Consulting Employee

Leidos; Lynnwood (WA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Leidos is seeking a Senior Optical Systems Engineer in the Undersea Systems Division to lead the architecture, development, and sustainment of mission-critical sensor recording systems across multiple projects. The role focuses on optical laser communication concepts for air–water interfaces, requires secret clearance, and involves shaping software/firmware requirements and CI integration.

The candidate will guide the recording system architecture, review code quality, and work with embedded

Qualifications

• U.S. Citizen with ability to obtain SECRET security clearance.
• Experience with the Leidos Pulse Propagation Model (PPM) design, legacy MATLAB codebase, and operation
• Extensive experience with optical (blue-green) transmitters and receivers, experience developing integrated transceiver payloads, and experience integrating and testing such payloads with host platforms
• Ability to read, understand, and interpret complex technical documents.
• Ability to communicate complex ideas orally and visually.

Responsibilities

• Direct the architecture, development, and sustainment of mission-critical sensor recording systems across up to several concurrent projects
• Collaborate with team to identify embedded firmware and software requirements and evaluate candidate design approaches for solving wide-ranging technical problems
• Review the current state of the recording system codebase, including any changes made since my departure, to assess what needs attention and prioritize next steps
• Identify and resolve any existing code quality issues to establish a stable baseline for ongoing development
• Begin setting up the recording system build in a CI pipeline to enable automated builds and reduce manual integration risk
• Begin active development on the recording system, picking up priority tasks based on current project needs
• Provide technical guidance to the development team on the recording system architecture and best practices

Skills

PPM design

MATLAB

Optical transmitters/receivers

System architecture guidance

Code review

Communication of complex ideas

Tools

MATLAB

Job description

Description

The Undersea Systems Division at Leidos currently has an opening for a Senior Optical Systems Engineer. Candidate will immediately contribute to a funded Government-Industry-Lab team to establish the feasibility of an optical laser communication system in a specific configuration for communication through the air-water-interface employing underwater and airborne hosts.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Direct the architecture, development, and sustainment of mission-critical sensor recording systems across up to several concurrent projects
• Collaborate with team to identify embedded firmware and software requirements and evaluate candidate design approaches for solving wide-ranging technical problems.
• Review the current state of the recording system codebase, including any changes made since my departure, to assess what needs attention and prioritize next steps.
• Identify and resolve any existing code quality issues to establish a stable baseline for ongoing development.
• Begin setting up the recording system build in a CI pipeline to enable automated builds and reduce manual integration risk.
• Begin active development on the recording system, picking up priority tasks based on current project needs.
• Provide technical guidance to the development team on the recording system architecture and best practices.

Basic Qualifications

• U.S. Citizen with ability to obtain SECRET security clearance.
• Experience with the Leidos Pulse Propagation Model (PPM) design, legacy MATLAB codebase, and operation
• Extensive experience with optical (blue-green) transmitters and receivers, experience developing integrated transceiver payloads, and experience integrating and testing such payloads with host platforms
• Ability to read, understand, and interpret complex technical documents.
• Ability to communicate complex ideas orally and visually.

Preferred Qualifications

• 40+ years of experience in development and application of technologies, design, development, integration, test, and production of systems.
• Ideally the experience will reflect a career with increasing levels of technology and system complexity, and increasing leadership responsibility and accountability.

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:

August 17, 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 -

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline onlyand 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.

About Leidos

Leidos is an industry and technology leader serving government and commercial customers with smarter, more efficient digital and mission innovations. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with 47,000 global employees, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $16.7 billion for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2025. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com.

Pay and Benefits

Pay and benefits are fundamental to any career decision. That's why we craft compensation packages that reflect the importance of the work we do for our customers. Employment benefits include competitive compensation, Health and Wellness programs, Income Protection, Paid Leave and Retirement. More details are available at www.leidos.com/careers/pay-benefits.

Securing Your Data

Beware of fake employment opportunities using Leidos' name. Leidos will never ask you to provide payment-related information during any part of the employment application process (i.e., ask you for money), nor will Leidos ever advance money as part of the hiring process (i.e., send you a check or money order before doing any work). Further, Leidos will only communicate with you through emails that are generated by the Leidos.com automated system - never from free commercial services (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail) or via WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. If you received an email purporting to be from Leidos that asks for payment-related information or any other personal information (e.g., about you or your previous employer), and you are concerned about its legitimacy, please make us aware immediately by emailing us at [e-mail].

If you believe you are the victim of a scam, contact your local law enforcement and report the incident to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Commitment to Non-Discrimination

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, ethnicity, age, national origin, citizenship, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, pregnancy, family structure, marital status, ancestry, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Leidos will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with relevant laws.

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