Senior Software Engineer

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory•Laurel, MD

About The Position

Are you passionate about building secure, mission-critical software that directly supports some of our nation’s toughest space challenges? Do you enjoy solving complex engineering problems involving distributed systems, cloud-native architectures, DevSecOps, and high-performance applications? Are you excited to collaborate with talented engineers to develop resilient software solutions where reliability, security, and mission impact truly matter? Then we're looking for someone like you to join our team at APL! We are seeking a skilled Senior Software Engineer to design, develop, and maintain critical software applications supporting National Security Space in a TS/SCI environment. You will build scalable, secure, and observable software systems for space domain applications, including command and control, data processing, mission planning, and multi-domain integration tools. We are passionate about creating software engineering solutions that address our sponsors' toughest problems. This role emphasizes DevSecOps practices, cloud-native architectures, and secure development/deployment in classified environments. You will work on complex, distributed systems where reliability, security, and performance are paramount.

Requirements

Possess a B.S. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or a related field
Have 5+ years of full software engineering experience, including software design methodology, requirements development, configuration management, trade studies, and product defect tracking
Strong proficiency in at least one modern language/stack (Java/Spring Boot, Python, C++, or equivalent).
Hands-on experience with Docker/Podman (multi-stage builds, optimization) and Kubernetes (Deployments, Services, ConfigMaps, Secrets, Helm/Kustomize).
Demonstrated experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines (GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or Jenkins) including build, test, security scanning, and deployment stages.
Solid understanding of REST APIs, OpenAPI/Swagger, and JSON (Protobuf a plus).
Experience with testing practices: unit, integration, and API testing in containerized environments.
Strong Git workflow skills, including feature branches, pull requests, and code reviews.
Experience working in secure or classified computing environments (air-gapped, STIG compliance, RMF, controlled artifact management, offline dependencies).
Possess interpersonal skills and are an effective communicator.
Have the ability to collaborate effectively in a team environment.
Are able to obtain a Top-Secret Clearance. You will be subjected to a government security investigation, and you should meet the eligibility requirements for access to classified information up to the Top-Secret level. Eligibility requirements include US citizenship.

Nice To Haves

Possess a Master's degree in Computer Science or a related field.
Have experience with messaging & distributed systems; Kafka (preferred), RabbitMQ.
Practical experience working with cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, Google Cloud.
Experience with space-related software, real-time systems, or large-scale data processing.
Knowledge of cross-domain solutions or high-assurance system integration.

Responsibilities

Design and implement robust backend services, APIs, and data pipelines for space operations software.
Build and maintain containerized, orchestrated applications with full CI/CD pipelines.
Integrate security controls throughout the development lifecycle (DevSecOps).
Develop and optimize distributed systems with messaging, event-driven architectures, and resilient communication patterns.
Ensure applications meet compliance requirements for classified environments, including air-gapped deployments and controlled updates.
Identify and solve issues, monitor, and improve system performance and observability in production-like environments.
Collaborate via code reviews, contribute to architecture decisions, and mentor on modern practices.