Senior Principal Software Engineer

Basic Qualifications

EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS: Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering, or related Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics field, plus a minimum of 10 years of relevant experience; or Master's degree, plus 8 years relevant experience.

CLEARANCE REQUIREMENTS: Ability to obtain a Department of Defense TS/SCI security clearance is required at time of hire. Applicants selected will be subject to a U.S. Government security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information. Due to the nature of work performed within our facilities, U.S. citizenship is required.

Responsibilities for this Position

We encourage you to apply if you have any of these preferred skills or experiences:

• Demonstrated ownership of the full software development lifecycle
• Proven technical leadership of software engineers
• Track record of taking software from prototype/R&D maturity to production-quality, maintainable, deliverable products
• Strong grounding in software engineering best practices (testing, version control, design review, documentation, technical debt management)
• Developing C2, device management, or platform control software for custom/proprietary hardware
• Designing software interfaces to FPGA-based systems or bespoke embedded hardware
• Stateful system design: state machines, operational sequencing, configuration management, and fault handling
• Building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines
• Kubernetes administration and operations, including authoring Helm charts for application packaging and deployment
• Containerization technologies (containerd, Docker, Podman)
• Enterprise software design principles: API design, service-oriented architecture, modular/layered system design
• Embedded software development in a Linux environment

What sets you apart:

• Experience with optical, RF, or other communication system modem hardware
• Familiarity with hardware-software co-design workflows and FPGA integration patterns
• Track record of driving software platform reuse across multiple programs or product lines
• Experience standing up development environments, toolchains, and engineering infrastructure for small-to-mid-size teams
• Experience applying AI/ML tools to accelerate engineering workflows
• Creative thinker with demonstrated success leading the software development life cycle
• Commitment to growing and developing others, building long-term subject matter experts, not just executing on current contracts
• Exceptional communication skills with the capacity to coordinate across multidisciplinary hardware and software teams
• MCP (Model Context Protocol) server development and AI-tooling integration

Our Commitment to You:

• An exciting career path with opportunities for continuous learning and development. 
• Research oriented work, alongside award winning teams developing practical solutions for our nation’s security
• Flexible schedules with every other Friday off work, if desired (9/80 schedule)
• Competitive benefits, including 401k matching, flex time off, paid parental leave, healthcare benefits, health & wellness programs, employee resource and social groups, and more
• See more at gdmissionsystems.com/careers/why-work-for-us/benefits

Workplace Options:

• This position is fully on-site or hybrid/Flex as desired.
• While on-site, you will be a part of the Annapolis Junction, MD facility.

#LI-Hybrid

Salary Note

This estimate represents the typical salary range for this position based on experience and other factors (geographic location, etc.). Actual pay may vary. This job posting will remain open until the position is filled.

Combined Salary Range

USD $183,381.00 - USD $193,049.00 /Yr.

Company Overview

General Dynamics Mission Systems (GDMS) engineers a diverse portfolio of high technology solutions, products and services that enable customers to successfully execute missions across all domains of operation. With a global team of 12,000+ top professionals, we partner with the best in industry to expand the bounds of innovation in the defense and scientific arenas. Given the nature of our work and who we are, we value trust, honesty, alignment and transparency. We offer highly competitive benefits and pride ourselves in being a great place to work with a shared sense of purpose. You will also enjoy a flexible work environment where contributions are recognized and rewarded. If who we are and what we do resonates with you, we invite you to join our high-performance team!

Equal Opportunity Employer / Individuals with Disabilities / Protected Veterans