Skip to main content
David Careers

Jr AI Native Software Developer

Posted 7 days ago

leidosReston (VA)
Software DevelopersComputer Systems Design Services

SENIORITY

Lead

Apply (opens in a new tab)

About the role

Junior Ai Software Developer Leidos is seeking a Jr level, AI Software Developer to join the Airports, Borders, and Security (AB&S) Business Area within the Homeland Sector, building the Travel & Customs Orchestration Platform — a hybrid-cloud, AI-driven system that senses data across the traveler journey (ATC data, manifests, border processing, detection/security, kiosks, e-Gates, staffing, and capacity), predicts demand, orchestrates resources, and measures outcomes. In this position, you will design and implement software solutions independently while working closely with systems engineering, product delivery, and DevSecOps teams. The primary focus is on developing microservices-based applications that power the platform's Sense ? Predict ? Orchestrate ? Measure operating model, including the AI Detection Algorithm Marketplace used to evaluate and deploy third-party and in-house detection algorithms (prohibited items, explosives, weapons, liquids, novel threats, behavioral indicators, and future algorithm types). Experience with AI-enabled or data-driven systems is advantageous. This position supports government programs and requires the ability to obtain and maintain a favorable Public Trust investigation. This role focuses on building and modernizing real-time, mission-critical systems that directly support border and aviation security operations — including dynamic staffing allocation, checkpoint and lane management, passenger routing, exception management, passenger communications, cross-functional alerting, performance reporting, and predictive maintenance — while applying AI tools to accelerate development, improve quality, and enhance system reliability. The platform serves stakeholders across the traveler journey, including TSA, CBP/ICE, airport operators, eu-LISA, airlines, Frontex, ground handlers, and passengers themselves. This is a Hybrid position; the candidate will be in the office (Reston, VA) 3 days a week.
What You'll Do:
  • Design and build microservices supporting the platform's Sense ? Predict ? Orchestrate ? Measure model
  • Integrate real-time data feeds (ATC, manifests, border processing, detection/security, kiosks, e-Gates) and contribute to the AI Detection Algorithm Marketplace
  • Build and operate adapters/connectors that normalize diverse source schemas (e.g., FIXM/AIXM, AODB, airline feeds) to a canonical event model
  • Deliver features like dynamic staffing allocation, lane management, passenger routing, and predictive maintenance
  • Develop calibrated predictive models (queue/wait, connection-miss, baggage, crowding, disruption propagation) and integrate LLM/RAG components for explanation and recommendation — keeping generative AI off the numeric prediction path
  • Work in an Agile/SAFe team with systems engineering, DevSecOps, and QAImplement privacy-by-design and zero-trust controls (tokenization, policy-scoped access, data minimization, retention/expiry)
  • Write clean, tested code and use AI-assisted tools to speed development and improve quality
  • Support troubleshooting, performance tuning, and continuous improvement to reduce wait times and increase throughput
  • Implement modern automated testing strategies, including unit, integration, contract, end-to-end, and deterministic replay/backtesting
Minimum Qualifications:
  • BS/BA degree and 5 years related experience OR Master's with 2 years of related experience; 4 years of related experience in lieu of degree
  • Ability to obtain/maintain Public Trust; U.S. citizenship is required
  • Hands-on experience with microservices and at least one modern language (Java, Python, C++)Experience with AI-assisted engineering tools and/or AI/ML-enabled systemsExperience with event-driven / streaming architectures (e.g., Kafka, Pub/Sub) and stream or batch data processing
  • Experience building and consuming APIs (REST/gRPC, OpenAPI/AsyncAPI) in distributed systemsExperience enhancing and maintaining existing software systems while preserving operational stability
  • Ability to navigate large, complex distributed systems and translate them into higher-level architecture
  • Agile experience; understanding of APIs and distributed systems
Preferred Qualifications: 1 year software development experience supporting a related industry border/aviation customer (TSA, CBP/ICE, eu-LISA, Frontex, airport operators, airlines)SAFe, Kafka/event streaming, cloud (AWS/Azure/GCP), Docker/Kubernetes, CI/CD, and DevSecOps experience Stream processing (Apache Beam/Dataflow, Flink, or Spark) with windowing and out-of-order/late-data handling Machine learning for tabular/time-series data (gradient-boosted trees, quantile/survival models) and model calibration/evaluation (Brier, pinball loss, AUC-PR)MLOps: feature stores, model serving, model registry, and drift/skew monitoring (Vertex AI, Kubeflow, MLflow, or Feast)LLM/RAG application development: embeddings, vector search (e.g., pgvector/FAISS/Qdrant/Vertex Vector Search), and model-gateway design Infrastructure as Code (Terraform) and GCP-native services (GKE, Cloud Run, BigQuery, Firestore/Redis) Zero-trust networking and privacy engineering (VPC/VPC-SC, mTLS, IAM, tokenization, consent/retention); familiarity with NIST 800-53, CMMC, or FedRAMP/ATOObservability with Open Telemetry (Cloud Logging/Monitoring/Trace or Grafana/Prometheus) TypeScript/React for operator/traveler/executive experiences and real-time data visualization Aviation/transport data standards (FAA SWIM, FIXM/AIXM, METAR/TAF) and simulation/queueing concepts 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.

Before you apply

Applying takes about a minute. These four things decide how fast it moves after that.

Your profile is current

It's what we read first. Occupations, seniority and locations matter more than a long history.

Two examples you can talk through

Not a portfolio — just two pieces of work where you can explain the decisions and what you'd change.

A number in mind

What you're on now and what would make you move. We negotiate better when we know both.

Your notice period

Employers plan around it, and it's the question that stalls offers most often.

Once you apply, someone reads it and calls you before anything reaches the employer — usually within two working days.

More like this