Lead Software Engineer

Leidos’ Defense Sector - Directed Energy Division in Albuquerque, NM is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to drive software development for a variety of electro-mechanical-optical experiments on an applied R&D contract. You will work alongside a multi-disciplinary team, collaborating with Government researchers on hands‑on experiments primarily in a laboratory. As a lead engineer on the team, you will own significant parts of the software behind testbed control, data acquisition, and optical tracking, and help guide the work of junior engineers.

• Lead the design, development, integration, and testing of C/C++ software for testbeds, test equipment, and optical tracking systems in a Linux development environment.
• Translate test objectives from Government researchers into software requirements and architecture for electro-mechanical-optical experiments, and develop software control solutions.
• Develop real-time and embedded software, including single board computer (SBC) applications and hardware I/O interfaces to mechanical, electro-optical, and sensor equipment.
• Develop and maintain data acquisition, data reduction, and analysis tools, including operator interfaces and MATLAB/Simulink models where applicable.
• Drive continuous improvement of the team’s software test and validation practices, Dev Ops/Sec Dev Ops  pipelines, and engineering workflows.
• Support the design, buildup, calibration, and field testing of custom testbeds and test equipment; troubleshoot integrated hardware, software, and network issues; and turn field test results into software enhancements.
• Serve as technical lead for small projects, mentoring junior engineers and peer-reviewing code and designs for quality, maintainability, and adherence to best practices.
• Communicate technical progress, risks, and solutions directly to Government customers and project stakeholders.
• The ideal candidate works independently as well as with a team, learns new skills quickly, communicates clearly, and is organized, detail-oriented, and self-motivated.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering with 4+ years of relevant experience, or a Master’s degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering with 2+ years of relevant experience.
• Hands‑on software engineering and development experience.
• Professional experience writing C/C++ software in a Linux system development environment.
• Experience with MATLAB/Simulink.
• U.S. citizenship required, with the ability to obtain and maintain a Secret security clearance.

• Experience with controls engineering.
• Experience with software architecture, software test and validation, and Dev Ops/Sec Dev Ops  practices.
• Experience with embedded systems development, real-time environment programming, and single board computer (SBC) development.
• Experience with mechanical equipment hardware I/O, testbed design, data acquisition development, and field testing.
• Experience with UI/UX development and network configuration and support.
• Knowledge of military radar, tracking, and target aimpoint correlation.
• A link (e.g., Git Hub) to an example C++ program of your own design, included with your application. Please share only personal or open-source work, not proprietary, export‑controlled, or classified code.

NKE

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.

October 2, 2026

Pay Range $87,100.00 - $

The Leidos pay range…