Senior Level Software Engineer

AeroVironment•Dayton, OH

18h•$115,000 - $170,000•Hybrid

About The Position

AV's Specialized Exploitation & Targeting (SET) Department is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to provide technical leadership and strategic direction in support of NASIC at Wright-Patterson AFB. You will lead the architecture, development, and maintenance of multiple source code repositories for mission-critical data analysis tools that support the production of technical intelligence products for warfighters, senior decision-makers, and the Intelligence Community. As a senior technical contributor, you will mentor development teams, drive architectural decisions, and establish engineering best practices. Technologies used in this position range from languages such as C++, Python, and TypeScript to document stores such as Elasticsearch and SQL stores such as PostgreSQL.

Requirements

BA/BS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Math, or a closely related technical field. MS preferred.
U.S. Citizenship required.
8+ years of progressive experience in software design, development, coding, testing, and debugging.
3+ years of experience in a technical leadership or senior engineering role.
Proven track record of leading software architecture and design for complex, distributed systems.
Deep expertise in web/service-based design, programming, and requirements analysis.
Advanced proficiency in front-end technologies including JavaScript, TypeScript, CSS3, and HTML5 and frameworks such as Angular or React.
Expert-level knowledge of server-side programming languages such as Java, C++, Python, and Go.
Extensive experience with document stores (Elasticsearch or similar) and SQL stores such as PostgreSQL, including performance optimization and schema design.
Strong background in containerization technologies, including creation, deployment, and orchestration of Open Container Images.
Demonstrated expertise in designing and managing production Kubernetes environments, including networking, storage, workload management, and security configurations.
Expert-level proficiency in git version control, branching strategies, and establishing team git hygiene standards.
Proven experience implementing and championing test-driven development practices.
Experience with CI/CD pipeline design and implementation (Gitlab CI/CD or similar).
Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and lead technical teams.

Nice To Haves

Experience designing and implementing comprehensive interface validation and testing strategies for both synchronous interfaces (HTTP APIs) and asynchronous interfaces (Kafka message bus, etc.).
CompTIA Security+ certification or higher (CISSP, CEH, etc.).
Advanced experience with Gitlab CI/CD, including pipeline optimization and security scanning integration.
Proven experience refactoring and modernizing large, legacy code bases.
Demonstrated experience designing enterprise-level Kubernetes application architectures for large-scale distributed systems.
Strong background in software architecture patterns, design principles, and system integration.
Experience leading requirement analysis efforts, including creating formal written requirements from stakeholder descriptions and facilitating requirements workshops.
Experience with DevSecOps practices and tools.
Background in Intelligence Community systems and workflows.
Experience with Agile/Scrum in a leadership capacity (Scrum Master, Tech Lead, or similar).

Responsibilities

Lead the design, architecture, and implementation of complex software systems across multiple applications and websites on both Windows and Linux environments.
Mentor and provide technical guidance to mid-level and junior software engineers, conducting code reviews and promoting engineering excellence.
Drive technical strategy and architectural decisions for current and future development initiatives.
Lead software design meetings and architecture reviews, ensuring alignment with enterprise standards and mission requirements.
Collaborate with stakeholders, product owners, and intelligence analysts to translate complex operational requirements into scalable technical solutions.
Establish and enforce coding standards, development workflows, and quality assurance processes.
Lead troubleshooting efforts for critical production issues and provide technical oversight for incident response.
Design and implement comprehensive testing strategies including unit, integration, and functional test plans.
Evaluate and recommend new technologies, tools, and frameworks to enhance team productivity and system capabilities.