing software for multi‑core embedded systems ranging from bare metal to minimal real‑time operating systems to Linux environments.
• Reading and comprehending datasheets to understand expected hardware operation.
• Building and documenting test plans, test procedures, and software requirements specifications.
• Writing low‑level code (e.g., C) to interface with control status registers (CSRs) and hardware components.
• Writing software to validate hardware performance and operation under nominal and stress conditions.
• Building software using test‑driven development (TDD) methodologies.
• Documenting software performance results against key performance requirements for data‑plane and control‑plane processing.
• Understanding software use in high‑level system design for real‑time software in operational systems.
• Clearly communicating technical details of software APIs and test results to internal and external engineers.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related discipline.
• 4+ years of software development experience, including strong experience in C/C++ for embedded systems.
• Experience using integrated development environments (e.g., VS Code, Eclipse).
• Experience with build tools (e.g., GCC, CMake, or Make).
• Strong understanding of hardware‑software interaction and basic computer architecture.
• Experience with version control systems (e.g., Git, Subversion) and continuous integration software tools (e.g., Jenkins).
• Experience with software testing tools and methodologies.
• Experience in creating and maintaining technical documentation for developed software.
• Ability to communicate and share ideas, concepts, and designs with a team of engineers.
• Understanding of unit test frameworks and test‑driven development practices.
• Comfortable working in Linux development environments.
• Demonstrated ability and motivation to continually learn new technical skills and concepts.

Bonus Education / Experience

• Master’s Degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent.
• Active security clearance higher than Secret level.
• Experience with other programming languages such as Python, MATLAB, or another OOP language.
• Ability to debug embedded systems using tools like oscilloscopes and logic analyzers.
• Experience developing drivers for hardware interfaces (e.g., GPIO, I2C, SPI, UART, PCIe).
• Experience with multiple embedded instruction set architectures (e.g., ESP32, Raspberry PI, Arduino, RISCV).
• Experience using hardware debugging software and tools such as OpenOCD, J‑Link, or SEGGER.

Security Clearance

Must have active Secret level security clearance with the ability to obtain TS/SCI.

Commitment to Non‑Discrimination

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.