Software Engineer
STR · Woburn, MA
$110,000–$138,000from the description
Jul 1, 2026
Woburn, MA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A software engineering role focused on building and deploying microservices for national security applications, primarily using Java and a cloud-native stack. The initial assignment involves transitioning a mission planning tool from R&D into active use, while longer-term work spans AI-assisted decision-making, autonomous systems testing, and advanced reasoning tools. Suited to engineers comfortable working alongside scientists to productionize complex technical research.
Mid level · 2+ years · Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH · Bachelor's required · Top Secret clearance · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 5 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
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
What the occupation pays Median $169,742 (middle half $134,780–$187,781). 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 (7)
The role is posted at multiple locations (Woburn MA, Arlington VA, Carlsbad CA, Aurora CO); the Boston-area CBSA is used as the primary since it is listed first and is STR's headquarters region.
Clearance: the JD requires US citizenship and the *ability to obtain* a Top Secret clearance — not an active TS clearance at time of hire. This is treated as a hard gate per the posting's explicit language.
Java is the only technology called out with firm gating language ('professional experience building … software in Java') under the Experience requirements block. All other stack items (Spring Boot, Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Kafka/NATS, GitLab, Python) appear exclusively under the 'Our Tech Stack' narrative section and are therefore listed as preferred.
API development experience is required ('building maintainable, well-documented APIs') but names no specific framework beyond Java; REST is the canonical form of that requirement.
The 2+ years figure applies to BS holders; a recent MS graduate with professional experience is also accepted, so the overall years minimum is set to 2 as the stated minimum.
The posting carries no explicit seniority level in the title; the 2+ year experience gate and scope (supporting an existing product, working within a team) support a Mid-level classification.
Requires a Top 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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