Senior R&D Software Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Title:

Why Join Us?

• Innovative Projects: KBR's work is at the forefront of engineering, logistics, operations, science, program management, mission IT and cybersecurity solutions.

• Collaborative Environment: Be part of a dynamic team that thrives on collaboration and innovation, fostering a supportive and intellectually stimulating workplace.
• Impactful Work: Your contributions will be pivotal in designing and optimizing defense systems that ensure national security and shape the future of space defense.

KBR is seeking a Senior Communications Systems Software Engineer to lead development, integration, and evaluation of communications software capabilities for contested and degraded environments. This role supports protocol emulation, SDR integration, test automation, and operationally relevant systems across research and applied DoD programs.

This position requires strong software engineering judgment, the ability to reason deeply about protocol behavior across physical, link, and logical layers, and ownership of endtoend technical execution for small, agile project teams. The engineer will work closely with systems engineers, reverse engineering teams, and user communities to deliver robust, deployable capabilities that can transition beyond early R&D.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain protocol emulator software processing physical, link, and logical layers for documented and proprietary protocols
• Lead integration of protocol emulators with multiple SDR platforms and validate interoperability against OEM implementations
• Architect and evolve user interfaces to control SDRs, configure scenarios, and visualize operational environments
• Design and implement test harnesses for protocol validation, fuzzing, weakness discovery, and regression testing across protocol and OEM variants
• Own endtoend software architecture decisions to ensure systems are modular, maintainable, and capable of scaling beyond initial prototypes
• Set and enforce engineering standards in an R&D environment to avoid technical debt while enabling rapid iteration and delivery
• Guide CI/CD pipelines, containerization strategies, and automated test workflows to ensure repeatable builds and deployable artifacts
• Translate technical documentation, specifications, and reverse engineering outputs into working implementations and testable behaviors
• Produce and review technical documentation for tool usage, system behavior, architectural decisions, and integration guidance

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science
• 8+ years of professional experience developing software for complex technical systems
• Proficiency in C/C++ or Python with experience owning and evolving production-quality codebases
• Experience developing software on Linux-based systems
• Demonstrated ability to design and sustain clean, maintainable, and testable software used by multiple engineers
• Strong ability to understand, reason about, and debug protocol behavior across multiple layers and implementations
• Experience integrating software with complex systems, SDRs, or external hardware components
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. DoD security clearance

Desired Qualifications

• Advanced experience with communications protocols, protocol emulation, or waveform-adjacent development (PHY/L2/L3 concepts)
• Experience integrating and testing against multiple SDR platforms and RF test environments
• Experience designing CI/CD pipelines, containerized environments, and automated test frameworks for R&D tools
• Familiarity with modeling and simulation environments for scenario generation, mission injection, or lab automation
• Experience developing test plans, analyzing results, and communicating complex technical behaviors to nontechnical or operational audiences

Basic Compensation:$160,000 - $210,000 (For Beavercreek, OH Only)
The offered rate will be based on the selected candidate's knowledge, skills, abilities and/or experience and in consideration of internal parity.

Belong, Connect and Grow at KBR
At KBR, we are passionate about our people and our Zero Harm culture. These inform all that we do and are at the heart of our commitment to, and ongoing journey toward being a People First company. That commitment is central to our team of team's philosophy and fosters an environment where everyone can Belong, Connect and Grow. We Deliver - Together.

KBR is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, union status and/or beliefs, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.