Lead Systems Engineer

Leidos LLC; Gaithersburg (MD); On-site; USD 87,000 - 157,000; Full time

Job summary

Leidos is seeking an Infrastructure Implementation Engineer to join the Air Traffic Business Area, supporting design, implementation, and lifecycle management of lab and data center infrastructure.

You own low-level design, including rack elevations, wiring lists, port assignments, cable schedules, power budgets, and as-built documentation, and you drive compliance and verification across installations with hardware technicians on site.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, information technology, computer science, or a related field and at least 4 years of relevant experience (or a master's with at least 2 years).
• Demonstrated experience producing detailed infrastructure documentation.
• Practical understanding of data center or lab infrastructure: structured cabling, power distribution, rack systems, and network hardware.
• Experience with commissioning, validating, or accepting infrastructure installations.
• Familiarity with networking fundamentals to make port/ connectivity decisions (switching, VLANs, patching).
• Proficiency with Visio, CAD, or equivalent diagramming tools for rack layouts, floor plans, and wiring diagrams.
• Clear and effective verbal and written communication.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a favorable Public Trust investigation.
• US Citizenship required.

Responsibilities

• Develop low-level infrastructure designs from approved architectural concepts, including rack elevation drawings, wiring lists, port/patch-panel assignments, cable schedules, and bills of materials.
• Produce installation work packages (methods of procedure, sequencing, prerequisites, acceptance criteria) to enable technicians to execute independently and satisfy deliverable requirements.
• Commission new installations and own punch-list resolution.
• Confirm implemented state matches design intent and coordinate with system administrators on readiness verification.
• Maintain authoritative as-built documentation and configuration baselines.
• Provide technical work direction to hardware technicians on site.
• Assign tasks from active work packages and monitor progress across multiple projects.
• Serve as the engineering escalation point for physical/integration troubleshooting and lead design reviews.
• Interface with procurement and engineering on hardware delivery and RMA.
• Develop and improve engineering standards, templates, labeling schemes, and repeatable deployment processes.
• Support compliance by ensuring physical installations conform to security standards, network segmentation, and labeling standards.

Skills

Infrastructure design

Documentation

Networking fundamentals

Rack elevations & CAD/Visio

Project coordination

Verbal & written communication

Public Trust eligibility

US Citizenship

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering/IT/CS

Master's degree

Tools

Visio

CAD

NetBox

Job description

Leidos is seeking an Infrastructure Implementation Engineer to join the Air Traffic Business Area within the Homeland Sector, supporting the design, implementation, and lifecycle management of lab and data center infrastructure. This work is at the forefront of FAA modernization programs that depend on well-engineered software development and test environments to build and validate next-generation air traffic and flight service systems before operational deployment. You own the low‑level design layer: rack elevations, wiring lists, port assignments, cable schedules, power budgets, methods of procedure, and as‑built documentation. You own the full documentation lifecycle for your labs. You run design reviews, commission installations, maintain configuration baselines, and provide technical direction to hardware technicians. This is a hands‑on engineering role. You work closely with the Architect as a technical authority on the lab floor, the technicians ask when reality doesn't match the drawing, and the person responsible for keeping the physical infrastructure documentation accurate, current, and traceable.

Primary Responsibilities

• Develop low‑level infrastructure designs from approved architectural concepts, including rack elevation drawings, wiring lists, port/patch‑panel assignments, cable schedules, and bills of material.
• Produce installation work packages (methods of procedure, sequencing, prerequisites, acceptance criteria) that enable technicians to execute independently and that satisfy corporate and customer deliverable and auditable requirements.
• Commission new installations and own punch‑list resolution.
• You confirm implemented state matches design intent, coordinate with system administrators on readiness verification, and drive discrepancies to closure.
• Maintain authoritative as‑built documentation and configuration baselines.
• Provide technical work direction to hardware technicians when onsite.
• You assign tasks from active work packages, keep awareness of progress, resolve field questions against design intent, and redirect effort when priorities shift.
• Serve as the engineering escalation point for physical/integration troubleshooting: Layer1 failures, patching discrepancies, optic faults, power‑feed issues, and documentation mismatches.
• Lead design reviews for your environments.
• Interface with procurement and engineering departments on hardware delivery and RMA.
• Develop and improve engineering standards, templates, labeling schemes, and repeatable deployment processes.
• Support compliance implementation by ensuring physical installations conform to applicable security standards, network segmentation requirements, cable‑path separation, and labeling standards.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, information technology, computer science, or a related field and at least4years of relevant experience, or a master's degree with at least2years of experience.
• Demonstrated experience producing detailed infrastructure documentation.
• Practical understanding of data center or lab infrastructure: structured cabling, power distribution, rack systems, and network hardware.
• Experience with commissioning, validating, or accepting infrastructure installations.
• Familiarity with networking fundamentals sufficient to make port‑assignment and connectivity decisions (switching, VLANs, patching, fiber/copper media selection).
• Proficiency with Visio, CAD, or equivalent diagramming tools for rack layouts, floor plans, and wiring diagrams.
• Comfortable working across multiple concurrent projects with shifting priorities and compressed timelines.
• Willingness to learn complex, non‑standard environments that take time to understand.
• Clear and effective verbal and written communication.
• Able to translate complex architectural intent into unambiguous, executable work products.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a favorable Public Trust investigation.
• US Citizenship.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with AI‑assisted engineering workflows and tool‑building (e.g., Claude Code, Copilot, custom automation leveraging large language models for documentation generation, validation, or data extraction).
• Net+, CCNA, or equivalent network implementation experience.
• Experience with infrastructure source‑of‑truth platforms (NetBox or similar).
• Experience with scripting or automation applied to infrastructure documentation, validation, or data extraction.
• Familiarity with configuration management and change‑control processes in regulated or quality‑managed environments (ISO9001 or equivalent).
• Experience in technical leadership capacity.
• Familiarity with data center infrastructure design standards (TIA‑942 or similar).
• Prior experience in FAA, civil aviation, or government lab environments.

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. Step10is ancient history. We're already at step30— and moving faster than anyone else dares.

Original Posting: August24, 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 least3days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than3days after the original posting date as listed above. Pay Range: Pay Range$87,100.00-$157,450.00. 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.

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, with47,000global employees, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately$17.2billion for the fiscal year ended January2,2026. 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 here.

Securing Your Data Leidos will never ask you to provide payment-related information at any part of the employment application process. And Leidos will communicate with you only through emails that are sent from a Leidos.com email address. If you receive an email purporting to be from Leidos that asks for payment-related information or any other personal information, please report the email to [e-mail].

Commitment and Diversity 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.