Lead Software Engineer – AI-Assisted Development

Society of Defense Financial Management; Huntsville (AL); Hybrid; USD 131,000 - 237,000; Full time

Job summary

Leidos Defense in Huntsville, AL is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to guide a software team building production-ready counter-UAS and missile defense software in C++ and Python within a SAFe framework.

You will champion agentic AI-assisted development, mentor engineers, ensure secure, auditable code, and collaborate with systems, cybersecurity, and program leadership to deliver mission-critical software.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a technical field and 12+ years of software development experience.
• Proven ability to coach and mentor engineers and lead a software team as technical lead.
• Strong C++ and Python skills.
• Experience with Linux and full software lifecycle, including peer reviews, testing, and CI/CD.
• Experience in Agile/SAFe environments and tools like Jira and GitLab.
• US citizen able to obtain/maintain a Secret security clearance and willing to relocate to Huntsville, AL.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical lead and design authority for the IFPC Agentic AI software development team, setting direction and driving quality and delivery.
• Operationalize agentic AI-assisted software development across the team with workflows, tooling, and guardrails.
• Coach engineers in AI coding assistants through pairing, enablement sessions, code reviews, and playbooks.
• Adapt AI practices to secure, restricted, or air-gapped environments and shepherd tooling through security approvals.
• Develop production software in C++ and Python in a Linux environment for counter-UAS and missile defense systems.
• Work in SAFe with Jira and GitLab; uphold peer reviews, testing, and CI/CD integration, with AI integration.
• Debug in HWIL/SWIL settings and enforce engineering and coding standards.
• Collaborate with systems, electrical, test, and cybersecurity teams and interface with program leadership and customer.

Job description

Description

At Leidos, we deliver innovative solutions through the efforts of our diverse and talented people who are dedicated to our customers’ success. We empower our teams, contribute to our communities, and operate sustainably. Everything we do is built on a commitment to do the right thing for our customers, our people, and our community. Our Mission, Vision, and Values guide the way we do business.

Leidos Defense provides a diverse portfolio of systems, solutions, and services covering land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace for customers worldwide. Our team is solving the world’s toughest security challenges for customers with “can’t fail” missions.

Within the Defense Sector, Leidos currently has a special opening for a talented Lead Software Engineer to work onsite in our Huntsville, AL office in support of the IFPC program, developing software for critical counter-UAS and missile defense solutions. This position focuses on the complete software lifecycle of complex defense systems in a Linux environment using languages such as C++ and Python, developed within a Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) environment.

This is a special, high-impact leadership role. Beyond delivering mission software, you will serve as the team’s technical lead and the driving force for AI‑assisted software engineering – bringing modern, agentic AI coding practices to the program and coaching the team so that every engineer becomes measurably more productive. The ideal candidate has built real production software with current‑generation agentic AI coding assistants and can adapt those practices to a secure environment where the newest commercial tooling is often restricted. You will start as the technical lead for the software team, with a defined growth path into a people‑management role as the team scales.

Primary Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical lead and design authority for the IFPC Agentic AI software development improvement software team, setting technical direction, mentoring engineers, and driving quality and delivery, with a defined growth path into a people‑management role as the team scales.
• Champion and operationalize agentic AI-assisted software development across the team: establish the workflows, agent/prompt patterns, custom tooling, and guardrails that measurably multiply the team’s throughput and code quality.
• Coach and upskill engineers in the effective, responsible use of AI coding assistants through hands‑on pairing, enablement sessions, code reviews, and reusable playbooks, acting as a force multiplier for the entire team.
• Adapt commercial agentic‑AI coding practices to a secure, restricted, or air‑gapped environment; evaluate, pilot, and shepherd AI tooling through the security‑approval process, including on‑prem / self‑hosted model options.
• Develop production software in C++ and Python in a Linux environment for counter‑UAS and missile defense systems.
• Develop within a SAFe environment using Jira and GitLab; apply software best practices such as peer reviews, unit testing, and CI/CD automation – integrating AI responsibly into the software development lifecycle.
• Debug and troubleshoot software in a Hardware‑in‑the‑Loop (HWIL) and Software‑in‑the‑loop (SWIL) setting.
• Establish and enforce engineering and coding standards, and drive standardized, reusable, well‑documented solutions.
• Collaborate across systems, electrical, test, and cybersecurity teams, and interface with program leadership and the customer to align software delivery with program needs.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical discipline and 12+ years of professional software development experience (or Master’s degree + 10 years / PhD + 7 years).
• Recent, substantial, hands‑on experience building real software with current‑generation agentic AI coding assistants and AI-assisted development workflows, not just experimentation.
• Demonstrated ability to coach and mentor engineers and to lead a software team as a technical lead.
• Strong, current proficiency in C++ and Python.
• Experience across the full software lifecycle, including peer reviews, automated testing, and CI/CD.
• Experience working within an Agile / SAFe environment (or equivalent).
• Experience with tools such as Jira and GitLab (or equivalent).
• Experience developing in a Linux environment.
• Ability to adapt modern AI‑assisted development workflows to security‑constrained, restricted, or disconnected environments (or a clear, demonstrated capacity to do so).
• Currently living in Huntsville, AL or willing to relocate.
• U.S. Citizen with the ability to obtain and maintain a Secret security clearance (interim and final).

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep, hands‑on expertise with specific agentic AI coding tools – e.g., Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot / Copilot Workspace, Windsurf, Aider – and with Model Context Protocol (MCP)-based agent and tool workflows.
• Experience building AI enablement assets: prompt/agent libraries, custom skills/agents, and automated code-review and test‑generation pipelines that scale across a team.
• Experience measuring and driving AI developer‑productivity impact (e.g., DORA metrics, cycle time, review latency) and leading tool adoption at team or organization scale.
• Experience with self-hosted / on‑prem large language models and retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG) over codebases (e.g., vLLM, Ollama, Amazon Bedrock / GovCloud), including deployment in disconnected environments.
• Familiarity with AI governance and safety for software teams: secure use of AI on sensitive code, data‑handling, and intellectual‑property and security guardrails.
• Commercial / private‑sector software experience where access to state‑of‑the‑art agentic AI coding tools is widespread.
• Counter‑UAS, missile defense, or other mission‑system domain experience.
• Real‑time / embedded C++ and experience troubleshooting/testing software in an HWIL environment.
• Experience with Buildroot and VMware; network programming (UDP/TCP) and analysis tools such as Wireshark.
• Experience supporting and maintaining CI/CD pipelines, and familiarity with DoD acquisition processes and methods.

At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo – because the mission demands it.

Original Posting

September 23, 2026

For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.

Pay Range

Pay Range $131,300.00 - $237,350.00

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.