Embedded Software Engineer

Leidos; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 87,000 - 157,000; Full time

Job summary

Leidos in San Diego is seeking an Embedded Software Engineer to design, develop, and integrate software for high‑performance SoC hardware in a defense context. You will work with multidisciplinary teams to deliver real-time software and hardware interfaces, leveraging C/C++, Linux, and DSP/RISC‑V targets.

The role emphasizes hands-on development, testing, and documentation, including building test plans and validating performance under stress conditions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in CS/EE/CE; 4+ years in embedded software development.
• Experience with IDEs such as VS Code or Eclipse.
• Experience with build tools (GCC, CMake, Make).
• Understanding hardware–software interaction and basic computer architecture.
• Version control experience (Git/SVN) and CI tools (Jenkins).
• Experience with software testing tools and methodologies.
• Ability to document developed software.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop advanced embedded systems as part of multidisciplinary teams.
• Develop software for DSP, ARM, or RISC‑V architectures.
• Create software for multi‑core bare metal, RTOS, and Linux environments.
• Read datasheets to understand hardware operation.
• Build and document test plans and software requirements specifications.
• Write low level C code to interface with CSRs and hardware components.
• Validate hardware performance under nominal and stress conditions.
• Build software using test driven development (TDD).
• Document software performance against KPIs for data-plane and control-plane processing.
• Communicate technical details of APIs and test results to engineers.

Skills

C/C++

Embedded systems

Linux development

VS Code

Eclipse

CI tools

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in CS/EE/CE

Master’s Degree in CS/EE/CE

Tools

VS Code

Eclipse

CMake

Make

Git

OpenOCD

Job description

Description

Today, 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 primarily 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.

In this role, the Embedded Software Engineer will build high-performance software to meet extreme system requirements. They will be responsible for designing and implementing components to support software development kits that are delivered directly to end users to support quick adoption and ease of use for novel SoC products. This role will require the ability to deeply understand hardware architectures to execute validation and verification testing, a crucial step to ensure hardware and software performance meets customer expectations.

Join a team of experts in implementing high-performance signal processing on custom system-on-chip (SoC) hardware and building the tools that enable analysis, rapid prototyping, and deployment of cutting-edge algorithms.

The successful candidate will be responsible for:

• Contributing to the design and development of advanced embedded systems as a part of multidisciplinary teams. These teams are made up of other software team members and subject matter experts from the areas of systems engineering, hardware, firmware, RF front-end design, and signal processing.

• 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

The successful candidate will have the following basic education/experience:

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

• 4+ years of software development experience, including strong experience in C/C++ software development 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 (e.g. Stack, Heap, Pointers)

• 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

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

Bonus education/experience:

• Master’s Degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent

• Active security clearance higher than the 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

Pay Range

Pay Range $87,100.00 - $157,450.00

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.

About Leidos

Leidos is an industry and technology leader serving government and commercial customers with smarter, more efficient digital and mission innovations. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with 47,000 global employees, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $16.7 billion for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2025. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com.

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. Employment benefits include competitive compensation, Health and Wellness programs, Income Protection, Paid Leave and Retirement. More details are available at www.leidos.com/careers/pay-benefits.

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.