At Leidos, we deliver innovative solutions through the efforts of our diverse and talented people who are dedicated to our customers’ success. We empower our teams, contribute to our communities, and operate sustainably. Everything we do is built on a commitment to doing the right thing for our customers, our people, and our community. Our Mission, Vision, and Values guide the way we do business.

Leidos Defense is seeking a talented Software Test / QA Engineer to design, implement, and maintain automated and manual testing strategies for high-performance applications and backend systems supporting advanced sensor and mission systems. This role is ideal for test engineers who enjoy building robust test automation frameworks today while growing into broader system-level validation, performance testing, and real-time system verification over time. We have offices across the United States engaging in the defense, space, cyber and commercial fields, we provide responsive, cost-effective engineering, scientific and IT solutions.

If this sounds like the kind of environment where you can thrive, keep reading!

Leidos Defense provides a diverse portfolio of systems, solutions, and services covering land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace for customers worldwide. Solutions for Defense include enterprise and mission IT, large-scale intelligence systems, command and control, geospatial and data analytics, cybersecurity, logistics, training, and intelligence analysis and operations support. Our team is solving the world’s toughest security challenges for customers with “can’t fail” missions.

Primary Responsibilities:

Candidate will support advanced technology radar programs by validating user-facing and backend software that interfaces with high-performance sensor and data processing systems. These applications are tightly coupled with real-time data pipelines and hardware systems, requiring a strong understanding of system behavior, performance testing, and automated data flow validation.

Engineers in this role are expected to grow into broader quality and test ownership over time, contributing across application, middleware, and real-time testing components as needed.

• Design, build, and maintain automated test frameworks and test scripts for C++-based applications and backend systems.
• Execute comprehensive manual testing when necessary to explore edge cases, validate user workflows, and establish baseline behaviors for new features.
• Analyze and verify system performance, latency, and scalability using simulated and real-world data pipelines.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams including software, systems, and hardware engineers to isolate, reproduce, and debug complex system defects.
• Support software integration, verification, and deployment in operational and simulated environments.
• Develop detailed test plans, test cases, and test reports to ensure compliance with mission-critical requirements.
• Contribute to CI/CD automation pipelines to ensure continuous testing and high software quality from development through deployment.

Basic Qualifications:

• Candidate must possess a bachelor’s degree or higher in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline from an ABET-accredited school with a strong demonstration of the skills listed below.
• Candidate must have 4+ years of experience in software quality assurance, test engineering, or software development with a heavy focus on automated testing.
• Candidate must have excellent teamwork skills and possess strong fundamentals in the following:
• Proficiency in testing software built in modern C++ or writing test scripts to interface with C++ binaries.
• Strong experience with Python or other scripting languages for test automation development.
• Experience with Linux-based environments, including shell scripting and system monitoring.
• Experience testing performance-sensitive, distributed, or systems-oriented applications.
• Familiarity with tracking and test management tools (e.g., Jira or equivalent bug-tracking systems).
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work effectively in a collaborative team environment.
• US Citizenship is required and ability to obtain and maintain and DoD Secret clearance.

Preferred Qualifications:

Candidate with additional skills in the following is preferred:

• Experience setting up test automation within CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitLab CI, Jenkins, Docker).
• Experience with messaging frameworks (e.g., ZeroMQ or similar) for simulating and testing distributed systems.
• Exposure to radar, RF, or sensor systems and hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) testing frameworks.
• Experience testing frontend web applications built with Angular TS, Flask, or SCSS.

If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo — because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 — and moving faster than anyone else dares.

Original Posting:

Pay Range:

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.