Principal Software Engineer

Job Description

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Job ID: 2613334

Location: San Diego, CA, US

Date Posted: 2026-06-08

Category: Software

Subcategory: SW Engineer

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 full-stack Principal Software Engineer to join the Joint Range Extension (JRE) software development team. This is a Remote Role in San Diego, CA. It is REQUIRED to be local to the area. You must be a U.S. Citizen to be considered who can obtain a Secret clearance after you start.

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 principal software engineer on the team, you'll play an essential role in evolving JRE for the future mission needs of the warfighter.

JOB DUTIES:

Design, develop, and maintain major new features, enhancements, and integrations for the JRE suite of edge- and cloud-deployed client and server applications
Develop and contribute deep domain expertise in the tactical data link, situational awareness, and command and control domains
Refactor existing implementations to align with and meet future product needs
Leverage your experience to contribute to architecture and implementation reviews of other engineers

Qualifications

REQUIREMENTS:

Credentials and Education

Bachelor's in computer science or a related field and nine (9) years or more of professional software engineering experience; Masters and seven (7) years or more of related experience; relevant experience to be substituted in lieu of degree
5+ years in a technical project lead role
Must be able to obtain a Secret clearance after start

Technical Qualifications

Deep expertise in the Java platform; including fluency with Java, and familiarity with JVM languages such as Kotlin or Scala
Thorough knowledge of object-oriented and functional design patterns; software design principles; refactoring techniques, code and test automation smells, and domain-driven design
Experience with RPC and message-oriented distributed systems integration and related integration patterns
Experience with network programming, networking protocols, and the low-level processing of binary data
Proven experience developing and maintaining large-scale codebases (1M+ lines)
Experience leading successful large-scale, phased refactoring projects
Experience with dependency injection and the Spring family of frameworks, including Spring Boot, Spring Data, and Spring Security
Team-based development experience via pairing or mobbing, and an eagerness to work collaboratively
Test-driven development experience
Experience designing and developing solutions iteratively and incrementally via Agile methodologies such as Scrum, Extreme Programming, or Lean Software Development
Experience with continuous integration and modern deployment practices for edge and cloud systems
Experience developing systems built with Gradle

Domain Knowledge

Significant experience in the tactical data link and C5ISR domains, or in the development of comparable mission-critical, high-reliability, near-real-time 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

DESIRED SKILLS:

Experience with native development with C, C++, or Rust
Public contributions to open-source projects

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

SAIC is a premier technology integrator providing full life cycle services and solutions in the technical, engineering, intelligence, and enterprise information technology markets. SAIC is Redefining Ingenuity through its deep customer and domain knowledge to enable the delivery of systems engineering and integration offerings for large, complex projects. SAIC's approximately 15,000 employees are driven by integrity and mission focus to serve customers in the U.S. federal government. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, SAIC has annual revenues of approximately $4.5 billion. For more information, visit saic.com. For information on the benefits SAIC offers, see .