Principal GSE Software Engineer - Python & System Architecture

Trident Systems Inc.

Sterling, Northern (VA, KY)

Hybrid

USD 111,000 - 206,000

Full time

14 days+

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Benefits offered by this job

Medical

Vision

Life Insurance

Short-term disability

Long-term disability

Ancillary benefits

HSA/FSA/DCFSA spending accounts

Paid time off

Holidays

401(k) with company match

Parental/maternity/military leaves

Annual discretionary bonus

Job summary

Trident Systems Inc. is seeking a Principal GSE Software Engineer to lead the design, development, and evolution of software platforms that control automated electronic test and support systems in Sterling, VA.

You will own the technical direction, build reusable Python frameworks, and drive scalable, fault-tolerant architectures across programs. You will collaborate with Test Systems, Integration & Test engineers, and cross‑functional teams to ensure robustness, maintainability, and production

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, or a related technical discipline.
9+ years of related experience with a bachelor’s degree or 7+ years with a graduate degree.
Extensive professional experience developing software in Python.
Expert-level proficiency with asyncio and concurrent/asynchronous programming paradigms.
Significant experience communicating with hardware devices (e.g., instruments, controllers, embedded systems).
Strong background in software architecture and object-oriented design for complex or distributed systems.
Demonstrated ability to debug, stabilize, and optimize complex software systems that interact with physical hardware.
Excellent communication skills, with the ability to work effectively across disciplines including software, test, systems, electrical, and manufacturing engineering.
Experience providing technical leadership or architectural direction for a software platform or framework.

Responsibilities

Define the overarching GSE software platform architecture, including standards, design principles, and best practices.
Design scalable asynchronous software architectures for concurrent control of instruments and support equipment.
Lead the development of reusable Python frameworks that underpin automated GSE and test systems.
Establish clear abstractions, interfaces, and patterns for instruments, communication buses and test procedures.
Evaluate and select tools, libraries and technologies for the GSE software stack, providing well-reasoned recommendations and trade-off analyses.
Develop reusable instruments and communication abstractions that can be applied consistently across diverse projects and test systems.
Architect and implement execution frameworks for sequencing, scheduling, concurrency, error handling, logging and health monitoring.
Design and build measurement acquisition, data processing and results management software integrated with enterprise engineering tools and data systems.
Implement robust configuration, deployment and monitoring mechanisms for GSE software in laboratory and production environments.
Partner with the Lead Test Systems Engineer to co-develop the framework architecture that underpins all automated test systems.
Work with Integration & Test engineers to translate I&T requirements into reliable, maintainable automated test procedures on the GSE platform.
Collaborate with the Engineering Systems Integration Engineer to integrate GSE software with enterprise systems (e.g., engineering databases, PLM, configuration management, data repositories).
Provide expert support to production test operations, including diagnosing complex system issues, improving performance, and enhancing reliability.
Champion professional software engineering practices, including code reviews, automated testing, CI/CD, documentation, and configuration management.
Mentor and coach software and test engineers in asynchronous programming, software architecture, and best practices for automated test and GSE systems.
Drive continuous improvement in coding standards, design guidelines, and development workflows for the GSE software ecosystem.
Lead root-cause analysis efforts for complex GSE software issues and implement durable corrective actions that improve system behavior over time.