Leidos is hiring a Principal AI Software Developer to support the Air Traffic Business Area within the Homeland Sector. This role helps build the Leidos Common Baseline by designing and delivering microservices-based, AI-enabled capabilities for highly regulated, safety-critical national air traffic operations. The position works in an Agile/SAFe environment and contributes to reliable software engineering outcomes through modern CI/CD and DevSecOps practices.
Responsibilities
- Design, develop, and maintain microservices-based applications using modern software engineering best practices
- Partner with product owners, architects, and engineers in an Agile/SAFe delivery model
- Participate in sprint planning, daily standups, reviews, and retrospectives
- Work with systems engineering and program teams to translate requirements into working software solutions
- Build clean, maintainable, and testable code aligned with CI/CD and DevSecOps practices
- Contribute to system design discussions and technical decision-making
- Integrate services with databases, messaging systems, and external APIs
- Support troubleshooting, performance tuning, and continuous improvement
- Collaborate with QA, DevOps, and platform teams to support reliable delivery
- Implement modern automated testing strategies, including unit, integration, contract, and end-to-end testing
- Use AI-assisted development tools to accelerate coding, refactoring, debugging, and test creation
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field (or equivalent experience)
- 12+ years of relevant experience, or a Master’s Degree and 10+ years of relevant experience
- Hands-on experience building and supporting microservices-based systems
- Proficiency in at least one modern programming language (for example: Java, Python, C++, or similar) on a Linux-based system
- Experience or exposure to AI/ML-enabled systems (Claude-Code), automation, or intelligent platforms
- Experience working in Agile environments
- Understanding of APIs and distributed system concepts
- Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust
- U.S. citizenship required
- Successful completion of background investigations as required by the government customer
Technologies
Java, Python, C++, Linux, Claude-Code, CI/CD, DevSecOps, Agile, SAFe, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Kafka, AWS, Azure, GCP, Docker, Kubernetes
Benefits
- Health and Wellness programs
- Income Protection
- Paid Leave
- Retirement
Additional Preferences
- Experience with Git-based version control and CI/CD pipelines
- Familiarity with Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
- Experience working with relational and/or NoSQL databases
- Hands-on experience with Kafka or other event-streaming technologies
- Cloud experience (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
- Containerization and orchestration experience (Docker, Kubernetes)
- Experience working in DevSecOps environments
- Experience with test automation frameworks and integrating automated test suites into CI/CD pipelines
- Desired (not required): commutable distance to Gaithersburg, MD or Egg Harbor Township, NJ
Location: Egg Harbor Township, NJ (hybrid)
Pay Range: $131,300.00 - $237,350.00 per year
Posting Date: September 25, 2026
