Senior Software Engineer

Job Description

About Leidos Australia

At Leidos Australia, our work goes beyond a job title. We design, build, operate and support the systems, services and capabilities that help protect and advance the Australian way of life.

Backed by a global organisation of more than 40,000 people, our Australian team of around 2,000 has partnered with government, defence and national security customers for more than 30 years. We deliver mission-critical solutions where reliability, trust and purpose matter.

Leidos is a destination for people who want their work to have purpose, their contribution to be recognised, and their career to grow without needing to fit a single mould. Meaningful work is supported by benefits, flexibility and career pathways that help you grow while balancing life outside work. This includes:

• Flex Your Way – Tailor work to your life with options including Life Days (up to 12 extra days off per year), part-time arrangements, job sharing, and compressed hours.
• Wellbeing That Matters – Free access to Headspace and MeQuilibrium, plus dedicated wellness spaces to support your mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing.
• Learn Without Limits – Access over 120,000 on-demand courses, alongside technical, project management, leadership, and professional development opportunities.
• Work That Makes an Impact – Contribute to nationally significant projects that matter, solve complex challenges, and accelerate your career through unique growth opportunities.
• Build Your Future – Whether you're deepening technical expertise or preparing for leadership, we'll invest in your development every step of the way.
• And Much More – These are just a few of the ways we invest in our people and help them thrive.

About the Team

You’ll join a team where people work with integrity, inclusion, innovation, agility, collaboration and commitment. In practice, that means sharing ownership, solving complex problems together and staying connected to the customer context, the purpose behind the work and how each role contributes to meaningful outcomes.

Mission Software Systems (MSS) brings together expertise across intelligence, software, and cloud to deliver end-to-end capability supporting the full intelligence lifecycle, from planning through to dissemination and feedback. The team fosters a culture of innovation, leveraging modern engineering practices and shared infrastructure to rapidly build, test, and deploy software solutions across a range of environments, including cloud. MSS also plays a key role in advancing technology modernisation within Government, delivering scalable and adaptable solutions for complex enterprise challenges.

The Opportunity

In this role, you will lead the design and delivery of complex software components and services while remaining actively involved in development. You will help establish technical direction, resolve challenging engineering issues and support other engineers to produce reliable, secure and maintainable solutions.

• Lead software design and development activities across applications, services, integrations and supporting components.
• Translate complex requirements into technical designs, implementation plans and appropriately sized engineering work.
• Provide technical guidance, conduct code and design reviews, and support capability development across the engineering team.
• Improve software quality, performance, security and delivery efficiency through automation, engineering standards and continuous improvement.
• Use AI-enabled development tools responsibly to support productivity, quality and engineering efficiency.

About You

You combine hands-on software engineering capability with the judgement needed to guide technical decisions. You can work through ambiguity, explain complex concepts clearly and help teams balance immediate delivery needs with longer-term maintainability.

Essential:

• Experience designing and delivering complex, secure and scalable software solutions across the development lifecycle.
• Full stack development capability using contemporary programming languages and frameworks, including Java, Spring Boot, React and related open-source technologies.
• Experience designing API services and integrating software with external systems, services and data sources.
• Experience leading technical design, code reviews, troubleshooting and performance optimisation.
• Ability to mentor engineers and establish practical standards that improve engineering quality and consistency.
• Experience with CI/CD, automated testing, infrastructure as code and Git-based workflows, using tools such as Ansible and Jenkins.
• Experience with containerisation and modern deployment environments, such as Docker and Kubernetes.
• Ability to engage technical and non-technical stakeholders and clearly communicate risks, options and recommendations.
• Demonstrated experience in a senior engineering role within a multidisciplinary project environment.
• Experience using collaboration and delivery tools such as Jira and Confluence.

This role requires the successful applicant to be an Australian citizen. Security clearance requirements vary depending on the role and project and may include Baseline, NV1, NV2 or TSPV clearances. To be considered, applicants must hold, or be eligible to obtain and maintain, the appropriate security clearance and any associated customer access approvals required for the position.

Due to the nature of our work, applicants must be Australian Citizens and be eligible to obtain and maintain the security clearance required for the role.

Certain roles may be subject International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) requirements which may limit persons who hold dual nationality with certain proscribed countries from accessing material, or in the case of dual Australian-U.S citizens, may require the candidate to obtain a U.S. Persons Abroad authorisation from the U.S DDTC.

If this role interests you, we encourage you to apply. We value different experiences and are interested in the capability and potential you could bring.

What to Expect When You Apply

Our hiring process is designed to be straightforward, respectful and easy to navigate. If your skills, experience and qualifications look aligned with the role, our Talent Acquisition team will contact you to discuss the next stage. You can expect:

• An initial conversation with our Talent Acquisition team
• An interview with the hiring manager or interview panel
• Any role-specific assessment, technical discussion or customer step required for the position

We’ll let you know what to expect before each stage, including who you’ll meet and how to prepare. If you need any adjustments or support during the process, please let us know.

Ready to explore what’s possible?

If this sounds like a role where you can make an impact and continue to grow, we’d like to hear from you. Please apply via the “Apply Now” button with your resume. If you have any questions about the role or recruitment process, please contact Praveena Sundarakumar, Talent Acquisition.

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.