Sr. Principal Software Engineer

Clarity Innovations; Jessup (MD); On-site; USD 160,000 - 390,000; Full time

Job summary

Clarity Innovations seeks a Software Automation Engineer to design, develop, maintain, and continuously improve automated software solutions that increase efficiency, quality, reliability, and scalability. The role centers on automation frameworks, CI/CD integration, and DevSecOps alignment to support mission-critical software in a national security context, with TS/SCI clearance required to start.

The ideal candidate has strong programming fundamentals, experience with automated testing, and

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or related technical field, or equivalent professional experience.
• 7+ years of experience in software engineering, test automation, QA automation, or a related discipline.
• Experience developing automated software tests and automation frameworks.
• Experience with API testing and automation.
• Experience working with Git or another source-control management system.
• Experience with CI/CD technologies and automated build/deployment pipelines.
• Strong understanding of software development and testing methodologies.
• Experience troubleshooting application and automation failures.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable software automation frameworks and tools.
• Develop automated functional, regression, integration, API, and end-to-end tests.
• Translate business and technical requirements into automated solutions.
• Integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines and DevSecOps processes.
• Identify repetitive or error-prone manual processes and develop automation to improve efficiency.
• Develop reusable automation components, libraries, scripts, and utilities.
• Collaborate with software developers to identify defects and improve application quality.
• Analyze test failures, troubleshoot issues, and determine root causes.
• Maintain automated test environments, configurations, and supporting infrastructure.
• Participate in code reviews and follow established software engineering standards.
• Develop and maintain technical documentation for automation frameworks and processes.
• Monitor automation results and provide meaningful reporting to technical and business stakeholders.
• Support continuous improvement of software development, testing, and deployment processes.
• Work with Agile teams to incorporate automation throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Ensure automation solutions align with organizational security, compliance, and architecture standards.

Skills

Automation

CI/CD

Git

Selenium

Playwright

Cypress

API testing

DevSecOps

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science / Software Engineering or related field

Tools

Git

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

Clarity Innovations is a trusted national security partner, dedicated to safeguarding our nation’s interests and delivering innovative solutions that empower the Intelligence Community (IC) and Department of Defense (DoD) to transform data into actionable intelligence, ensuring mission success in an evolving world.

Our mission-first software and data engineering platform modernizes data operations, utilizing advanced workflows, CI/CD, and secure DevSecOps practices. We focus on challenges in Information Warfare, Cyber Operations, Operational Security, and Data Structuring, enabling end-to-end solutions that drive operational impact.

We are committed to delivering cutting-edge tools and capabilities that address the most complex national security challenges, empowering our partners to stay ahead of emerging threats and ensuring the success of their critical missions. At Clarity, we are people-focused and set on being a destination employer for top talent, offering an environment where innovation thrives, careers grow, and individuals are valued. Join us as we continue to lead innovation and tackle the most pressing challenges in national security.

Software Automation Engineer

TS/SCI – Required to start

Position Summary

We are seeking a skilled Software Automation Engineer to design, develop, maintain, and continuously improve automated software solutions that increase efficiency, quality, reliability, and scalability. The ideal candidate will have strong software development fundamentals, experience building automated testing and deployment solutions, and the ability to work collaboratively with developers, product owners, DevOps engineers, and other technical stakeholders.

This role will be responsible for developing automation frameworks, integrating automated testing into CI/CD pipelines, identifying opportunities to eliminate repetitive manual processes, and helping ensure software products meet functional, performance, security, and quality requirements.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable software automation frameworks and tools.
• Develop automated functional, regression, integration, API, and end-to-end tests.
• Translate business and technical requirements into automated solutions.
• Integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines and DevSecOps processes.
• Identify repetitive or error-prone manual processes and develop automation to improve efficiency.
• Develop reusable automation components, libraries, scripts, and utilities.
• Collaborate with software developers to identify defects and improve application quality.
• Analyze test failures, troubleshoot issues, and determine root causes.
• Maintain automated test environments, configurations, and supporting infrastructure.
• Participate in code reviews and follow established software engineering standards.
• Develop and maintain technical documentation for automation frameworks and processes.
• Monitor automation results and provide meaningful reporting to technical and business stakeholders.
• Support continuous improvement of software development, testing, and deployment processes.
• Work with Agile teams to incorporate automation throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Ensure automation solutions align with organizational security, compliance, and architecture standards.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related technical field, or equivalent professional experience.
• 7+ years of experience in software engineering, test automation, QA automation, or a related discipline.
• Experience developing automated software tests and automation frameworks.
• Experience with API testing and automation.
• Experience working with Git or another source-control management system.
• Experience with CI/CD technologies and automated build/deployment pipelines.
• Strong understanding of software development and testing methodologies.
• Experience troubleshooting application and automation failures.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience applying Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) to software development, testing, automation, or engineering workflows.
• Experience developing or integrating agentic AI solutions capable of autonomously executing multi-step tasks, interacting with software systems, or orchestrating automated workflows.
• Familiarity with AI/ML frameworks, libraries, and tools such as LangChain, LangGraph, LlamaIndex, Hugging Face, OpenAI APIs, or similar technologies.
• Experience developing AI-enabled automation using LLM APIs, prompt engineering, tool/function calling, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), or agent-based architectures.
• Experience integrating AI capabilities into software testing, including automated test generation, test-case optimization, defect analysis, test-result evaluation, or intelligent troubleshooting.
• Familiarity with vector databases, embeddings, semantic search, and other technologies used to support LLM and agentic AI applications.
• Experience developing or integrating AI agents with APIs, databases, CI/CD pipelines, developer tools, or other enterprise systems.
• Understanding of responsible AI, AI security, data protection, and the secure deployment and use of LLM- and agent-based applications in enterprise or mission environments.

Technical Skills

Automation: Selenium, Playwright, Cypress, REST/API automation, automated regression testing

Databases: SQL, relational databases, NoSQL

What Success Looks Like

Success in this role means reducing manual effort, increasing test coverage, improving software quality, accelerating delivery, and creating reliable automation that can be reused and maintained by the broader engineering organization. The Software Automation Engineer should continually look for opportunities to make software development, testing, deployment, and operational processes faster, more reliable, repeatable, and measurable.

Security & Compliance

The Software Automation Engineer will be expected to follow organizational security policies, secure coding practices, access-control requirements, data protection standards, and applicable regulatory or compliance requirements. Automation solutions should incorporate security and quality considerations throughout the software development lifecycle.

This position requires TS/SCI with the ability to support mission outcomes at our Jessup, MD facility at a minimum of 3 days a week. collaboration with cross-functional engineering, Automation, DevOps, security, and operations teams. The engineer should be comfortable working in a fast-paced Agile environment and communicating technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Salary Range: $160,000 - $390,000

We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.