Senior Software Engineer/Architect

Job ID 2611861

Location San Diego, CA, US

Date Posted 2026-04-24

Category Software

Subcategory SW Systems Engr

Schedule Full-Time

Shift Day Job

Travel Yes - 10% of the time

Minimum Clearance Required None

Clearance Level Must Be Able to Obtain Secret

Potential for Remote Work ORA_REMOTE

Description

SAIC is seeking a Senior Software Solutions Architect to join the Joint Range Extension (JRE) software development team. This is a remote role within the U.S.

Job Description

JRE is a combat-proven datalink gateway that plays a vital role in the defense of the United States and our allies by extending the reach of tactical data across the battlespace and around the globe. As a Senior Software Engineer/Architect on the team, you’ll play a lead role in shaping JRE’s future.

Job Duties

Architecture Strategy and Design

• Define and own the architectural vision, strategy, and roadmap for JRE.
• Lead the team in making high-level design decisions and technology selections, documenting trade-offs and rationale.
• Produce and maintain architecture artifacts, including an architecture description, component design documentation, architecture diagrams (C4, DoDAF, UML), and architecture decision records (ADRs).
• Translate business requirements and product and program goals into technical designs that meet both functional and non-functional criteria.
• Develop proofs of concept and prototypes to validate architectural choices.

Standards, Governance, and Quality

• Evolve the architectural principles, patterns, and standards used for JRE.
• Lead architecture and pull-request reviews, providing constructive feedback on designs and significant implementations.
• Ensure JRE meets key quality attributes such as scalability, reliability, performance, security, maintainability, and operability.
• Manage technical debt and inflation, strategically incorporating the remediation of legacy debt into the product roadmap.

Collaboration and Leadership

• Partner with product management to align technical strategy with business goals.
• Collaborate closely with industry partners to understand their requirements and align with JRE modernization goals.
• Mentor and coach engineers on design patterns, systems thinking, and architectural reasoning.
• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to executives, peers, and non-technical stakeholders.
• Contribute to interviewing and hiring decisions for engineering roles.

Execution and Evolution

• Evaluate emerging technologies, frameworks, and tools; make recommendations that balance risk, cost, and time-to-value.
• Guide large-scale modernization initiatives.
• Support incident reviews and post-mortems where root causes touch architectural decisions.

Qualifications

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE AND CLEARANCE

• Bachelor’s or higher degree in computer science, software engineering, or a related field with 14+ years of professional software engineering experience, including 5+ years in an architect or lead engineering capacity.
• Demonstrated experience designing and delivering large-scale mission-critical systems.
• Experience effectively leading the design and architecture of multi-million-line codebases.
• Experience leading significant architectural evolutions (e.g., monolith decomposition, major re-platforming).
• Fluency with domain-driven design; objection-oriented, functional, and enterprise systems design patterns; software design principles; and refactoring techniques.
• Proficiency with modern distributed systems patterns (APIs, messaging/event-driven, service boundaries, data consistency trade-offs).
• Experience with modern deployment practices for cloud and edge systems.
• Security-by-design mindset and working knowledge of common threat models.
• Knowledge of test automation principles and best practices.
• Proven ability to lead and work collaboratively, and influence at all levels regardless of direct authority.
• Growth mindset and a track record of elevating other engineers.
• Demonstrated ability to gain the trust of others and elicit their highest level of contribution.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• U.S. citizenship and eligibility to obtain a Secret clearance.

Desired Experience

• Experience in the tactical data link domain or comparable mission-critical, high-reliability systems.
• Knowledge of MIL-STDs such as 6016, 6017, 3011, 6020, 6040, and 2525; tactical terminals and radios such as MIDS JTRS, STT, AN/ARC, and AN/PRC; GPS and inertial navigation systems protocols such as NMEA 0183 and GPS-153; avionics standards such as ARINC 429 and 661; and industry security standards such as DISA STIGs, and NIST SP 800-171 and 800-207.
• Experience with network programming, networking protocols, and the low-level processing of binary data.
• Deep experience with the Java platform; including fluency with Java, and familiarity with JVM. languages such as Kotlin or Scala.
• Experience with native development with C and C++.
• Proven track record of deploying AI/ML solutions in production-grade, scalable systems.
• Active contributions to open source, technical writing, or speaking.

Target salary range $160,001 - $200,000. The estimate displayed represents the typical salary range for this position based on experience and other factors.