Weekend Software Engineer Jobs in Carlsbad, CA (NOW HIRING)

Today, Electronic Warfare is a growing enterprise - protecting the warfighter and our national security against ever-adapting threats. Our EW division currently has an exciting opportunity for a Software Engineer to perform design, development, and hardware/software integration in San Diego, CA.

Leidos is a DOD leader in electronic design and chiplet manufacture. Our division primarily focuses on research & development and advanced prototyping, transforming state-of-the-art processing algorithms into real-time software systems. Projects involve small multi-disciplinary teams of engineers working together in spiral or agile development environments to meet aggressive customer schedules aimed at near-term field demonstrations. Leidos utilizes its proprietary design methodology for hardware software co-design to manufacture custom SoC and IP for high performance applications.

In this role, the Software Engineer will develop and maintain APIs written in Python and MATLAB used to control Hardware Test Equipment, design and build a GUI to serve as a user-facing interface for the Leidos SoC products, and develop complex, highly integrated testing system for RF signal processing applications.

Join a team of experts in implementing high-performance signal processing on custom system-on-chip (SoC) hardware and building the tools that enable analysis, rapid prototyping, and deployment of cutting-edge algorithms.  

The successful candidate will be responsible for: 

• Contributing to design and development of advanced systems as a part of multi-disciplinary teams.  These teams are made up of other software team members and subject matter experts from the areas of systems engineering, hardware, firmware, RF front end design, and signal processing. 

• Designing, implementing, and testing object-oriented applications in Python/MATLAB

• Designing, implementing, and testing software to configure and control RF hardware devices

• Integrating low-level software with a user-facing GUI

• Developing Hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) tests to validate low-level software APIs

• Designing and implementing test framework for implementing HITL tests and deploying applications in HITL test environments

• Documentation of the developed test software and embedded systems 

• Clearly communicating technical details of test software to internal and external engineers 

• Supporting system field testing and collection events, usually about a week in duration once or twice a year 

At Leidos, we offer competitive benefits http://www.leidos.com/careers/pay-benefits, including 4 or more weeks Paid Time Off, 11 paid Holidays, 401K with a 6% company match and immediate vesting, Flexible Schedules, Discounted Stock Purchase Plans, Technical Upskilling, Education and Training Support, Parental Paid Leave, and much more.  Join us and make a difference in Electronic Warfare Technology! 

At Leidos we value passion for learning. If you believe you have what it takes to succeed in this role and are eager to learn, we encourage you to apply.  

The successful candidate will have the following basic education/experience: 

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or Computer Science, or related discipline

• 4+ years of software development experience, including strong experience in programming in Python, MATLAB, or C++

• Strong understanding of object-oriented design

• Basic understanding of hardware-software interaction and basic computer architecture 

• Experience with hardware interfaces (e.g. PCIe, UART, Ethernet) 

• Experience with build tools (e.g.  GCC, CMake, or Make)

• Experience using version control (e.g. git, Subversion) and continuous integration software tools (e.g. Jenkins) 

• Experience with software testing tools and methodology 

• Experience in creating and maintaining technical documentation for developed software

• Ability to communicate and share ideas, concepts, and designs with a team of engineers 

• Demonstrated ability and motivation to continually learn new technical skills and concepts

• Understanding of unit test frameworks and test-driven development practices  

• Must have active Secret level security clearance with the ability to obtain a TS/SCI. 

Bonus education/experience: 

• Master’s Degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent 

• Active security clearance higher than the Secret level 

• Ability to debug embedded systems using tools like oscilloscopes and logic analyzers 

• Experience maintaining, tracking, and updating ticket/status using Gitlab or similar interface

• Experience using common scripting languages (e.g. bash)

NKE

ElectronicWarfare

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:April 21, 2026

For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.

Pay Range:Pay Range $87,100.00 - $157,450.00

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.