Senior Software Engineer – Mission Systems Location: Annapolis Junction, Maryland Work Model: OnFull-time onsite Compensation$180,000–$225,000 Clearance: Active TS/SCI with Full-Scope PolygraphExperience:** 8+ years Job Summary A growing nationalfederal technology contractor is hiring a Senior Software Engineer to develop mission-critical software supporting the IntelligenceU.S. Intelligence Community. This is a hands-on engineering role for someone who wants to build—not simply maintain—secure, production-level applications used in real-world mission environments. You will design and develop backend services, APIs, datadata-processing capabilities and user-facing applications within a highly secure classified environment. You’ll work alongside software engineers, systems engineers, cloud specialists and mission users to translate complex operational requirements into reliable technical solutions. The program is modernizing legacy capabilities and introducing cloud-native architecture, containers, automated deployments and scalable data services. The right engineer will have meaningful input into technical design, tooling and development practices. This is not a management or oversight position. The successful candidate will spend most of their time designing, coding, testing, integrating and troubleshooting software. What You’ll Do Design, build and maintain secure mission software using Java and/or Python. Develop backend services, REST APIs and data-processing applications. Participate in architecture and technical-design decisions. Translate mission and system requirements into working software. Build and maintain microservices deployed within containerized environments. Integrate applications with databases, messaging platforms and external services. Write automated unit, integration and regression tests. Participate in code reviews and improve engineering standards. Troubleshoot complex software and integration problems. Support CI/CD pipelines and automated deployments. Collaborate directly with mission users to understand operational needs. Modernize legacy applications while maintaining mission continuity. Mentor junior engineers without moving away from hands-on development. Document technical decisions, interfaces and system behavior. Required Qualifications Active TS/SCI clearance with a current Full-Scope Polygraph. Eight or more years of professional software-development experience. Strong hands-on programming experience with Java or Python. Recent experience developing production-level backend applications. Experience designing or consuming RESTful APIs. Experience with Git and collaborative software-development workflows. Experience developing applications in Linux environments. Working knowledge of relational or NoSQL databases. Experience writing automated tests and troubleshooting integrated systems. Ability to work onsite in Annapolis Junction five days per week. U.S. citizenship. Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering or a related technical discipline, or additional relevant experience in place of a degree. Strongly Preferred Experience supporting Intelligence Community or Department of Defense programs. Hands-on experience with both Java and Python. Microservices and distributed-systems experience. Docker and Kubernetes experience. AWS, AWS GovCloud or classified cloud experience. CI/CD experience using GitLab, Jenkins or comparable tools. Infrastructure-as-code experience with Terraform or Ansible. Experience with PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Elasticsearch or similar data platforms. Kafka, RabbitMQ or other event-driven messaging experience. Familiarity with secure software-development and DevSecOps practices. Nice to Have JavaScript or TypeScript experience with React or Angular. Experience modernizing legacy applications. Knowledge of data pipelines or high-volume data processing. Security scanning and software-supply-chain experience. Experience deploying applications across cloud and on-premises environments. Technical leadership or mentoring experience. AWS developer or architecture certification. Security+ or another DoD 8570/8140-aligned certification. Experience working directly with analysts or operational mission users. Ideal Candidate The ideal candidate is a senior software engineer who remains genuinely hands-on. They have spent the past several years building production applications—not primarily managing developers, reviewing documentation or coordinating vendors. They are strongest in Java or Python and understand how applications behave beyond the code itself: APIs, databases, containers, infrastructure, deployment pipelines and production troubleshooting. They can take an incomplete mission requirement, ask intelligent questions and turn it into a dependable technical capability. They are comfortable entering a program where portions of the architecture are still evolving. Rather than waiting for perfect requirements, they collaborate with users, propose practical solutions and deliver iteratively. They care about clean code and modern engineering practices but understand that mission reliability comes before chasing the newest technology. Adjacent Backgrounds We’ll Consider DevSecOps engineers who began their careers in software development and still write production Java or Python. Backend engineers with strong API and data-integration experience who are ready to work across a broader system. Full-stack engineers whose deepest expertise is backend development. Data engineers who have built software-intensive data platforms and possess strong object-oriented programming skills. Systems engineers who have substantial, recent hands-on development experience. Mid-level engineers with fewer than eight years of experience who demonstrate exceptional technical depth and already hold the required clearance and polygraph. This Role Is Not a Fit For Engineering managers seeking a primarily people-management role. Architects who no longer write production code. Systems administrators who only use Python or PowerShell for basic scripting. Candidates whose experience is limited to configuration, testing or requirements management. Developers who cannot work full-time onsite. Candidates without an active TS/SCI and Full-Scope Polygraph. What Matters Most Clearance and polygraph: Critical Hands-on software development: Critical Java or Python depth: Critical Onsite location fit: Critical Backend and API development: High Mission-environment experience: High Cloud and container experience: Medium-high Degree: Waivable Certifications: Preferred, not required Why This Opportunity Stands Out You’ll join a technically strong team during an active modernization effort rather than inheriting a purely maintenance-focused assignment. The position offers direct exposure to mission users, influence over architecture and engineering practices, and the opportunity to build capabilities that move into operational use. The compensation range is $180,000 to $225,000, based on experience and technical depth. The package also includes comprehensive health coverage, a 401(k) contribution, paid leave, professional-development support and potential compensation for maintaining mission-required credentials.
What you'll do
- Design and develop production-level backend services, REST APIs, and data-processing applications in Java and/or Python within a classified environment
- Build and maintain microservices deployed in containerized (Docker/Kubernetes) infrastructure; support CI/CD pipelines using GitLab or Jenkins
- Integrate applications with relational/NoSQL databases, messaging platforms (e.g., Kafka, RabbitMQ), and external mission services
- Translate operational mission requirements — often incomplete — into reliable, deployable software capabilities through direct collaboration with analysts and mission users
- Participate in architecture and technical design decisions as the program modernizes legacy capabilities toward cloud-native patterns
- Write automated unit, integration, and regression tests; conduct code reviews and raise engineering standards across the team
- Mentor junior engineers while remaining a primary hands-on contributor; document interfaces, technical decisions, and system behavior
Mission
U.S. Intelligence Community mission software modernization — backend services, cloud-native architecture, and data processing in a classified environment
Required skills
- Java
- Python
- RESTful API design and development
- backend application development
- Linux development environment
- relational or NoSQL databases
- Git and collaborative development workflows
- automated testing and integration troubleshooting