Autonomy Algorithms Lead Software Engineer at STR
Arlington, VA
$173,000–$216,000from the description
Jul 29, 2026
Arlington, VA
Sep 24, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A hands-on technical lead role within a national-security-focused autonomy group, responsible for designing, implementing, and integrating advanced algorithms and software systems for autonomous and unmanned platforms. The position combines backend algorithmic development in C++ or Java with team leadership (5+ engineers) across the full Agile lifecycle, spanning mission planning systems, multi-agent coordination, and DevSecOps/CI/CD pipelines. Based in Woburn, MA or Arlington, VA with a hybrid work arrangement.
Senior level · 7+ years · Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH · Bachelor's required · TS/SCI clearance · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 2 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 Aug 1, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (8)
The role sits at the boundary between a senior individual contributor (15-1252) and an engineering manager (11-3021): it explicitly requires leading teams of 5+ engineers through the full Agile lifecycle, but the primary day-to-day work described is hands-on algorithmic software development, so 15-1252 was chosen as primary.
The posting lists two locations — Woburn, MA and Arlington, VA. The Boston CBSA is used as primary; the Arlington, VA location falls within the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV CBSA (47900).
JIRA, Confluence, GitLab, and static analysis tools are listed together under a required 'Experience utilizing' block alongside Agile methodologies, so all are treated as hard gates.
Containerization/service-based architectures and DevSecOps/CI/CD tool chains appear under the 'Even Better' (preferred) section. CI/CD also appears in the main role description narrative; it is captured as preferred given its placement under 'Even Better' in the qualifications.
Python appears only under the 'Even Better' preferred section.
'Containerization and service-based architectures' is represented by Docker as the canonical container technology; the broader architectural concept is not emitted as a skill per guidelines.
The role explicitly states the candidate should NOT be interested in front-end UI/UX or database management — this is an unusual negative qualifier worth flagging for recruiters screening candidates.
Requires a TS/SCI 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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