Lead Software Engineer

Job Title: Lead, Software Engineering

Job Code: 43418

Job Location: Clifton, NJ

Job Schedule: 9/80: Employees work 9 out of every 14 days- totaling 80 hours worked- and have every other Friday off

Position Overview:

L3Harris is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to develop and sustain mission-critical electronic warfare (EW) software in a cross-platform embedded environment. This role supports the full software lifecycle, including requirements analysis, architecture and design, implementation, integration, automated test, platform deployment, and CI/CD release.

The ideal candidate is a strong C++ and Rust software engineer with experience in embedded real-time systems, Linux-based development, modern software design, and cross-functional collaboration across software, systems, integration, and lab teams. This position requires demonstrated success developing solutions aligned to open architecture principles, including modularity, abstraction, portability, well-defined interfaces, interoperability, and long-term maintainability.

The selected candidate will contribute to software solutions aligned with government reference architectures and customer-directed technical baselines, including support for Common SDK, Open Common Environment (OCE) concepts, CFE, and other modular open systems approaches that enable reuse, rapid integration, portability, and technology insertion across platform and mission applications.

The role requires the ability to work across system, solution, software, and platform architecture levels to ensure software implementations align with mission requirements, open architecture standards, external interface requirements, and government/customer reference architectures. Up to 10% travel to customer and test sites.

Essential Functions:

• Develop and maintain high-reliability C++ and Rust software for embedded, real-time, and Linux-based systems.
• Implement capabilities from system and software requirements with end-to-end traceability through verification.
• Design, document, and evolve software architecture using UML and model-based artifacts as appropriate.
• Apply open architecture principles to software design, including modular decomposition, interface-based design, separation of concerns, abstraction layers, and support for portability and reuse.
• Develop software consistent with government reference architectures, customer technical baselines, and interoperability requirements.
• Support MOSA-aligned implementations that enable extensibility, upgradeability, technology insertion, and integration of third-party, GFE, or externally developed components.
• Develop and integrate software within Linux-based environments, including cross-compiled and embedded targets.
• Contribute to software frameworks and implementations aligned to Common SDK, OCE, and CFE architectural concepts and reusable component strategies.
• Define and implement clean internal and external interfaces to support loosely coupled, component-oriented, service-oriented, and event-driven architectures.
• Build, deploy, integrate, and troubleshoot software across multiple targets, lab environments, and platform configurations.
• Support software deployment into both edge/embedded environments and larger-scale compute infrastructures, including Big Iron processing environments as required by mission architecture.
• Create and maintain unit, integration, and regression tests; improve automation and code coverage.
• Support CI/CD pipelines for build, test, static analysis, security scanning, coverage, and artifact publication.
• Collaborate with systems engineering, integration/lab teams, platform teams, and peer developers on feature delivery, architecture alignment, and defect resolution.
• Produce technical documentation to support verification, maintainability, transition to operations, and architectural compliance.
• Provide technical leadership in software design, development best practices, secure coding, and architectural consistency across the team.
• Support integration of software within broader platform and mission-system environments, ensuring alignment to system-level architecture, external interfaces, and government/customer reference architectures.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree and minimum 9 years of prior relevant experience. Graduate Degree and a minimum of 7 years of prior related experience. In lieu of a degree, minimum of 13 years of prior related experience.
• Active Secret Clearance required.

Preferred Additional Skills:

• 7+ years of professional C/C++ software development experience.
• 5+ years’ experience developing software for embedded real-time systems.
• 5+ years supporting hardware/software integration and lab validation.
• 3+ years of professional RUST software development experience.
• 3+ years’ experience in software architecture/design using UML and requirements-driven development.
• 3+ years’ experience with automated testing and CI tools such as CMake, GoogleTest, and Jenkins.
• 3+ years’ experience with build/dependency tools such as CMake and Con Experience applying MOSA principles in defense, aerospace, EW, or other mission-critical systems.
• Experience with Rust in performance-sensitive, embedded, safety-focused, or secure software applications.
• Strong experience with Linux systems programming, cross-compilation, and deployment in distributed or embedded environments.
• Experience with software architectures designed for interoperability, portability, reuse, and long-term sustainment.
• Experience across Linux, Windows, and RTOS environments such as VxWorks or Real-Time Linux.
• Domain knowledge in electronic warfare (EW) and RF/signal-processing environments.
• Familiarity with government or DoD architectural frameworks, platform reference architectures, and standards-driven integration approaches.
• Familiarity with Common SDK, OCE, CFE, and reusable software framework integration strategies.
• Experience supporting deployment or integration in high-performance compute, server-class, or Big Iron environments.
• Familiarity with package repositories (Artifactory), automated code quality and security checks (static analysis, code coverage), Black Duck tools for SAST/SCA, and UML/SysML modeling tools (MagicDraw/Cameo)
• Experience defining and managing software interfaces in support of open, extensible system designs.
• Experience integrating software components into larger mission systems with attention to external interface compliance and architectural alignment.

In compliance with pay transparency requirements, the salary range for this role in New Jersey is $135,000 - $250,500. This is not a guarantee of compensation or salary, as final offer amount may vary based on factors including but not limited to experience and geographic location. L3Harris also offers a variety of benefits, including health and disability insurance, 401(k) match, flexible spending accounts, EAP, education assistance, parental leave, paid time off, and company-paid holidays. The specific programs and options available to an employee may vary depending on date of hire, schedule type, and the applicability of collective bargaining agreements.

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