Lead Test & Validation Engineer (AI/ML & Cloud)

Leidos; Reston (VA); On-site; USD 92,000 - 167,000; Full time

Job summary

Leidos Health & Civil Sector seeks a Test & Validation Engineer Lead to support NIH/NCI initiatives. You will lead multidisciplinary testing teams, develop validation strategies, and advance quality across enterprise apps, cloud platforms, and AI/ML systems in a Federal environment.

The role requires 8+ years of experience, strong QMS, Agile/DevSecOps, and ability to obtain necessary clearances. You will collaborate with Government stakeholders and mentoring quality engineers while shaping the

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related field (Master's preferred).
• 8+ years of progressively responsible experience relevant to the position.
• Demonstrated experience supporting NIH, HHS, CMS, or other Federal civilian agencies.
• Experience supporting large Federal IT modernization or systems integration programs.
• Experience implementing automated testing frameworks and integrating quality engineering into Agile and DevSecOps environments.
• Experience working in Agile development environments and with DevSecOps practices.
• Strong understanding of software quality assurance methodologies, requirements traceability, risk-based testing, and defect lifecycle management.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to obtain and maintain required Federal suitability or security requirements.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust / ADPII Clearance.

Responsibilities

• Lead verification, validation, and quality engineering activities across enterprise apps, cloud, AI/ML, and biomedical systems.
• Develop and maintain the program's TEMP, Validation Strategy, Quality Management Plan, and automated testing framework.
• Define test strategies, acceptance criteria, and validation methodologies for functional, integration, system, regression, performance, security, usability, interoperability, and UAT testing.
• Collaborate with Government stakeholders, business analysts, software engineers, AI/ML engineers, and SMEs for testability and traceability.
• Oversee automated testing using CI/CD pipelines and DevSecOps practices.
• Lead validation of AI/ML solutions, including model verification, performance evaluation, explainability, bias assessment, reproducibility, drift monitoring, and ongoing model quality.
• Ensure software and AI systems comply with NIH, HHS, NIST, Section 508, privacy, cybersecurity, and applicable federal quality standards.
• Direct defect management, root cause analysis, corrective actions, and continuous quality improvement initiatives.
• Develop quality metrics, dashboards, and executive reports to communicate testing progress, release readiness, and overall system quality to Government leadership.
• Mentor quality engineers and foster a culture of continuous improvement, automation, and engineering excellence.

Skills

Quality engineering

Test automation

CI/CD

DevSecOps

Agile

Requirements traceability

Communication

Security clearance

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree preferred

Tools

Azure

Azure DevOps

Kubernetes

REST APIs

Git

Cloud-native architectures

Job description

Leidos Health & Civil Sector seeks a Test & Validation Engineer Lead to support NIH/NCI initiatives. You will lead multidisciplinary testing teams, develop validation strategies, and advance quality across enterprise apps, cloud platforms, and AI/ML systems in a Federal environment.

The role requires 8+ years of experience, strong QMS, Agile/DevSecOps, and ability to obtain necessary clearances. You will collaborate with Government stakeholders and mentoring quality engineers while shaping the