Software Engineering Lead

The Leidos Health & Civil Sector is seeking a Software Engineering Lead to support the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute (NCI).

** This posting is for future business – not yet awarded **

The Software Engineering Lead will oversee the design, development, modernization, integration, testing, deployment, and sustainment of enterprise software solutions supporting NCI. In addition, the Software Engineering Lead will provide technical leadership for software engineering teams responsible for delivering secure, scalable, cloud-native applications that advance NCI's biomedical research and business mission.

Working under the direction of the Technical Lead, the Software Engineering Lead will collaborate closely with Government stakeholders, technical Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), solution architects, AI/ML engineers, data engineers, cybersecurity specialists, and DevSecOps teams to ensure the successful delivery of modern software solutions that support scientific research, clinical operations, and enterprise business systems.

The successful candidate will champion modern software engineering practices, Agile development methodologies, DevSecOps, cloud-native architectures, and continuous innovation while ensuring high-quality, secure, and maintainable software solutions aligned with NIH and NCI standards.
 

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, modernization, testing, deployment, and sustainment of enterprise software applications supporting NIH/NCI scientific, clinical, and business operations.
• Provide technical leadership across the full Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) using Agile methodologies, including Scrum and Kanban, to deliver secure, scalable, and high-quality software solutions.
• Establish and enforce software engineering best practices, coding standards, configuration management, and DevSecOps processes to support continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD).
• Develop and maintain enterprise applications using technologies including Java, Python, Ruby, Oracle, NoSQL databases, MongoDB, AWS cloud services, and serverless computing.
• Lead cloud modernization initiatives, including application migration, containerization, automation, and implementation of cloud-native solutions within NIH/NCI-managed AWS environments.
• Design, implement, and support application hosting environments using on-premises and cloud infrastructure while ensuring high availability, performance, and scalability.
• Oversee database design, administration, security, and data integrity for enterprise applications and scientific data platforms.
• Collaborate with business analysts, quality assurance teams, systems engineers, and Government stakeholders to develop requirements, conduct application demonstrations, support production operations, and deliver user training.
• Support software quality assurance activities, including Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V), automated testing, code reviews, and release management.
• Ensure compliance with NIH, NCI, HHS, FISMA, FedRAMP, Section 508, and enterprise cybersecurity requirements, including secure authentication, cloud security, and continuous monitoring.
• Provide technical leadership supporting Oracle Clinical (OC), C3D, Oracle WebLogic, and related clinical research application environments, including installation, upgrades, maintenance, and operational support.
• Prepare technical documentation, architecture artifacts, and engineering recommendations while supporting continuous improvement and adoption of emerging technologies that advance NIH/NCI research and business missions.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline. Master's degree preferred.
• Minimum 10 years of progressive software engineering experience, including 5 years leading enterprise software development teams on large Federal IT programs.
• Demonstrated experience supporting NIH, HHS, CMS, or other Federal civilian agencies.
• Strong knowledge of modern software development methodologies, Agile frameworks, DevSecOps, and secure software development lifecycle (SDLC).
• Hands-on experience with Java, Python, Ruby, Oracle, RESTful APIs, and modern software engineering frameworks.
• Experience implementing DevSecOps, CI/CD pipelines, configuration management, automated testing, and Infrastructure as Code (IaC).
• Experience developing and deploying cloud-native applications using Amazon Web Services (AWS), including services such as Lambda, S3, API Gateway, CloudFront, DynamoDB, Aurora, Neptune, Redshift, QLDB, and related cloud technologies.
• Experience with containerization, cloud migration, application hosting, and enterprise application modernization.
• Experience designing and administering relational and NoSQL databases, including Oracle and MongoDB.
• Knowledge of enterprise architecture frameworks and modeling techniques, including BPMN and ArchiMate.
• Experience supporting Federal cybersecurity and compliance requirements, including FISMA, FedRAMP, Section 508, and secure authentication technologies such as SAML.
• Experience collaborating with Government stakeholders, business analysts, quality assurance teams, and technical staff to deliver enterprise software solutions.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to present technical information to both technical and executive audiences.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust / ADPII Clearance.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting HHS, NIH or NCI biomedical research environments.
• Experience supporting NIH cloud initiatives, including NCI Cloud Computing Platform Management Services and NIH cloud modernization efforts.
• Experience supporting biomedical research, scientific computing, clinical research systems, or healthcare information technology environments.
• Experience with Oracle Clinical (OC), C3D, Oracle WebLogic Suite, and scientific database hosting environments.
• Experience leading application modernization initiatives involving microservices, serverless computing, containerization, Kubernetes, and cloud-native architectures.
• Experience supporting Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V), software quality assurance, and automated testing frameworks.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted software development, intelligent automation, and modern software engineering tools.

Desired Characteristics

• Strong customer focus and mission orientation.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to lead cross-functional teams in a collaborative environment.
• Commitment to quality, innovation, and continuous process improvement.
• Ability to communicate effectively with both technical and executive audiences.

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:

August 25, 2026

Pay Range:

Pay Range $107,900.00 - $195,050.00

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.