Senior Principal Software Engineer
General Dynamics Mission Systems, Inc · Annapolis Junction, MD
$183,381–$193,049from the description
Jul 1, 2026
Annapolis Junction, MD
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior software engineering role focused on taking complex systems from prototype to production-quality products, with an emphasis on command-and-control or platform control software for custom hardware. Day-to-day work spans stateful system design, CI/CD pipeline maintenance, containerization, and Kubernetes operations, with a secondary focus on technical leadership and mentoring within a defense-oriented environment requiring a TS/SCI clearance.
Senior level · 10+ years · Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV · 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.
Why we read it this way (8)
All skills listed in this posting appear under 'preferred' or 'what sets you apart' headings — the JD contains no explicit required-skills section beyond the degree, years of experience, and clearance eligibility. Every technology skill is therefore treated as preferred.
The clearance requirement is framed as 'ability to obtain' a TS/SCI at time of hire, which is a hard gate on eligibility, not on holding an active clearance today.
Degree requirement: the JD states a Bachelor's degree as the baseline; a Master's degree is offered as an alternative with fewer years (8 vs. 10). Bachelor's is the minimum hard-required degree.
Total years minimum is 10 (Bachelor's path); the Master's path requires 8 years. The lower bound of the Bachelor's path (10) is used as the overall years minimum per the minimum-years rule.
The role is on-site or hybrid at Annapolis Junction, MD — mapped to the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria CBSA, which encompasses that location.
Kubernetes administration and Helm chart authoring appear in the preferred section; while the role is primarily software development, the Kubernetes/Helm mention introduces a mild ambiguity with systems administration (alt SOC 15-1244), hence Medium confidence.
MCP (Model Context Protocol) server development is listed under 'What sets you apart' — a secondary, aspirational section — and is treated as preferred.
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.
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