{"id":1546119,"url":"https://alion.io/job/leidos-principal-software-developer","title":"Principal Software Developer","company":{"id":7791,"name":"Leidos","domain":"leidos.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/leidos","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"services","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":90,"open_postings":104,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.596,"repost_share":0.01,"time_to_fill_p50_days":21,"computed_at":"2026-09-30T05:45:00Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Gaithersburg, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":131300,"max":237350,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":237350},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":12,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Agile","optional":false},{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"Ansible","optional":false},{"name":"Argo Workflows","optional":false},{"name":"ArgoCD","optional":false},{"name":"AWS","optional":false},{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"ChatGPT","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Claude","optional":false},{"name":"Claude Code","optional":false},{"name":"CloudFormation","optional":false},{"name":"Context Engineering","optional":false},{"name":"Copilot","optional":false},{"name":"Docker","optional":false},{"name":"Git","optional":false},{"name":"GitLab","optional":false},{"name":"GitOps","optional":false},{"name":"Helm","optional":false},{"name":"Java","optional":false},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":false},{"name":"LLM Guardrails","optional":false},{"name":"Model Context Protocol","optional":false},{"name":"Multi-Agent Systems","optional":false},{"name":"OpenShift","optional":false},{"name":"Podman","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"RAG","optional":false},{"name":"SonarQube","optional":false},{"name":"Terraform","optional":false},{"name":"Apache Kafka","optional":true},{"name":"Configuration Management","optional":true},{"name":"Istio","optional":true},{"name":"Kotlin","optional":true},{"name":"Mockito","optional":true},{"name":"Selenium","optional":true},{"name":"Service Mesh","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-30T22:10:53Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-30","last_verified_at":"2026-09-30T22:10:53Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":0,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":0},"description":"Leidos is seeking a Principal Software DevOps Developer to join a high performing team leading the digital modernization of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Terminal Flight Data Manager (TFDM) platform. TFDM is a critical FAA NextGen program that improves aircraft surface and terminal operations by enabling more efficient runway and airspace management, helping reduce congestion across the National Airspace System (NAS).\nWe are a team of forward-looking professionals in need of a strong candidate with these key required skills: Software Development (Java/C++/Python), DevOps / GitOps (Gitlab, ArgoCD), Containerization, OpenShift/Kubernetes, AI/AI Assisted Development, AWS/Cloud development.\nTravel: 25% travel is required for this position. Travel will be to various airports across the country as the TFDM system is deployed to 89 airports. The travel will generally be between 1 to 2 weeks per trip.\n**Location: This position is in our Gaithersburg, MD office 3 days a week and 2 days a week from home office.\n Responsibilities:\nArchitect, design, develop, and implement next-generation application using software engineering best practices in the latest technologies:DevOps and CI/CD tooling (GitLab, ArgoCD, Docker, SonarQube)\nInfrastructure-as-Code (CloudFormation / Terraform, Ansible)\nContainerization and Platform-as-a-Service (Docker, OpenShift/Kubernetes)\nAWS/Cloud development\nAI-Leveraged Development (agentic coding tools like Claude Code, multi-agent orchestration, MCP-based tool integration, RAG, context engineering, AI evals/guardrails) \n\nUse extensive knowledge in multiple development languages, software development and system design best practices, continuous integration, continuous delivery, automation and configuration tools, testing, tool integrations, AI, and communication to modernize TFDM platform.\nProvide hands-on experience developing customer integration for enterprise CI/CD architecture.\nProvide architectural oversight to support the development team’s software development, integration, test automation, security testing, and deployments.\nProvide architectural oversight, hands-on software expertise, and mentoring in these areas: modern application integration, service oriented architectures (SOA), security, business process management/business rules processing, CI/CD pipeline and containerization, reporting, and user experience (UX).\nInvestigate and repair application defects regardless of component: CI/CD pipeline, front-end, business logic, middleware or backend.\nBrief executive leadership (internally or client) regarding matters of significant importance to the organization/project using written or oral skills at appropriate technical level for audience.\nAll other duties as assigned or directed.\nBasic Qualifications :\nBachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineering, mathematics, engineering, or related technical discipline. Master’s or Doctorate degree may substitute for required experience.\n12+ years of experience with full lifecycle development\n7+ years of combined experience supporting GitOps/DevOps/DevSecOps\n7+ years of combined experience of software development (Java, C++, or Python)\nExperience with AI-Leveraged Development (agentic coding tools like Claude Code, multi-agent orchestration, MCP-based tool integration, RAG, context engineering, AI evals/guardrails)\nExperience working in Agile software development environments.\nCandidate must be able to obtain/maintain a Public Trust, which requires US Citizenship or Permanent Residency\nWillingness to travel up to 25% as needed\nRequired Skills :\nProven expertise in architecting, designing, and implementing solutions adhering to best practices for operational excellence, security, reliability, performance, cost optimization, and sustainability.\nExperience in communicating with and presenting solutions to Executive Management \nHands-on experience with vetting and implementing new technologies and processes \nSolid experience with PaaS using Red Hat OpenShift (or other Kubernetes platforms), Docker/Podman containers, and Helm\nExperience in architecting and developing DevOps/GitOps solutions at an enterprise level using CI/CD tools such as GitLab, Argo CD, Argo Workflow Argo Rollout, Argo Events, and Git\nExtensive understanding and experience with designing and developing software with Java and at least one additional language such as C++, or Python\nExperience applying AI-assisted software development practices to improve developer productivity, code quality, test automation, and delivery predictability using tools such as GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, or equivalent AI development platforms.\nExperience migrating legacy applications to containerized solutions on OpenShift / Kubernetes\nExperience architecting and deploying cloud-native applications to a cloud service such as Amazon Web Services (AWS)\nExperience identifying requirements, researching options, designing and implementing solutions at a leadership level\nExperience with monitoring, scalability, application reliability tools\nExcellent communication and written skills\nDesired Skills:\nAn in-depth knowledge of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) development environment\nPreferred experience with AI spec-driven development.\nPreferred experience in Secrets/Configuration Management/Scripting\nPreferred experience with network engineering and security engineering\nPreferred experience in Service Mesh technologies such as Istio or OpenShift Service Mesh.\nPreferred experience with automated unit testing, TDD, BDD, and associated technologies (Junit, Mockito, Cucumber, Selenium, Sikuli)\nPreferred experience with Kafka, data streaming, and Event Driven Architecture (EDA),\nPreferred experience with configuration management tools (Ansible, CloudFormation / Terraform)\nAWS Cloud certifications.\nIf you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo - because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 - and moving faster than anyone else dares.\nOriginal Posting:\nSeptember 30, 2026For 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.\nPay Range:\nPay Range $131,300.00 - $237,350.00The 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.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6916,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":12,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Home office"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["National Security","C4ISR","Defense Manufacturing","Engineering Services"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-30T22:10:53Z"}],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":0,"expected_fill_days":21,"reasons":["conf:5","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-01T04:06:08Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":237350,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/leidos-principal-software-developer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/leidos-principal-software-developer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-01T04:06:08Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","usage":{"tier":"crawler","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":3324,"day_limit":5000,"remaining_today":1676,"minute_limit":60,"resets_at":"2026-10-02T00:00:00Z"}}}