Software Engineer Jobs in Washington, D.C., USA

Looking for a software engineer job in Washington, D.C.? Choose from 52 open roles at 13 employers. Explore real salary data and skills breakdown across remote, hybrid and on-site roles.

52 Open roles
13 Companies hiring
โ€” Average salary

What do Software engineers in Washington, D.C. work on?

The titles and summaries on this page reflect two broad clusters of work. One cluster, concentrated in defence and autonomy, involves building and deploying machine learning models for unmanned aircraft, satellites, and missile-defence systems. Roles at Shield AI's staff perception level and the senior perception level centre on computer vision pipelines, model optimisation for embedded hardware, and production deployment. The autonomy behaviours role focuses on tactical algorithms and real-time operating systems, while the autonomy factory pipeline role involves automated testing frameworks, log analysis, and distributed infrastructure with Kubernetes or Terraform. A second cluster, indicated by titles referencing federal classified environments, observability, and full-stack development, points to cloud-platform and government-facing product work. Both clusters expect engineers to own work end-to-end, from design through deployment.

Skills and experience employers ask for

Skill counts reflect how often a term appears in posting descriptions across the full set of postings on this page, not a formal requirement tally. Python and AWS appear in more than half, with APIs, C++, Docker, and React each appearing in roughly a third. Cloud platforms from more than one vendor are mentioned across the sample, suggesting many roles expect familiarity with multi-cloud or hybrid environments rather than a single platform.

Python 52%
AWS 42%
APIs 38%
C\+\+ 33%
React 29%
Java 29%
Kubernetes 27%
Docker 27%
Azure 27%
CI/CD 27%
Evaluation 23%
GCP 21%
TypeScript 21%
Agents 17%

Software Engineer roles that state a salary

The employers' own advertised ranges, for individual roles at different levels โ€” not an average and not a market rate.

Washington, D.C. office, hybrid or remote?

Most postings on this page are listed as onsite, making fully remote or hybrid arrangements a minority. A small number are stated as hybrid, and fewer still are listed as fully remote. None have unknown work-mode information. Given the concentration of federal and defence-adjacent employers, onsite requirements may reflect security-clearance or facility-access constraints, though individual postings should be checked for specifics, as the reasons are not uniformly stated.

Make your application specific to the work

  1. Check clearance requirements first Several postings reference federal classified environments; confirm whether an active clearance is required before applying, as this affects eligibility and timeline.
  2. Match your stack to the role The two clusters here differ substantially โ€” autonomy roles lean on C++ and ML frameworks such as PyTorch and TensorRT, while platform roles tend towards Python, cloud services, and frontend frameworks; tailor your application materials accordingly.
  3. Confirm the work-mode arrangement Most roles are listed as onsite; verify the specific office location and any hybrid flexibility directly in the posting or with the recruiter before committing to the process.
  4. Note experience-level expectations Staff and senior staff roles in the sample summaries specify minimum years of experience that vary with degree level; read those thresholds carefully so you apply at the right band.

Questions about Software Engineer jobs in Washington, D.C.

Only one posting on this page advertises a pay range: OpenAI's Full Stack Software Engineer, Gov role lists 207,000โ€“385,000 USD. The remaining postings do not state compensation, so no broader comparison is possible from this data alone.

Some titles explicitly reference federal classified environments, which typically implies clearance requirements, but the fact pack does not state clearance levels for each posting. You should check the individual job descriptions for this detail.

A small minority of postings on this page are listed as remote, with a slightly larger minority listed as hybrid. The majority are onsite. If remote or hybrid working is important to you, filter specifically for those postings.

A sizeable portion of postings do not state a seniority level explicitly. Among those that do, lead and senior designations are most common, with a smaller number at junior level or intern. Manager-level postings are rare in this sample.

Python and AWS are the most frequently mentioned skills in posting descriptions on this page, followed by APIs, C++, Docker, React, Java, and Kubernetes. Appearances in descriptions indicate the topics employers discuss, not necessarily mandatory requirements for every role.

Jobs checked 2 hours ago. ยท Guide reviewed 9 September 2026.