Software Engineer, AI Development

Apply Now

Description

This is not a maintenance role. This is a reinvention role loced in Huntsville, AL.

We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer who doesn’t just build systems—but reshapes how they are conceived, delivered, and trusted. Someone who pairs deep technical credibility with architectural vision, and who has the conviction to challenge legacy approaches when the mission demands more.

In this role, you will be a technical provoceur and lead engineer, driving the design and delivery of AI-enabled, agentic, and intelligent software plforms th dramically accelere modernizion and outcomes. You’ll opere the highest altitude—setting technical direction, evaluing emerging technologies, and prototyping wh’s next—while still diving deep to turn ideas into production-grade reality.

This is a role for builders who bias toward action, who believe disruption can coexist with rigor, and who want to apply cutting-edge AI to the problems th mter most.

Why This Role Mters

We are here to radically remake software systems th underpin the country’s most critical missions—aviion, healthcare, energy, and other safety-critical domains where failure is not an option. We are bringing agentic AI transformion not to trivial demos or disposable apps, but to the hardest, highest-stakes systems:

Systems with extreme safety, security, and resilience requirements
Systems constrained by regulion, legacy architecture, and operional risk
Systems where speed to outcome must increase without compromising trust
Our ambition is simple and audacious: move faster than ever before, while raising the bar on safety and reliability.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Architecture

Provide Thought leadership in the future opportunities in AI and agentic-enabled tools, capabilities, and challenges
Serve as the architectural lead for AI- and agentic-enabled tooling, establishing pterns, reference implementions, and best practices.
Design scalable, secure, and resilient software systems th integre LLMs, multi-agent workflows, code intelligence, and automion.
Own and drive the technical roadmap for next-generion software accelerion tools—including IDE extensions, code-analysis agents, refactoring engines, and developer-assistive AI.
Lead architecture reviews, evalue new technologies, and set engineering standards for AI safety, quality, reliability, and observability.
Hands-On Engineering
Build high-quality software with modern languages and frameworks (e.g., Python, TypeScript, Go, Java).
Develop pipelines and services th enable AI reasoning, code analysis, stic/dynamic analysis, and automed transformion of legacy systems.
Prototype early concepts rapidly and transition successful prototypes into robust, production systems.
Integre AI/ML models (commercial, open-source, or custom) into enterprise environments and developer workflows.
AI & Agentic Systems Development
Design and build agentic orchestrion, tool-use interfaces, embeddings systems, context windows, and retrieval-augmented workflows.
Implement “human-in-the-loop” safety and review pterns.
Develop mechanisms for grounding, guardrailing, and evaluing AI performance and correctness.
Leverage AI to analyze, modernize, and refactor large, complex codebases (e.g., Java, .NET, COBOL, C++).
Collaborion & Influence
Partner with product, UX, and plform teams to define feures, user journeys, and developer experience goals.
Act as a technical mentor to senior and mid-level engineers; cultive a culture of excellence and continuous learning.
Collabore closely with research, da, and cybersecurity teams to ensure solutions are safe, secure, and aligned with mission needs.
Represent the engineering team in internal and external forums, contributing to thought leadership in AI and software engineering modernizion.

Required Qualificions
Bachelor's degree and 2+ years experience in software engineering, including significant experience the senior/architect level. Additional experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
Expertise in designing and building distributed systems, developer tools, or plform engineering products.
Hands-on experience implementing AI/ML systems or integring large language models into production workflows.
Strong knowledge of agentic frameworks, orchestrion tools, RAG, vector dabases, API design, and microservices.
Deep understanding of software design pterns, CI/CD, DevSecOps, and cloud-nive architectures (AWS/Azure/GCP).
Strong coding proficiency in least two modern languages (Python, Go, Java, C#, etc.).
Ability to drive technical stregy, influence cross-functional teams, and communice complex ideas clearly.
Must be authorized to work in the U.S.
Ability to obtain and maintain a Secret security clearance.

Preferred Qualificions
Experience modernizing legacy systems (e.g., mainframe, Java monoliths, .NET).
Background building developer experience (DevX) tools, IDE integrions, or code-intelligence systems.
Experience with AI/ML model fine-tuning, prompt engineering, or evaluion frameworks.
Familiarity with cybersecurity, secure-by-design principles, or government/missions systems
Prior role as a thought leader, principal engineer, architect, or technical founder.

If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the stus quo — because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already step 30 — and moving faster than anyone else dares.

Original Posting:

Pay Range:

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compension or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, educion, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market da, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.

About Leidos

Leidos is an industry and technology leader serving government and commercial customers with smarter, more efficient digital and mission innovions. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with 47,000 global employees, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximely $16.7 billion for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2025. For more informion, visit www.Leidos.com.

Pay and Benefits

Pay and benefits are fundamental to any career decision. Th's why we craft compension packages th reflect the importance of the work we do for our customers. Employment benefits include competitive compension, Health and Wellness programs, Income Protection, Paid Leave and Retirement. More details are available www.leidos.com/careers/pay-benefits.

Securing Your Da

Beware of fake employment opportunities using Leidos’ name. Leidos will never ask you to provide payment-reled informion during any part of the employment applicion process (i.e., ask you for money), nor will Leidos ever advance money as part of the hiring process (i.e., send you a check or money order before doing any work). Further, Leidos will only communice with you through emails th are genered by the Leidos.com automed system – never from free commercial services (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail) or via WhsApp, Telegram, etc. If you received an email purporting to be from Leidos th asks for payment-reled informion or any other personal informion (e.g., about you or your previous employer), and you are concerned about its legitimacy, please make us aware immediely by emailing us LeidosCareersFraud@leidos.com.

If you believe you are the victim of a scam, contact your local law enforcement and report the incident to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Commitment to Non-Discriminion

All qualified applicants will receive considerion for employment without regard to sex, race, ethnicity, age, nional origin, citizenship, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic informion, pregnancy, family structure, marital stus, ancestry, domestic partner stus, sexual oriention, gender identity or expression, veteran or military stus, or any other basis prohibited by law. Leidos will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with relevant laws.

Apply Now