Engineering Program Manager

Leidos; Egg Harbor Township (NJ); Hybrid; USD 131,000 - 237,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health and Wellness programs

Income Protection

Retirement

Job summary

Leidos is seeking an Engineering Program Manager to join the Air Traffic Business Area and lead a ~110-person ART in a hybrid on-site/remote model. You will manage People Managers, drive workforce planning, and own engineering talent strategy across the program.

The role emphasizes AI-first engineering practices, modernization, and securing a Public Trust clearance. Candidates should be US citizens and reside within commutable distance to listed locations.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree with 8+ years of engineering management experience, including 3+ years as a second-line manager.
• Experience building and scaling engineering organizations of 75+ personnel in a matrixed environment.
• Workforce planning, headcount forecasting, skill-gap analysis, and organizational design.
• Governance of talent acquisition and requisition processes.

Responsibilities

• Serve as second-line engineering manager for an ART of ~110 personnel, directly managing 4–6 People Managers.
• Own workforce planning, organizational design, and staffing decisions for the ART.
• Oversee performance management, calibration, and compensation planning at scale.
• Drive resource allocation, capacity management, and talent development across multiple teams.

Skills

Engineering management

Second-line manager

Workforce planning

Talent acquisition governance

Budget management

SAFe / Agile leadership

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Job description

Leidos is seeking an Engineering Program Manager (EPM) to join the Air Traffic Business Area within the Homeland Sector, supporting the development of the Leidos Common Automation Platform (L-CAP). L-CAP is a mission-critical, future-ready automation platform built on a hybrid cloud data mesh architecture, enabling next-generation air traffic management capabilities. As a second-line engineering manager, you will serve as the matrix leader for engineering management across an Agile Release Train of approximately 110 personnel — managing the People Managers who lead engineering teams, and owning workforce planning, organizational design, and engineering talent strategy for your ART. You report to the Chief Engineering Program Manager. We are building with an AI-first engineering mindset, embracing emerging AI capabilities and modern development practices to accelerate delivery, improve software quality, and continuously evolve how we design and build mission-critical systems. This position supports government programs and requires the ability to obtain andmaintaina favorable Public Trust investigation.

This role is part of a growing program, and hiring will depend on available funding. We review applications on a rolling basis, but the timeline for interviews and offers may vary. In some cases, we may extend contingent offers that become active once funding is confirmed.

This position is located in Gaithersburg, MD; Egg Harbor Township, NJ; or Eagan, MN. This is an opportunity to contribute to projects that impact millions of air travelers.

This is a hybrid position requiring 3 days onsite and 2 days remote work. Candidates should reside a commutable distance to one of the above locations.

What You’ll Do

• Serve as second-line engineering manager for an ART of ~110 personnel, directly managing 4–6 People Managers who lead engineering teams
• Own workforce planning and organizational design for the ART including team structure, headcount allocation, and skill mix optimization
• Drive engineering staffing decisions including hiring priorities, requisition development, and candidate selection governance
• Manage engineering talent pipeline ensuring the ARTmaintainsadequate bench strength, succession depth, and critical-skill coverage
• Oversee career development strategy for engineering managers, ensuring People Managers are equipped to grow andretaintheir teams
• Govern performance management across the ART — calibrate ratings, align recognition, and ensureequitableevaluation standards
• Make cross-team resource allocation and rotation decisions to balance workload, develop talent, and address skill gaps
• Partner with the RTE and ART Product Manager on capacity planning, ensuring staffing aligns with delivery priorities
• Own engineering headcount budget and labor forecasting for the ART, coordinating with program finance on variance and projections
• Drive retention strategy including compensation alignment, engagement initiatives, and attrition risk mitigation
• Manage organizational change including team restructuring, role transitions, and onboarding/offboarding of engineering personnel
• Align engineering workforce composition with modernization priorities ensuring critical skill sets are developed andretainedas legacyexpertisetransitions to cloud-native competencies
• Develop workforce transition plans supporting engineering personnel reskilling from legacy ATC systems to modern distributed service architectures
• Coordinate engineering resource strategy across ART boundaries ensuring program-wide workforce balance and avoiding single-point-of-failure dependencies
• Champion an AI-first engineering culture byidentifyingand applying AI-assisted development capabilities, automation, and emerging software engineering practices that improve developer productivity, code quality, testing, and delivery.

Core Technical Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree with 8+ years of engineering management experience including 3+ years as a second-line manager (managing managers)
• Demonstrated experience building, scaling, and retaining engineering organizations of 75+ personnel in a matrixed environment
• Workforce planningexpertiseincluding headcount forecasting, skill gap analysis, and organizational design
• Engineering talent acquisition governance including requisition strategy, interview processes, and hiring decisions
• Performance management at scale including calibration, promotion governance, and compensation planning
• Experience managing engineering managers and developing management capability within technical organizations
• Resource allocation and capacity management across multiple concurrent engineering teams
• Budget management including labor cost forecasting, variance analysis, and headcount planning
• Effective stakeholder management across program leadership, HR business partners, and talent acquisition
• Ability to obtain andmaintaina Public Trust clearance; US citizenshiprequired; subject to government background investigation
• Experience managing workforce transitions in software-intensive modernization programs including skill migration and team restructuring
• Understanding of engineering competency frameworks and career ladder design for software and systems engineering disciplines
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust
• U.S. citizenship required
• Successful completion of background investigations as required by the government customer

Preferred / Desired Qualifications

• Aviation, FAA, or defense sector engineering management experience
• SAFeor Agile organizational leadership experience (Lean Portfolio Management, Agile HR)
• Experience leading engineering organizations through technology transformation (legacy to cloud-native)
• Technical background in software or systems engineering providing credibility with engineering staff
• Talent development program design including mentoring frameworks, rotation programs, and technical leadership pipelines
• Matrix organization leadership with influence across functional and delivery boundaries
• Experience with engineering workforce analytics, retention modeling, and engagement measurement
• Familiarity with government contract staffing constraints including labor category alignment and clearance requirements

Why Leidos?

You’ll work on systems where performance, precision, and reliability matter — every second. This is not experimental AI for prototypes. This is disciplined, responsible AI applied to mission-critical software that supports national infrastructure.

If you’re excited by solving complex problems in regulated, real-world environments — and using AI as a force multiplier rather than a shortcut — we’d like to talk.

ATMC

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.

Pay Range

Pay Range $131,300.00 - $237,350.00

Pay and Benefits

• Competitive compensation
• Health and Wellness programs
• Income Protection
• Paid Leave
• Retirement

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.