Principal Software Engineer

Title:

Principal Software Engineer

At KBR, we deliver science, technology and engineering solutions to governments and companies around the world. KBR employs approximately 37,000 people worldwide with customers in more than 85 countries and operations in over 28 countries. KBR is proud to work with its customers across the globe to provide technology, value-added services, and long-term operations and maintenance services to ensure consistent delivery with predictable results.

Trinzic is the future independent company to be created through the planned spin-off of KBR's Mission Technology Solutions business, expected in January 2027. Our people work at the frontier of what is possible, delivering solutions in challenging environments and advancing some of the world's highest-priority national security and space missions. 

Backed by decades of mission success, deep expertise, and trusted partnerships, Trinzic will launch as a global organization with more than 18,000 employees supporting customers around the world. Join us at a defining moment and help shape the future of a company built to tackle complex challenges and make a meaningful impact. 

Candidates who join KBR's Mission Technology Solutions business before the spin-off will transition to Trinzic when the separation is complete and will not need to reapply for employment. 

Job Summary:

KBR is seeking an experienced Principal Software Engineer to support the MSEIT contract at Space Systems Command (SSC).

This role combines hands-on software development, technical leadership, and architecture support across multiple mission-focused software teams supporting U.S. Space Force capabilities.

Unlike engineers dedicated to a single application or team, this position operates across multiple development efforts, helping solve complex technical challenges, accelerate delivery, improve architectural consistency, and support integration across mission systems.

The successful candidate will be equally comfortable writing production code, reviewing architectural decisions, mentoring development teams, and collaborating with systems engineers, product owners, and mission stakeholders. This role serves as a technical force multiplier across the program and helps ensure consistency in engineering practices, architectural approaches, and software quality.

The program is built around modern software engineering practices, event-driven architectures, cloud-native technologies, DevSecOps, and CI/CD-oriented delivery approaches.

Responsibilities will include:

• Full Stack Development: Design, develop, test, and maintain mission-critical software applications across front-end, back-end, and service layers.
• Technical Leadership: Provide hands-on technical leadership and engineering guidance across multiple software teams.
• Architecture Development: Help define and evolve application, integration, data, and event-driven architectures supporting enterprise mission objectives.
• Event-Driven Systems Design: Design and implement scalable event-driven architectures supporting distributed mission systems.
• Enterprise Integration: Develop and guide integration patterns supporting interoperability across mission applications and operational environments.
• Front-End Development: Develop modern user interfaces using Angular and related technologies.
• Back-End Development: Design and implement scalable services, APIs, and distributed application components.
• Cross-Team Problem Solving: Assist teams in resolving complex software, performance, scalability, integration, and architectural challenges.
• DevSecOps Collaboration: Partner with platform engineering and DevSecOps teams to improve software delivery pipelines, automation, observability, and deployment practices.
• Engineering Excellence: Promote best practices in software design, code quality, testing, maintainability, resiliency, and security.
• Technical Mentorship: Mentor engineers through design reviews, architecture discussions, code reviews, and collaborative development.
• Mission Collaboration: Work closely with systems engineers, product owners, users, and operational stakeholders to translate mission needs into technical solutions.

Required experience:

• Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Secret clearance
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, computer engineering, or related technical field
• 10+ years of professional software development experience
• Extensive experience designing and developing distributed software systems
• Strong full stack development experience across modern web and enterprise application architectures
• Expert-level experience with Angular or similar modern front-end frameworks
• Strong experience designing and implementing scalable backend services and APIs
• Extensive experience with Kafka and event-driven architecture patterns
• Strong understanding of asynchronous messaging, event streaming, and distributed systems design
• Experience designing and implementing enterprise integration patterns
• Experience working within Agile software development environments
• Strong understanding of DevSecOps practices and CI/CD delivery pipelines
• Demonstrated ability to influence technical direction across multiple teams and projects
• Strong communication, leadership, and technical mentoring skills
• Proficient in Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, Powerpoint)

Preferred experience:

• Active Secret or higher clearance
• Master's degree in computer science, software engineering, computer engineering, or related technical field
• Experience supporting Space Systems Command (SSC), Space Operations Command (SpOC/CFC), or related DoD programs
• Experience supporting SATCOM, mission systems, operational C2 systems, or space-related applications
• Experience with microservices architectures and service-oriented design
• Experience with Kubernetes-based deployment environments
• Experience developing applications within cloud-native environments
• Familiarity with API gateways, service meshes, and modern integration frameworks
• Experience participating in architecture review boards and technical governance activities
• Familiarity with AI-enabled mission systems or data-driven operational platforms
• Experience working across independently contracted software development teams
• Experience with Kafka Streams, Apache Flink, RabbitMQ, NATS, or similar event-processing technologies
• Experience implementing observability platforms using OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, or similar technologies
• Experience with software supply-chain security, SBOM generation, and DevSecOps security tooling
• Experience working within software factory or platform engineering environments
• Experience supporting large-scale modernization or enterprise transformation efforts
• Certifications such as INCOSE CSEP/ESEP

Work Environment:

Location: El Segundo, CA (Work-from-home flexibility with on-site support as required)

Travel Requirements: Minimal

Working Hours: Standard, 40 hours per week (Full-time)

Compensation:

• For California only, the salary range for this position is approximately $150,000 to $190,000. The offered rate will be based on the selected candidate’s knowledge, skills, abilities and/or experience and in consideration of internal parity.

Other Compensation:

KBR may offer bonuses, commissions, or other forms of compensation to certain job titles or levels, per internal policy or contractual designation. Additional compensation may be in the form of sign on bonus, relocation benefits, short term incentives, long term incentives, or discretionary payments for exceptional performance.

KBR Benefits

KBR offers a selection of competitive lifestyle benefits which could include 401K plan with company match, medical, dental, vision, life insurance, AD&D, flexible spending account, disability, paid time off, or flexible work schedule. We support career advancement through professional training and development.

Ready to Make a Difference?

If you’re excited about making a significant impact in the field of space defense and working on projects that matter, we encourage you to apply and join our team at KBR. Let's shape the future together.

Due to the Workday blackout period and tenant migration activities, an exception to the standard posting period is requested. This requisition replaces prior requisition R2128792 and is being created solely to support the Workday transition process and maintain continuity of hiring activities.

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.

About Us

Trinzic is the future independent company to be created through the planned spin-off of KBR's Mission Technology Solutions business, expected in January 2027. Our people work at the frontier of what is possible, delivering solutions in challenging environments and advancing some of the world's highest-priority national security and space missions.

Backed by decades of mission success, deep expertise, and trusted partnerships, Trinzic will launch as a global organization with more than 18,000 employees supporting customers around the world. Join us at a defining moment and help shape the future of a company built to tackle complex challenges and make a meaningful impact

Fraud Alert

As Trinzic prepares to launch as an independent company through the planned spin-off of KBR's Mission Technology Solutions business, job seekers may encounter fraudulent recruiting activity that improperly uses the names, logos, or branding of either Trinzic or KBR.
Bad actors may mix in fake job advertisements with legitimate postings. These ads can include contact instructions and require job seekers to send sensitive personal information or money to pay for visa applications, processing fees, etc., in exchange for consideration for a high-paying position. 
 
Neither Trinzic nor KBR will ever ask for any sort of advance payment as part of the recruiting or hiring process. Candidate profiles are carefully managed to protect personal information.  If you experience fraud in a job offer, we encourage you to contact the KBR ethics hotline (fhoukbrcode@kbr.com) and report it to the Federal Trade Commission by clicking here.