Senior Software Engineer
Leidos · Huntsville, AL
$107,900–$195,050from the description
Jul 21, 2026
Huntsville, AL
Jul 22, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior-level engineering role focused on building and maintaining software for missile defense systems, covering the full development lifecycle from design through integration and customer demonstration. The work involves C++, C, Java, and Python on Linux, including embedded and real-time operating system contexts. It suits an experienced engineer comfortable with code and design reviews, cross-team coordination, and working within a cleared defense program environment.
Senior level · 10+ years · Reston, VA (Leidos HQ; location not explicitly stated) · Bachelor's required · Secret clearance · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $158,337 (middle half $126,441–$180,105). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (9)
The job posting does not specify a work location beyond Leidos' Reston, VA headquarters. Given the missile defense / DoD mission context and active Secret clearance requirement, this role is almost certainly on-site at a government facility; the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV CBSA (47900) is used as the best available proxy.
The 10+ years requirement is the baseline; 8+ years is accepted with a master's degree. The overall years minimum is set to 10 (the stated floor without an advanced degree).
The degree requirement includes a GPA floor of 3.0 or higher from an accredited institution, which is an additional gate beyond the degree itself.
The RTOS requirement names VxWorks and FreeRTOS as examples ('such as'); both are captured with VxWorks as primary and FreeRTOS as an alternative, reflecting that either satisfies the requirement.
Eclipse and VS Code are listed as examples of IDEs ('such as'); both are captured with Eclipse as primary and VS Code as an alternative.
Git and GitLab appear together under Preferred Qualifications as a configuration management pairing; Git is listed as primary with GitLab as an alternative, though in practice they are complementary tools — the posting treats them as a single SCM requirement.
Claude Code is explicitly named as an example of AI-assisted development tooling under Preferred Qualifications.
U.S. Citizenship is explicitly required but is not a technology skill; it is noted here as an additional hard gate not captured in the skills list.
Requires a Secret clearance — the cleared population is a small fraction of this occupation, so the real candidate pool is materially smaller than the estimate below, which does not model clearance.
Read the full posting
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