Junior Software Engineer

Location: Chantilly, VA

Time Type: Full time

Job Description

Leidos is seeking a motivated Junior Software Engineer to join our team in a full-stack role with an emphasis on DevOps. This junior position is ideal for recent graduates or early-career professionals passionate about growth in a dynamic, mission-focused environment. You will work closely with experienced engineers in an Agile team, contributing DevOps pipelines and user-friendly interfaces while leveraging AI-powered tools to enhance productivity, code quality, and innovation. 

This role provides hands-on experience with DevOps tools and modern software practices, including the use of AI assistants (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude, or similar) to accelerate development tasks such as code generation, debugging, refactoring, and prompt engineering. 

Primary Responsibilities: 

• Develop and maintain DevOps pipelines using Gitlab pipeline tools, Ansible, and python. 
• Collaborate with developers to integrate RESTful APIs and ensure seamless data flow. 
• Utilize AI coding tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude) for code suggestions, generation, debugging, refactoring, and optimization to improve development efficiency. 
• Participate in code reviews, unit testing, and debugging to ensure performance, compatibility across browsers/devices, and adherence to best practices. 
• Implement clean, modular, and maintainable code following team standards. 
• Stay current with emerging technologies and AI-assisted development trends. 
• Contribute in an Agile environment, including daily stand-ups, sprint planning, and team collaboration. 

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree with 1+ years of experience. Additional experience may be considered in lieu of degree. 
• US Citizen with an active TS/SCI with Poly security clearance 
• Familiarity with version control tools such as Git. 
• Experience or strong interest in AI tools for coding assistance (e.g., code generation, explanation, or optimization). 
• Working knowledge of Ansible and python.
• Working knowledge of Linux.
• Understanding of responsive design principles and basic web performance optimization. 
• Strong problem-solving skills, eagerness to learn, and ability to work in a team environment. 
• Excellent communication skills. 
• CompTIA Security+ certification.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with modern build tools (e.g., npm/Yarn, Vite). 
• Experience with Gitlab pipelines.
• Basic knowledge of security monitoring tools (Splunk, Nessus, Trellix). 
• Exposure to RESTful APIs. 
• Personal projects, bootcamp completion, or open-source contributions (GitHub portfolio encouraged). 

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.