Software and Systems Development Engineers

Software And Systems Development EngineerLocations: Onsite in Arlington, VA or Herndon, VA, but would accept onsite Jessup, MD with occasional travel to VA.About the Role: We are seeking experienced Software and Systems Development Engineers to support the design, development, deployment, and ongoing maintenance of a new Test Framework - a purpose-built test orchestration and asset management platform operating within a classified development environment. Contractors will work as members of the engineering team, contributing across the full software development lifecycle of the Test Framework and its operational use. The Test Framework is a distributed system that manages physical and virtual test infrastructure, orchestrates test execution, and stores and analyzes test results. It operates in an isolated environment with strict controls - creative problem-solving and debugging within those constraints is expected. The devices under test are embedded Linux systems operating in a physical lab network, so familiarity with embedded systems and networking is directly applicable.Responsibilities:Design and implement new features across all Test Framework subsystems: Test Manager (configuration, orchestration, results) and Asset Manager (reservation, configuration, tasking, device adapters)Define and implement service APIs using IDLsDevelop and maintain device adapters that abstract physical lab hardware (test devices, traffic generators, packet switches, optical switches) behind generic interfaces, including adapters for embedded Linux devices accessed over the networkImplement and maintain datastores across multiple database technologies, e.g., PostgreSQL, GraphDB, DynamoDBDeploy and manage the Test Framework using Amazon CDKDevelop and maintain CI/CD pipelines in Gitlab PipelinesInstrument and monitor services with CloudWatch, time series databases, and other alerting toolsProduce and maintain technical documentationProvide technical support and guidance to users of the Test FrameworkTriage and resolve production issuesRequired Qualifications:5+ years of professional software development experienceProficiency in Python or Rust; experience with both is a plus.Proficiency in Bash scriptingExperience designing and building distributed systemsExperience defining service interfaces using an IDLExperience with CI/CD pipeline design and implementation (GitLab CI, Jenkins, or equivalent)Familiarity with containerizationExperience working in Linux/Unix environments, with an emphasis on console usageStrong written and verbal communication skillsPreferred Qualifications:Experience with Amazon CDK or other Infrastructure as Code technologiesExperience with embedded Linux systemsKnowledge of networking fundamentals relevant to embedded and lab environments: Ethernet, IP routing, optical networking concepts, traffic generation and analysisExperience developing in classified or air-gapped environments with restricted toolingExperience with AWS CloudWatch for observability: metrics, logs, alarms, and dashboardsExperience with test framework technologies, e.g., pytest, pytest-bdd, robot, behave, etc.Background in hardware-in-the-loop or lab automation testing environments