Software Architect

Looking for an opportunity to make an impact?

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.

Your greatest work is ahead!

Leidos’ Defense Open Sensors Division is seeking a Software Architect to join a diverse team to create unique solutions for complex sensor and radar orientated problems. This position affords new or experienced engineers continued opportunities to learn and grow in technical knowledge of sensor and radar systems. The department encourages and frequently incorporates new ideas from all employees into our many sensor projects which span the entire DoD ecosystem. Opportunities for advancement into senior technical roles, as well as project or personnel management are also available.

If this sounds like the kind of environment where you can thrive, keep reading!

Leidos Defense Sensors provides a diverse portfolio of systems, solutions, and services covering land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace for customers worldwide. Solutions for Defense include enterprise and mission IT, large-scale intelligence systems, command and control, geospatial and data analytics, cybersecurity, logistics, training, and intelligence analysis and operations support. Our team is solving the world’s toughest security challenges for customers with “can’t fail” missions. To explore and learn more, click here!

Are you ready to make an impact? Share your resume with us today!

Primary Responsibilities

• Integration and field testing of RF sensors and systems
• CONUS deployment of advanced sensor systems
• Define and maintain the overall architecture, technical roadmap, and design standards for software products and systems.
• Analyze customer system and operational requirements to develop effective software architectures and technical solutions.
• Develop and document system architectures, software designs, interface definitions, data flows, deployment architectures, and technology selections.
• Establish architectural principles, coding standards, design patterns, and best practices that promote reliability, security, scalability, maintainability, and performance.
• Lead technical design reviews and provide guidance on complex design, integration, and implementation decisions.
• Work with development teams to decompose system-level requirements into implementable software features, components, interfaces, and tasks.
• Evaluate technology options, third-party products, frameworks, and tools; recommend solutions based on program needs, risk, cost, schedule, and maintainability.
• Support the definition and management of software interfaces, APIs, data models, and integration approaches across subsystems.
• Identify technical risks, architectural constraints, dependencies, and opportunities early; develop mitigation strategies and communicate them to program leadership.
• Ensure that cybersecurity, resiliency, safety, performance, and testability considerations are built into architectural decisions.
• Collaborate with other program teams to support deployment, monitoring, sustainment, and continuous improvement.
• Review code and technical artifacts as needed to ensure alignment with the established architecture and engineering standards.
• Mentor software engineers and technical leads, helping build architectural knowledge and technical depth across the organization.
• Communicate technical approaches, tradeoffs, risks, and status clearly to engineering leadership, program management, customers, and other stakeholders.

Basic Qualifications

• MS degree from an ABET-accredited college or university in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering or related technical field and 10-13 years of relevant experience -OR- BS degree with 12-15 years of relevant experience
• Must be a resident of the North Alabama area or willing to relocate to the Huntsville - North Alabama, AL, area. This is NOT a remote or work-from-home position
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a TOP SECRET clearance.
• Good organizational skills, attention to detail, and a strong technical background.
• Significant experience in software engineering, including experience designing, developing, integrating, and sustaining complex software systems.
• Demonstrated experience creating and communicating software or system architectures.
• Strong proficiency in C++ and NVIDIA CUDA, with experience with the implementation of high-performance signal processing algorithms using these tools.
• Experience with software design principles, object-oriented design, distributed systems, service-oriented architectures, APIs, DevSecOps, and software integration.
• Experience working in Agile, Scrum, Kanban, or other iterative product-development environments.
• Ability to evaluate technical tradeoffs involving performance, reliability, security, cost, schedule, and maintainability.
• Experience with source control, automated build systems, code reviews, continuous integration and continuous delivery practices, and issue-tracking tools.
• Strong written, verbal, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Ability to lead technical discussions, influence without direct authority, and collaborate across multidisciplinary teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• MS degree from an ABET-accredited college or university in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering or related technical field.
• Experience in the development and operation of radar systems, including HWILs
• Experience working on any radar or communications related program or project
• Ability to create design documentation, requirements specifications, and other technical documentation
• Experience utilizing AI tools to augment technical output (i.e. to improve/automate documentation or code generation)
• Experience with cybersecurity engineering principles, secure software-development practices, and threat modeling.
• Experience designing real-time, embedded, high-performance, safety-critical, mission-critical, or distributed systems
• Experience in a regulated, defense, aerospace, intelligence, or other high-assurance domain.
• Experience leading a technical team of at least 8-15 engineers and being responsible for executing a significant software effort within a project.

If 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.

Original Posting:

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:

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.