Principal Software Development Engineer in Test

SAIC • Huntsville, AL

2d • Remote

About The Position

SAIC is seeking a Principal Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) to join the Joint Range Extension (JRE) software development team. This is a remote role within the United States, requires U.S. citizenship, and involves up to 10% CONUS travel.

JRE is a combat-proven, mission-critical, near-real-time data link gateway written predominantly in Java and Kotlin, with C++ components. It is deployed across platforms ranging from handheld devices and small-form-factor drones to strategic bombers, guided-missile destroyers, and global command-and-control centers.

The SDET works closely with developers, testers, and test engineers to expand test automation and enable rapid, high-quality releases. The role also leads projects and develops the test engineering skills of colleagues.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree and nine years of experience; an additional four years of experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
• Must be a U.S. citizen and able to obtain and maintain an active Secret security clearance.
• Deep expertise in the JVM and Java, with familiarity with Kotlin and Scala.
• Strong concurrent programming skills, including experience with threads, the Executor Framework, Futures/Promises, Virtual Threads, Reactor, or Kotlin Coroutines; experience testing concurrent or asynchronous code using tools such as Reactor Test or Kotlinx Coroutines Test.
• Proven experience developing and maintaining high test automation coverage for large-scale (1M+ LOC), mission-critical, high-reliability, near-real-time systems, using JVM testing and mocking frameworks such as JUnit, AssertJ, Mockito, and MockK.
• Experience with automated performance testing and analysis using tools such as JMeter and Gatling, and with continuous integration and modern deployment practices for edge and cloud systems in Gradle-built projects.
• Familiarity with C++ and related test automation frameworks such as Doctest and Google Mock; experience with network programming, networking protocols, low-level binary data processing, and distributed systems using RPC and message-oriented architectures.
• Thorough knowledge of object-oriented and functional design patterns, software design principles, refactoring techniques, code and test smells, and domain-driven design; proven track record leading successful large-scale, phased refactoring initiatives.
• Experience mentoring developers and testers in test automation best practices.
• Strong skills with dependency injection and the Spring ecosystem, including Spring Boot, Spring Data, Spring Security, and their integration testing utilities.
• Collaborative, test-driven, iterative development style using Agile methods such as Scrum, Extreme Programming, and Lean, including pairing and mobbing.

Nice To Haves

• Public contributions to open-source projects.
• Familiarity with tactical data link standards such as MIL-STD-6016, MIL-STD-6017, MIL-STD-3011, MIL-STD-6020, MIL-STD-6040, MIL-STD-2525, or MIL-STD-1553.
• Familiarity with tactical terminals and radios such as MIDS JTRS, STT, BATS-D, AN/ARC, or AN/PRC.
• Familiarity with navigation and avionics standards such as NMEA 0183, GPS-153, ARINC 429, or ARINC 661.
• Familiarity with security standards such as DISA STIGs, NIST SP 800-171, or NIST SP 800-207.

Responsibilities

• Expand unit, integration, service, GUI, and end-to-end test automation for JRE.
• Engineer and maintain an automated performance test suite covering load, stress, and endurance testing, and support IT capacity planning for the required hardware environment.
• Design, develop, and maintain simulators for IP and serial tactical data link terminals, radios, navigation systems, and sensors.
• Contribute to defining and continuously verifying minimum system requirements for JRE deployment platforms.
• Refactor JRE code to improve testability, introducing API, RPC, and messaging seams for additional white- and gray-box testing.
• Mentor developers, testers, and less-experienced test engineers in test automation best practices.
• Optimize the performance and quality of test automation suites.
• Quarantine, troubleshoot, and fix nondeterministic tests.
• Lead projects and build test engineering skills among colleagues.

What This Job Offers

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