Junior AI Software Engineer

Leidos is seeking a Junior Software Engineer with AI-enabled development experience based in Gaithersburg MD; Eagan MN; or Egg Harbor NJ to support the UK National Airspace System Replacement Product Delivery Team (UK NASR PDT)

This role offers the opportunity to work on real-time safety-critical systems that directly support national air traffic operations for the United Kingdom. You will help modernize a high-availability air traffic management platform using both traditional systems engineering practices and AI-augmented software development techniques.

This is a hybrid schedule with 3 days onsite and 2 days remote.

What Youll Do

• Design develop test and maintain software for real-time high-availability systems

• Apply AI-assisted development tools to accelerate coding refactoring debugging and automated test generation

• Use AI responsibly across the full SDLC including requirements analysis design implementation testing documentation and code review

• Analyze complex system requirements and translate them into efficient maintainable designs

• Develop and maintain automation scripts across development test and production environments

• Promote code quality reuse traceability and cross-team collaboration

Required Qualifications

AI-Driven Engineering Experience

We are specifically seeking engineers who actively integrate AI into their daily development workflow.

• Hands-on experience using AI-assisted coding tools (e.g. Claude Code GitHub Copilot or similar) for:

  • Code generation and refactoring

  • Debugging and automated test creation

  • IDE-integrated workflows

• Familiarity with large language model platforms (OpenAI Anthropic Google Gemini etc.)

• Experience designing effective prompts and validating AI-generated output

• Understanding of human-in-the-loop development and responsible AI usage

• Ability to evaluate AI-generated outputs for correctness performance safety and bias especially in regulated or safety-critical environments

• Experience incorporating AI/ML techniques into software engineering workflows

• Experience with automated testing frameworks

Core Technical Qualifications

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science or related field with 48 years of relevant experience OR Masters degree with 26 years of relevant experience

• Strong object-oriented programming experience

• Proficiency in C C and/or Ada (Ada preferred but not required)

• Experience developing real-time multi-threaded systems

• Familiarity with Linux (Red Hat) virtual machines and hypervisors

• Experience with low-level communications protocols (TCP/IP UDP SCTP)

• Experience with hardware or complex system integration

• Experience with source control and configuration management tools

• Strong communication skills and ability to work independently and within cross-functional teams

• Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust clearance

• US citizenship required

Why Leidos

Youll work on systems where performance precision and reliability matter every second. This is not experimental AI for prototypes. This is disciplined responsible AI applied to mission-critical software that supports national infrastructure.

If youre excited by solving complex problems in regulated real-world environments and using AI as a force multiplier rather than a shortcut wed like to talk.

If youre looking for comfort keep scrolling. At Leidos we outthink outbuild and outpace the status quo because the mission demands it. Were not hiring followers. Were recruiting the ones who disrupt provoke and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. Were already at 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 onlyand 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.