Senior Software Engineer at STR
Woburn, MA
$134,000–$184,000from the description
Jul 10, 2026
Woburn, MA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior engineering role focused on designing and building software systems for autonomous and uncrewed platforms in a national security context. Day-to-day work spans mission planning tools, automated control processes, and multi-agent coordination, covering the full development lifecycle from early prototypes to integrated systems. The role also involves technical leadership and mentoring within small Agile teams, with strong emphasis on backend development in C++ or Java.
Senior level · 5+ years · Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH · Bachelor's required · Secret clearance · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 3 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
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
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 (8)
The role is based across three locations — Woburn, MA (near Boston), Arlington, VA, and Dayton, OH — with a hybrid arrangement. It is not fully remote; on-site presence is required when the work demands use of STR facilities. The Boston CBSA is used as the primary location since it is listed first and is STR's headquarters region.
Clearance: the JD requires U.S. citizenship and the 'ability to get a security clearance,' which is a hard gate on clearance eligibility. An active clearance is listed only under 'Even Better' (preferred). The clearance requirement field reflects the minimum hard gate (ability to obtain), mapped to Secret as the baseline national security clearance level implied; an active clearance would be a plus.
C++ and Java are presented as interchangeable ('3+ years of experience with C++ or Java'), so Java is captured as an alternative to C++.
JIRA, Confluence, and GitLab are listed together as examples of Agile lifecycle tools under the requirements section; they are captured as alternatives of one another since the JD presents them as a group of equivalent tooling examples.
Containerization/service-based architectures appear under 'Even Better' (preferred); Docker and Kubernetes are the canonical tools for this category and are listed as alternatives.
MS or PhD in Computer Science is listed under 'Even Better' as a preferred qualification; the hard minimum degree requirement is a BS.
Ignored 2 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): static analysis, test-driven development.
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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