Principal Software Developer Kafka

Leidos

1d • $131,300 - $237,350 • Remote

About The Position

Leidos is seeking a Principal Software Developer / Kafka Architect to join a high performing team, leading the digital modernization of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Terminal Flight Data Manager (TFDM) platform. TFDM is a critical FAA NextGen program that improves aircraft surface and terminal operations by enabling more efficient runway and airspace management, helping reduce congestion across the National Airspace System (NAS).
We are a team of forward-looking professionals in need of a strong candidate with these key required skills: Software Development (Java/C++/Python), Kafka, Containerization, , AI/AI Assisted Development.
This position can be remote, however, preference will be given to those who are local to and can work 3 days a week in one of the following locations: Gaithersburg, MD; Atlantic City, NJ; or Eagan, MN.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineering, mathematics, engineering, or related technical discipline. Master’s or Doctorate degree may substitute for required experience.
• 12+ years of experience with full lifecycle development
• 3+ years of combined hands-on experience designing, developing, and supporting Apache Kafka or other streaming data solutions in production environments, including event-driven architectures, topic design, scalability, reliability, and performance optimization.
• 7+ years of combined experience of software development (Java, C++, or Python)
• Experience with AI-Leveraged Development (agentic coding tools like Claude Code, multi-agent orchestration, MCP-based tool integration, RAG, context engineering, AI evals/guardrails)
• Experience working in Agile software development environments.
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust clearance.
• Must be a US Citizen or Permanent Resident
• Extensive understanding and experience with designing and developing software with Java and at least one additional language such as C++, or Python
• Strong understanding of object-oriented design, software architecture, design patterns, distributed systems, and modern software engineering best practices.
• Experience modernizing legacy applications using containerized solutions on OpenShift / Kubernetes
• Hands-on experience developing event-driven applications and at least one event processing framework, such as Kafka Streams, Apache Flink, or ksqlDB.
• Expert-level hands-on production experience designing, deploying, tuning, and troubleshooting Apache Kafka or other Kafka platforms.
• Experience designing high-volume event-driven systems with low latency and high availability.
• Strong knowledge and experience with Event Driven Architecture (EDA), including designing and implementing EDA solutions for large-scale systems.
• Experience applying AI-assisted software development practices to improve developer productivity, code quality, test automation, and delivery predictability using tools such as GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, or equivalent AI development platforms.
• Proven expertise in architecting, designing, and implementing solutions adhering to best practices for operational excellence, security, reliability, performance, cost optimization, and sustainability.
• Experience identifying requirements, evaluating technical alternatives, and leading solution design and implementation for complex enterprise systems.
• Experience architecting and deploying cloud-native applications to a cloud service such as Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Experience identifying requirements, researching options, designing and implementing solutions at a leadership level
• Experience with monitoring, scalability, application reliability tools
• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills with the ability to communicate technical strategy and architectural decisions with technical teams, executive management, and customers.

Nice To Haves

• An in-depth knowledge of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) development environment
• Preferred experience with AI spec-driven development.
• Preferred experience in Secrets/Configuration Management/Scripting
• Preferred experience with network engineering and security engineering
• Preferred experience in Service Mesh technologies such as Istio or OpenShift Service Mesh.
• Preferred experience with automated unit testing, TDD, BDD, and associated technologies (Junit, Mockito, Cucumber, Selenium, Sikuli)
• Preferred experience with PaaS using Red Hat OpenShift (or other Kubernetes platforms), Docker/Podman containers, and Helm
• Preferred experience in architecting and developing DevOps/GitOps solutions at an enterprise level using CI/CD tools such as GitLab, Argo CD, Argo Workflow Argo Rollout, Argo Events, and Git
• Preferred experience with configuration management tools (Ansible, CloudFormation / Terraform)
• AWS Cloud certifications.
• ATMC

Responsibilities

• Architect, design, develop, and implement next-generation application using software engineering best practices in the latest technologies: AI-Leveraged Development (agentic coding tools like Claude Code, multi-agent orchestration, MCP-based tool integration, RAG, context engineering, AI evals/guardrails), Data Streaming (Apache Flink, Kafka Streams, ksqlDB, Kafka Connect, real-time data processing), Infrastructure-as-Code (CloudFormation / Terraform, Ansible), Containerization and Platform-as-a-Service (Docker, OpenShift/Kubernetes)
• Use extensive knowledge in multiple development languages, software development and system design best practices, Kafka/data streaming, automation and configuration tools, testing, tool integrations, AI, and communication to modernize TFDM platform.
• Provide architectural oversight to support the development team’s software development, Kafka/data streaming, integration, test automation, security testing, and deployments.
• Provide architectural oversight, hands-on software expertise, and mentoring in these areas: modern application integration, Kafka/data streaming, service oriented architectures (SOA), security, business process management/business rules processing, CI/CD pipeline and containerization, reporting, and user experience (UX).
• Investigate and repair application defects regardless of component: Kafka/data streaming, CI/CD pipeline, front-end, business logic, middleware or backend.
• Brief executive leadership (internally or client) regarding matters of significant importance to the organization/project using written or oral skills at appropriate technical level for audience.
• All other duties as assigned or directed.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal