Job Description

Worker Type

Job Description

Job Summary

The primary role of the Software Engineer (Team Lead) is to lead a small, high-performing development team while remaining a hands-on technical contributor. This role focuses on building modern cloud-native applications, distributed systems, and scalable microservices that directly support mission operations.

You’ll help take ideas from concept to working prototype in short, iterative cycles while driving technical execution across cloud infrastructure, DevOps pipelines, and data-intensive systems. This is an opportunity for someone who enjoys leading engineers, solving complex technical problems, and having direct influence on how mission software is built and deployed.

Position Responsibilities

• Lead a small software development team by providing technical direction, mentorship, and day-to-day coordination

• Design, develop, maintain, and enhance complex software systems using modern cloud-native architectures

• Own features end-to-end including requirements analysis, design, development, testing, deployment, and operational support

• Build distributed applications, APIs, and data-intensive services

• Develop and deploy containerized applications using Docker or Podman

• Manage deployments through Kubernetes-based orchestration environments

• Apply modern software engineering best practices including code reviews, CI/CD, automated testing, monitoring, and logging

• Support system-level design decisions including hardware/software tradeoffs and COTS/GOTS evaluations

• Perform requirements analysis and translate system-level needs into technical implementations

• Build simulations and test environments to validate system performance and reliability

• Troubleshoot complex issues across infrastructure, application, and data layers

• Collaborate with product owners, system engineers, and stakeholders to prioritize and deliver incremental value

• Foster continuous improvement and experimentation across the engineering team

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Math, or Physics is required or equivalent combination of education, training, and experience

• Minimum 8 - 12 years of relevant experience in application software development.

• Active TS/SCI with Polygraph

• Strong Python development experience for backend services, automation, and tooling

• Strong Java development experience for scalable distributed systems

• Experience building RESTful services

• Experience with React or modern JavaScript frameworks

• Experience with Docker or Podman

• Experience with Kubernetes

• Experience designing and building microservices architectures

• Experience with Hadoop or similar distributed data processing frameworks

Desired Qualifications

• Experience with machine learning pipelines

• Experience with streaming data processing

• Experience with batch processing workflows

• Experience working with MongoDB

• Experience working with ArangoDB

• Experience working with Redis

• Experience working with PostgreSQL

• Experience with AWS Elastic MapReduce (EMR) or similar big data services

• Experience with Terraform, CloudFormation, or other infrastructure-as-code tools

• Experience with monitoring and observability platforms such as CloudWatch, Prometheus, or ELK

• Experience operating in AWS or hyper-converged infrastructure environments

• Experience mentoring engineers and leading small development teams

• Strong troubleshooting and root cause analysis skills

• Experience working in Agile development environments

Salary Range: $125,000.00 - $270,000.00

The pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Determination of official compensation or salary relies on several factors including, but not limited to, level of position, job responsibilities, geographic location, scope of relevant work experience, educational background, certifications, contract-specific affordability, organizational requirements, alignment with local internal equity as well as alignment with market data.

Our compensation package also includes components designed to support employees’ total well-being, which should be considered when evaluating our competitive benefits package. These benefits include health insurance, life insurance, disability, company holiday and paid time off, parental leave, 401(k) company match and contributions, professional development/training reimbursements, and other work/life programs.

ITAR Requirement:

This position requires access to information that is subject to compliance with the International Traffic Arms Regulations (“ITAR”) and/or the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”). In order to comply with the requirements of the ITAR and/or the EAR, applicants will be asked to provide specific documentation to verify U.S. person status under the ITAR and the EAR. A “U.S. person” according to their definition is a U.S. citizen, U.S. lawful permanent resident (green card holder), or protected individual such as a refugee, or asylee. See 22 CFR § 120.15. Some positions will require current U.S. Citizenship due to contract requirements.

Benefits: AV offers an excellent benefits package including medical, dental vision, 401K with company matching, a 9/80 work schedule and a paid holiday shutdown. For more information about our company benefit offerings please visit: http://www.avinc.com/myavbenefits.

We also encourage you to review our company website at http://www.avinc.com to learn more about us.

Principals only need apply. NO agencies please.

Who We Are

Based in California, AeroVironment (AVAV) is a global leader in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and tactical missile systems. Founded in 1971 by celebrated physicist and engineer, Dr. Paul MacCready, we’ve been at the leading edge of technical innovation for more than 45 years. Be a part of the team that developed the world’s most widely used military drones and created the first submarine-launched reconnaissance drone, and has seven innovative vehicles that are part of the Smithsonian Institution’s permanent collection in Washington, DC.

Join us today in developing the next generation of small UAS and tactical missile systems that will deliver more actionable intelligence to our customers so they can proceed with certainty – and succeed.

What We Do

Building on a history of technological innovation, AeroVironment designs, develops, produces, and supports an advanced portfolio of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and tactical missile systems. Agencies of the U.S. Department of Defense and allied military services use the company’s hand-launched UAS to provide situational awareness to tactical operating units through real-time, airborne reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition.

We are proud to be an EEO/AA Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability/veterans. AeroVironment, Inc. is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer and welcomes all qualified applicants. Qualified applicants will receive fair and impartial consideration without regard to race, sex, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, genetic data, sexual orientation, gender identity or other legally protected status.

ITAR