Software Engineer; C+ +-Smart Mobility; Transportation

Description

Join us in improving and shaping the future of smart mobility with a group of intelligent, motivated, and dedicated individuals! Leidos operates the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Saxton Transportation Operations Laboratory (STOL), a US Department of Transportation (USDOT) onsite R&D lab located at the Turner Fairbank Highway Research Center. STOL’s focus is on improving transportation system operations to achieve USDOT’s safety, mobility, sustainability and equity goals.

STOL spearheads a variety of exciting R&D projects involving emerging technologies, including but not limited to infrastructure and vehicle connectivity and automation, everything‑in‑the‑loop simulation, and AI/ML modeling. To promote these efforts, Leidos is looking for a Mid‑level Software Engineer (C++) to join our team.

This role will be expected to work full‑time at the customer site in McLean, VA
.

All applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States with proof of legal status and be eligible for a Public Trust Clearance, which includes THREE consecutive years in the United States within the last five years.

• Lead development for research prototypes and proof‑of‑concepts for various intelligent transportation systems (ITS) applications across a variety of ITS devices, including vehicles, infrastructure, and cloud systems.
• Participate in and help shape our open‑source software process, triaging and addressing issues reported by external users and evaluating 3rd‑party code contributions.
• Identify, document, and formulate approaches to addressing areas of technical debt.
• Conduct hands‑on test events and demonstrations, on‑site at TFHRC and off‑site at test facilities.
• Analyze and assess the team’s existing ITS software systems to understand their architecture, and how they can be redesigned into more modular, scalable, and maintainable components.
• Contribute to internal best practices for software development and lead knowledge sharing to support adoption across development teams.
• Work with cross‑functional internal team to determine technical feasibility of projects, break down project goals into software development tasks, and assist with overall effort and timeline estimation of planned work.
• Lead the execution of planned technical work, including design work, addressing unplanned technical challenges, and being responsive to changes in customer needs.
• Directly interact with on‑site customer representatives and external stakeholders to communicate across technical disciplines as needed throughout a project’s life cycle.

• Interest in working with emerging technologies and shaping the future of transportation.
• A Bachelor's degree in computer science or engineering with at least 4 years of professional experience in C++ software development, or a Master's degree with at least 2 years of professional experience in C++ software development.
• Experience using CMake for building C++ packages.
• Experience with Git.
• Experience with Docker (including docker‑compose).
• Software development experience with Java and/or Python.
• Experience developing in an Agile framework using toolsets such as JIRA and Confluence.
• Proficiency in software quality techniques and practices (automated unit testing, test‑driven design/development, CI/CD pipelines with Git Hub Actions, static code analysis tools, etc.).
• Understanding of mathematical fundamentals, including geometry, linear algebra, probability, graph theory, set theory, and statistics.

• Extensive experience designing, implementing, and maintaining C++ software packages in a Linux environment.
• Experience with Linux build systems and package management systems.
• Software development experience with Java and/or Python.
• Experience with Kafka or similar message broker systems.
• Experience with Robot Operating System (ROS).
• Experience with user interface (UI) and/or front‑end development.
• Familiarity with distributed computing and cloud computing concepts.
• Familiarity with one or more robotics concepts such as localization, path planning, perception, or sensor fusion.
• Familiarity with simulation…