Today, Advanced Warfare Technology (AWT) is a growing enterprise - protecting the warfighter and our national security against ever-adapting threats. Our AWT division currently has an exciting opportunity for an Embedded Software Engineer to perform design, development, and hardware/software integration in San Diego, CA for the Advanced Warfare Technology Division.
Leidos is a DOD leader in electronic design and chiplet manufacture. Our division primarily focuses on research & development and advanced prototyping, transforming state-of-the-art processing algorithms into real-time software systems. Projects involve small multi-disciplinary teams of engineers working together in spiral or agile development environments to meet aggressive customer schedules aimed at near-term field demonstrations. Leidos utilizes its proprietary design methodology for hardware software co-design to manufacture custom SoC and IP for high performance applications.
In this role, the Embedded Software Engineer will build high-performance software to meet extreme system requirements. They will be responsible for designing and implementing components to support software development kits that are delivered directly to end users to support quick adoption and ease of use for novel SoC products. This role will require the ability to deeply understand hardware architectures to execute validation and verification testing, a crucial step to ensure hardware and software performance meets customer expectations.
Join a team of experts in implementing high-performance signal processing on custom system-on-chip (SoC) hardware and building the tools that enable analysis, rapid prototyping, and deployment of cutting-edge algorithms.
The successful candidate will be responsible for:
Contributing to the design and development of advanced embedded systems as a part of multidisciplinary teams. These teams are made up of other software team members and subject matter experts from the areas of systems engineering, hardware, firmware, RF front-end design, and signal processing.
Developing software for a variety of microarchitectures, including DSP, ARM, or RISC-V
Developing software for multi-core embedded systems ranging from bare metal to minimal real-time operating systems to Linux environments
Reading and comprehending datasheets to understand expected hardware operation
Building and documenting test plans, test procedures, and software requirements specifications
Writing low level code (e.g. C) to interface with Control Status Registers (CSRs) and hardware components
Writing software to validate hardware performance and operation under nominal and stress conditions
Building software using test driven development (TDD) methodologies
Documenting software performance results against key performance requirements for data-plane and control-plane processing
Understanding software use in high-level system design for real time software in operational systems
Clearly communicating technical details of software APIs and test results to internal and external engineers
At Leidos we value passion for learning. If you believe you have what it takes to succeed in this role and are eager to learn, we encourage you to apply.
The successful candidate will have the following basic education/experience:
Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or Computer Science, or related discipline
4+ years of software development experience, including strong experience in C/C++ software development for embedded systems
Experience using Integrated Development Environments (e.g. VS Code, Eclipse)
Experience with build tools (e.g. GCC, CMake, or Make)
Strong understanding of hardware-software interaction and basic computer architecture (e.g. Stack, Heap, Pointers)
Experience with version control systems (e.g. Git, Subversion) and continuous integration software tools (e.g. Jenkins)
Experience with software testing tools and methodologies
Experience in creating and maintaining technical documentation for developed software
Ability to communicate and share ideas, concepts, and designs with a team of engineers
Understanding of unit test frameworks and test-driven development practices
Comfortable working in Linux development environments
Demonstrated ability and motivation to continually learn new technical skills and concepts
Must have active Secret level security clearance with the ability to obtain a TS/SCI
Bonus education/experience:
Master’s Degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent
Active security clearance higher than the Secret level
Experience with other programming languages such as Python, MATLAB, or another OOP language
Ability to debug embedded systems using tools like oscilloscopes and logic analyzers
Experience developing drivers for hardware interfaces (e.g. GPIO, I2C, SPI, UART, PCIe)
Experience with multiple embedded instruction set architectures (e.g. ESP32, Raspberry PI, Arduino, RISCV)
Experience using hardware debugging software and tools such as OpenOCD, J-Link, or SEGGER
AWTLINC
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:December 8, 2025For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.
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.
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What We Do
We Are Leidos
For 50 years we have been tackling some of the biggest problems that face our nation and our world.
OUR MISSION
Through our culture of innovation and history of performance, we develop deep customer trust built on integrity and create enduring solutions that improve our world. Leidos is a science and technology solutions leader working to address some of the world’s toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, civil, and healthcare markets. The company’s 43,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Va., Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $11.09 billion for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2020.
Leidos was cited for the meaningful work employees perform that is challenging, impactful, and aligned with our customers’ missions as reasons professionals want to work and stay at our company. Leidos has also been named to lists including Forbes’ Best Employers for Diversity, Forbes’ America’s Best Employers for Women, Military Times Best for Vets Employers, and Ethisphere Institute’s World's Most Ethical Companies®.
Employees enjoy career enrichment opportunities available through mobility and development and experience rewarding relationships with supportive supervisors and talented colleagues and customers. Employees appreciate our flexible work environment, allowing for and encouraging a true work-life balance. Our professionals are also excited about our Employee Resource Groups, like the newly launched Collaborative Outreach with Remote and Embedded Employees (CORE), which strives to create an environment where every employee, regardless of location, feels fully engaged as a valued employee of Leidos.
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