CACI International

Chief Engineer/Principal Software Engineer

CACI International$114K — $252K *
Aerospace & Defense
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Active TS/SCI Security Clearance;
  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field with 10+ years in software engineering;
  • Experience as Chief Engineer or senior leader managing large teams (35+) in classified environments;
  • Proficient in large-scale AWS deployments, data engineering, and distributed systems;
  • Lead Agile initiatives across multi-site teams with a focus on code quality and testing;
  • Excellent communication and ability to manage multiple projects under tight deadlines.

Responsibilities

  • Own implementation plans and delivery schedules translating high-level designs into actionable development sprints;
  • Lead, mentor, and develop engineers throughout the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC);
  • Establish engineering standards including coding practices and CI/CD pipelines for consistent software delivery;
  • Oversee development and maintenance of APIs to ensure high availability and security;
  • Drive Continuous Delivery and manage technical debt while balancing feature delivery;
  • Engage with stakeholders as the primary technical interface to align execution with mission goals;
  • Identify and mitigate technical risks while promoting best engineering practices.

Benefits

  • Comprehensive healthcare options;
  • Wellness and financial support programs;
  • Retirement plans and family support benefits;
  • Continuing education opportunities;
  • Flexible work arrangements to promote work-life balance.
Full Job Description
Job Title: Chief Engineer/Principal Software Engineer

Job Category: Engineering

Time Type: Full time

Minimum Clearance Required to Start: TS/SCI

Employee Type: Regular

Percentage of Travel Required: Up to 25%

Type of Travel: Continental US

Anticipated Posting End: 10/30/2026

The Opportunity:

We are seeking a talented and motivated Chief Engineer to lead the "how" and "when" of technical execution for a large-scale government program. Partnering closely with our Chief Architect - who defines the long-term technical vision and system design - you will focus on delivery management, operational rigor, engineering standards, and team enablement. Leading a distributed team of 45+ engineers, you will provide end-to-end technical execution oversight for a modern data lake system supporting national critical operations.

In this role, you will translate architectural blueprints and complex requirements into scalable, disciplined, and predictable delivery—cultivating strong customer relationships to deeply understand mission needs and successfully realize them through execution.

Tech Ecosystem & Domain Scope

  • Modern Data Lake Platform: Drive the execution and delivery of a high-throughput, scalable data lake solution utilizing a modern technology stack hosted on AWS.
  • Massive Scale & Integration: Oversee the operational execution for a large volume of diverse data inputs, a broad user base, and an even larger downstream consumer community.
  • External Interfaces: Oversee the development, integration, and ongoing maintenance of various APIs supporting external data users and producers.

Responsibilities:

  • Execution & Delivery Strategy: Own the implementation plans, technical roadmaps and delivery schedules, translating the Chief Architect's high-level designs into actionable, high-quality development sprints and releases.
  • Technical Leadership & Mentorship: Lead, mentor, and upskill a team of engineers across the full Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) within classified government environments.
  • Engineering Standards & Processes: Establish robust coding standards, code review practices, CI/CD pipelines, and DevOps workflows to ensure consistent, repeatable software delivery across all squads.
  • API & Integration Oversight: Ensure high availability, performance, and security for critical data ingestion pipelines and external producer/consumer APIs through rigorous engineering management.
  • Quality & Technical Debt Management: Drive Continuous Delivery, automated testing, infrastructure-as-code, and container orchestration while balancing feature delivery with technical debt reduction.
  • Stakeholder Engagement: Serve as a primary technical interface to leadership, government customers, and subcontractor teams, leading Technical Exchange Meetings (TEMs) and aligning execution with mission goals.
  • Risk & Resource Management: Proactively identify and mitigate technical, operational, and cross-team dependency risks while championing engineering best practices.

Qualifications:

Required:

  • Clearance: Active TS/SCI Security Clearance.
  • Education & Experience: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related technical field, with 10+ years of professional software engineering experience.
  • Leadership Track Record: Proven experience as a Chief Engineer or senior technical delivery leader guiding large-scale teams (35+ personnel) through full SDLC in classified environments (Note: architectural vision is covered by our Chief Architect, so this role centers on execution, delivery, and team enablement).
  • Technical Execution & Operations: Extensive experience managing large-scale system deployments on cloud platforms (AWS), data engineering, distributed system principles, and Kubernetes-based deployments.
  • Methodologies: Proven experience leading Agile initiatives, distributed engineering teams, code quality assessments, and testing validation across multi-site workforces.
  • Additional Skills: Strong cross-functional communication, interpersonal collaboration, and the ability to manage multiple technical delivery tasks under tight deadlines.

Desired:

  • Clearance: Active TS/SCI with adjudicated Polygraph.
  • Business Acumen: Ability to align engineering execution with programmatic and organizational goals.
  • Advanced Tech: Hands-on experience with modern data stack tooling, containerization (Docker), DevOps pipelines, and serverless computing.
  • Domain Expertise: Direct experience in intelligence community data systems, SIGINT/GEOINT mission processing, satellite tasking, or large-scale data lake implementations.
  • Mission Experience: Direct experience in one or more mission areas:
    • GEOINT mission planning and processing
    • Satellite command and control systems
    • Advanced mission and payload planning for satellite operations

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Pay Range:

There are a host of factors that can influence final salary including, but not limited to, geographic location, Federal Government contract labor categories and contract wage rates, relevant prior work experience, specific skills and competencies, education, and certifications. Our employees value the flexibility at CACI that allows them to balance quality work and their personal lives. We offer competitive compensation, benefits and learning and development opportunities. Our broad and competitive mix of benefits options is designed to support and protect employees and their families. At CACI, you will receive comprehensive benefits such as; healthcare, wellness, financial, retirement, family support, continuing education, and time off benefits.

Since this position can be worked in more than one location, the range shown is the national average for the position.

The proposed salary range for this position is:

$114,600-$252,100

About CACI International

CACI International Inc is a multinational professional services and information technology company. It provides services to many branches of the federal government including defense, homeland security, intelligence, and healthcare. CACI has approximately 23,000 employees worldwide. The company's mission is to provide enterprise and mission technology services and solutions that best fit the needs of its customers. CACI has been named a Fortune World's Most Admired Company, a Washington Post Top Workplace, and a Forbes Best Employer for Diversity.
Learn more about CACI International
Size
22,000 employees
Market Cap
$7.1 billion
Industry
Net Income
$374.4 million
Founded
1962
5 Year Trend
+7.3%
Revenue
$5.8 billion
NASDAQ

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