Software Engineer Intern

Join Leidos' mission-focused engineering team and build real software that powers data analytics, computer vision, and AI capabilities for national security customers. At Leidos, we don't just offer internships - we offer career acceleration. You'll ship code, learn from experienced engineers and researchers, and see your work used in production.

Leidos is seeking a curious and enthusiastic Software Engineer Intern to join our dynamic team in Arlington, VA. This is your opportunity to collaborate with industry leaders in Artificial Intelligence (AI), data analytics, and machine learning while contributing to mission-critical applications. Through hands-on training, teamwork, and exposure to challenging technical work, you'll gain the skills and experience to accelerate your career.

You'll thrive in this role if you are

• Curious and adaptive-comfortable learning new domains and asking good questions
• Organized and self-directed, while still highly collaborative
• Confident communicating your needs and working as an active team member

Primary Responsibilities

• Build and enhance software prototypes, APIs, and microservices that support data analytics, machine learning, and user-facing applications.
• Contribute across the stack: user interfaces and back-end services.
• Write clean, maintainable code with tests; troubleshoot and fix issues.
• Participate in design sessions, code reviews, and agile ceremonies.
• Research and evaluate new technologies; present findings and recommendations.
• Collaborate with software/system engineers and research/data scientists in areas like multi-modal information retrieval, UI engineering, metrics, computer vision, and autonomous systems.

Basic Qualifications

• Currently enrolled in a Bachelor's or Master's program in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Mathematics, Data Science, or a closely related field.
• Experience in at least one of: Python, Java, or C++.
• Must be U.S. Citizen eligible to obtain and maintain a DoD Secret security clearance. Leidos will guide you through the clearance process.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on experience building prototypes or applications (class, club, hackathon, research, or personal projects).
• Exposure to data engineering or analytics: data cleansing, transformation, feature engineering, or exploratory analysis.
• Familiarity with one or more of the following:
  • Tools: Git/GitHub, VS Code or similar IDEs, Jupyter Notebooks.
  • Backend: REST APIs, microservices, SQL (PostgreSQL/MySQL), containerization (Docker), basic Linux.
  • Frontend: JavaScript/TypeScript, React or similar.
  • Data/ML: NumPy/Pandas, scikit-learn; plus for PyTorch or TensorFlow.
  • Cloud and CI/CD: AWS/Azure basics, build pipelines.
• Interest in secure software development practices.
• Familiarity with Rust
• Ability to obtain /maintain DoD Top Secret security clearance with polygraph.

Work location and schedule

• Arlington, VA. Hybrid: 4 days on-site, 1 day remote per week.
• 8-10 week internship, target start May/June 2026.

Why Leidos

• Learn from a diverse team of engineers, data scientists and other professionals building mission-critical systems.
• Mentorship, tech talks, and intern cohort events to accelerate your growth.
• Real impact: contribute to R&D and production systems supporting customers.

How to stand out

• Share a link to your GitHub/portfolio and briefly describe a project you're proud of (what you built, technologies used, and your role).
• If team-based, clarify your individual contributions.

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:
February 26, 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 $48,100.00 - $86,950.00

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.