Principal Software Engineer

General Dynamics Information Technology

Principal Software Engineer leading backend and full-stack engineering practices. Designing scalable distributed systems for government customers with a focus on technical excellence and mentorship.

Posted 6/29/2026full-timeRemote • 🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $142,792 - $189,750 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

Distributed Systems

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Define and drive the strategic direction for backend and full-stack engineering practices, architecture, and technical excellence across the organization
Lead the development of scalable, reliable, and secure distributed systems that serve government customers
Serve as the technical authority and thought leader for system architecture, data design, and engineering excellence
Design and implement modern service architectures, data pipelines, and infrastructure patterns that enable team velocity and system reliability
Deliver new features and improvements to our core services including major read/write paths for customer intake, application screening, and information dissemination
Collaborate with product managers and stakeholders to balance technical feasibility with business requirements, making pragmatic trade-offs that deliver measurable impact
Build and maintain shared libraries, service frameworks, and infrastructure patterns that enable consistency and reduce cognitive load
Identify opportunities to modernize our backend systems and take ownership of large-scale technical initiatives that improve system quality, performance, and maintainability
Establish and champion engineering best practices including API design, data modeling, testing strategies, observability patterns, security standards, and code quality
Mentor and coach engineers at all levels on backend technologies, distributed systems, and establish career development pathways for backend specialization
Influence technical decisions across teams and serve as a strategic advisor on architecture and infrastructure initiatives
Work across the full stack when needed to solve problems end-to-end – frontend and infrastructure experience is valuable but backend systems are your primary focus

Requirements

What you’ll need

5 + years of related experience
Problem Solving
Software Solutions
Solutions Development
Must be a US Citizen and able to obtain and maintain Public Trust 6C

Benefits

Comp & perks

Our benefits package for all US-based employees includes a variety of medical plan options, some with Health Savings Accounts
dental plan options
a vision plan
a 401(k) plan offering the ability to contribute both pre and post-tax dollars up to the IRS annual limits and receive a company match
To encourage work/life balance, GDIT offers employees full flex work weeks where possible and a variety of paid time off plans, including vacation, sick and personal time, holidays, paid parental, military, bereavement and jury duty leave.
GDIT typically provides new employees with 15 days of paid leave per calendar year to be used for vacations, personal business, and illness and an additional 10 paid holidays per year.
Paid leave and paid holidays are prorated based on the employee’s date of hire.
The GDIT Paid Family Leave program provides a total of up to 160 hours of paid leave in a rolling 12 month period for eligible employees.
To ensure our employees are able to protect their income, other offerings such as short and long-term disability benefits, life, accidental death and dismemberment, personal accident, critical illness and business travel and accident insurance are provided or available.
We regularly review our Total Rewards package to ensure our offerings are competitive and reflect what our employees have told us they value most.

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

Software SolutionsSolutions DevelopmentSystem ArchitectureData DesignService ArchitectureInfrastructure PatternsTesting StrategiesObservability PatternsCode QualityModern Service Architectures

Soft Skills

Problem SolvingCollaborationMentoringCommunicationStrategic Thinking

Certifications

Public Trust 6C