Real-Time Software Engineer

Today, Electronic Warfare (EW) is a growing enterprise - protecting the warfighter and our national security against ever-adapting threats. Our division currently has an exciting opportunity for a Real-Time Software Engineer to perform design, development, and hardware/software integration in Arlington, VA for the Electronic Warfare Division

Our division primarily focuses on research & development and advanced prototyping, transforming state of the art signal processing algorithms into real-time software systems.

Projects involve small multi-disciplinary teams of engineers working together in spiral or agile development environments to meet aggressive customer schedules aimed at near-term field demonstrations. Join a team of experts in implementing high-performance signal processing on general purpose processors, such as ARM.

The successful candidate will be responsible for:

• Contributing to design and development of advanced systems as a part of multi-disciplinary teams.  These teams are made up of other software team members and subject matter experts from the areas of systems engineering, hardware, firmware, machine learning, RF front end design, and signal processing.

• Designing, implementing, and testing real-time C/C++ software for multi-core systems running Linux or a real-time operating systems, such as VxWorks

• Build software products that utilize third party mathematics and communication libraries

• Interface communication standards / protocols such as TCP/IP, UDP, and DDS• Read and understand signal processing algorithms written in MATLAB

• Work with Linux operating system as well as experience with real-time operating systems

• Designing, implementing, and testing software to configure and control RF hardware devices

• Integrating software into third-party software frameworks and architectures, such as Redhawk• Documenting the developed systems

• Support system field testing and collection events, usually about a week in duration once or twice a year

At Leidos, we offer competitive benefits http://www.leidos.com/careers/pay-benefits, including 4 or more weeks Paid Time Off, 11 paid Holidays, 401K with a 6% company match and immediate vesting, Flexible Schedules, Discounted Stock Purchase Plans, Technical Upskilling, Education and Training Support, Parental Paid Leave, and much more.  Join us and make a difference in Electronic Warfare Technology! 

The successful candidate will have the following basic education/experience: 

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or Computer Science, or related discipline
4+ years of software development experience, including strong experience in programming in Python, MATLAB, or C++
Strong understanding of object-oriented design
Basic understanding of hardware-software interaction and basic computer architecture 
Experience with hardware interfaces (e.g. PCIe, UART, Ethernet) 
Experience with build tools (e.g.  GCC, CMake, or Make)
Experience using version control (e.g. git, Subversion) and continuous integration software tools (e.g. Jenkins) 
Experience with software testing tools and methodology 
Experience in creating and maintaining technical documentation for developed software
Ability to communicate and share ideas, concepts, and designs with a team of engineers 
Demonstrated ability and motivation to continually learn new technical skills and concepts
Understanding of unit test frameworks and test-driven development practices  
**Must have active TS/SCI level security clearance.**

Bonus education/experience: 

Master’s Degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent 
Active security clearance higher than the Secret level 
Ability to debug embedded systems using tools like oscilloscopes and logic analyzers 
Experience maintaining, tracking, and updating ticket/status using Gitlab or similar interface
Experience using common scripting languages (e.g. bash)

NOTE: for this position the salary range will be $90,000 - $180,000 for qualified candidates with an active TS/SCI clearance .  Must be able to work onsite in our Arlington, VA offices.

NKE

ElectronicWarfare

If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status 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 at step 30 — and moving faster than anyone else dares.

Original Posting:

September 2, 2026

Pay Range:

Pay Range $87,100.00 - $157,450.00

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