Principal Ground Equipment; GSE) Software Engineer

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Full Time Employee Full-Time Sterling, VA, US

4 days ago Requisition

Salary Range: $ To $ Annually

Position Title:Principal GSE Software Engineer
Requisition : 1884
Position Location:Sterling, VA
Position

Reports To:

Senior Manager, Software Engineering
Supervises Others:No

At Trident Systems, we believe that strong engineering principles are fundamental to driving innovation and solving complex problems. We promote a culture characterized by rigorous engineering practices and a commitment to continuous improvement. This is achieved by leveraging our organization's collective expertise through collaborative development processes, which include thorough design and peer reviews. We can deliver innovative, high-performance solutions that meet our customers' evolving requirements by integrating our specialized knowledge in aerospace electronic systems with appropriately scaled development methodologies.

We are a mission partner supporting DoD, Intelligence Community, and Civil space customers. We develop complex, radiation effects mitigated, designs that balance competing requirements in modern space programs, delivering cutting‑edge solutions that enable our customers to achieve more in space.

Position Summary

We are seeking a Principal Ground Support Equipment (GSE) Software Engineer to lead the design, development, and evolution of the software platforms that control our automated electronic test and support systems. This role owns the technical direction and architecture of reusable software frameworks that serve both engineering development and production test environments.

The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in modern Python software engineering, asynchronous systems programming, hardware communications, and software architecture. You will define, build, and continuously improve the core GSE software platform that enables reliable, maintainable, and scalable automated test and support systems across multiple programs and product lines.

You will collaborate closely with the Lead Test Systems Engineer, Integration & Test engineers, the Engineering Systems Integration Engineer, and other cross‑functional stakeholders to ensure the GSE software platform aligns with organizational needs and supports long‑term engineering infrastructure.

Success in this role is measured by:

• Robustness, stability, and maintainability of the core platform
• Reliability and uptime of production test operations
• Measurable productivity gains for engineering and test teams
• Effective reuse of frameworks across projects and programs
• The ability to support increasingly sophisticated automated GSE and test systems

What Makes This Role Distinct?

This is not a QA automation or web application role. The Principal GSE Software Engineer:

• Defines and owns the reusable software platform that powers automated electronic test systems and Ground Support Equipment.
• Sets the technical direction and architecture for long‑lived engineering infrastructure supporting multiple products and programs.
• Operates at the intersection of software engineering, hardware control, and systems integration to enable sophisticated, mission‑critical automated test and support operations.

In this role, you will be the technical leader ensuring that our GSE software platform is robust, extensible, and capable of supporting increasingly complex automated systems—directly influencing engineering efficiency, product quality, and production reliability.

Duties & Responsibilities:

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Define the overarching GSE software platform…