Mission Operations Engineer Intern

The Leidos Space Division, whose primary products are IR Payloads that are hosted on satellites in earth orbit, is in need of a Mission Operations Engineer - Intern to join our San Diego-based team in the summer of 2026. This unique opportunity will allow you to participate in a space program, supporting flight operations and software designed for use during operational missions. Selected applicants will find challenging work that prepares them for their careers in the space domain.  This internship will broaden the intern’s knowledge with industry standard tools and real-time operating systems, and provide a mechanism to understand system design, integration, and test.

Primary Responsibilities:

The Mission Operations Engineer - Intern will work in a small team environment, developing tools to help automate payload operations including checkout of telemetry / data.  Further, this intern will build and test operational scripts for controlling the on-orbit payload during operational missions.

Additional Responsibilities:

• Support design, regression, and verification testing of ground system application software.

• Provide / author technical documentation, participate in design, code, and software peer reviews.

Basic Qualifications

• Pursuing a degree in the field of Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or Physics that is currently enrolled in an accredited college or university.

• Familiarity with space systems including fundamentals of orbital mechanics.

• Minimum two years of experience programming in C++, Java, Matlab, and/or Python.

• Familiarity with software version control tools (i.e., Git, GitLab, etc.) is a plus.

• Able to debug software and troubleshoot software related issues.

• Must be US Citizen.

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:

March 31, 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.