Principal Cloud Platform Architect

Leidos; Gaithersburg (MD); Hybrid; USD 131,000 - 237,000; Full time

Job summary

Leidos is seeking a Principal Cloud & Platform Architect to join the Air Traffic Business Area within the Homeland Sector. The role focuses on designing the L-CAP hybrid cloud platform, combining on-premises and cloud resources with IaC governance and AI-driven development practices.

The position requires extensive cloud and platform engineering experience, security clearances, and leadership across large engineering teams, delivering deterministic performance for safety-critical ATC

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree with 12+ years of cloud and platform engineering experience.
• Expert-level cloud architecture experience with AWS or Azure GovCloud.
• Production Kubernetes experience at scale (100+ nodes).
• Deep Terraform/IaC expertise for enterprise infrastructure management.
• Platform engineering leadership for large development organizations.
• FedRAMP platform compliance and boundary design experience.
• Container orchestration and microservices platform design.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust clearance; US citizenship required.

Responsibilities

• Design the hybrid cloud architecture spanning on-premises and cloud environments.
• Define Kubernetes orchestration strategy for containerized workloads at scale.
• Establish Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) governance using Terraform.
• Architect FedRAMP-compliant platform designs across multiple environments.
• Design and govern CI/CD platform services for engineering teams.
• Lead capacity planning and infrastructure cost modeling.
• Define platform reliability standards including SLOs and SLIs.
• Design multi-environment deployment strategy (dev, test, staging, production).
• Oversee container orchestration patterns and service mesh architecture.
• Drive cloud cost optimization and FinOps practices.
• Design platform architecture to host safety-critical ATC applications with deterministic performance characteristics.

Skills

Cloud architecture

Kubernetes orchestration

Platform engineering leadership

Distributed systems

Reliability engineering

AI-first engineering mindset

Public Trust readiness

Latency & availability

Cloud cost optimization

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Tools

Terraform

Kubernetes

Istio/Linkerd

Job description

Description

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. Leidos is seeking a Principal Cloud & Platform Architect 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. You will serve as the enterprise platform architect responsible for designing the hybrid cloud infrastructure and platform services that underpin the L-CAP automation platform. 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.

What You’ll Do

• Design the hybrid cloud architecture spanning on-premises and cloud environments
• Define Kubernetes orchestration strategy for containerized workloads at scale
• Establish Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) governance using Terraform
• Architect FedRAMP-compliant platform designs across multiple environments
• Design and govern CI/CD platform services for engineering teams
• Lead capacity planning and infrastructure cost modeling
• Define platform reliability standards including SLOs and SLIs
• Design multi-environment deployment strategy (dev, test, staging, production)
• Oversee container orchestration patterns and service mesh architecture
• Drive cloud cost optimization and FinOps practices
• Design platform architecture to host safety-critical ATC applications with deterministic performance characteristics rather than general enterprise IT workloads
• Ensure operational resilience and failover capabilities for distributed real-time ATC services across hybrid cloud deployments
• Define platform requirements for deterministic distributed services including latency guarantees and predictable resource allocation
• 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 12+ years of cloud and platform engineering experience
• Expert-level cloud architecture experience with AWS or Azure GovCloud
• Production Kubernetes experience at scale (100+ nodes)
• Deep Terraform/IaCexpertisefor enterprise infrastructure management
• Platform engineering leadership for large development organizations
• FedRAMP platform compliance and boundary design experience
• Container orchestration and microservices platform design
• Distributed systems architecture and reliability engineering
• Microservices platform design supporting hundreds of services
• Ability to obtain andmaintaina Public Trust clearance; US citizenshiprequired; subject to government background investigation
• Experience supporting deterministic distributed services with strict latency and availability requirements
• Knowledge of platform engineering for safety-critical applications versus general enterprise workloads
• 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

• AWS Solutions Architect Professional or Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification
• GovCloud deployment and operations experience
• Air-gapped and disconnected environment architecture
• Platform-as-a-Service design for internal developer teams
• SRE and reliability engineering practices
• Helm,ArgoCD, andGitOpsdeployment patterns
• Service mesh implementation (Istio,Linkerd)
• Experience with hybrid cloud deployment of real-time operational systems in aviation or similar safety-critical domains

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.

Original Posting

August 18, 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 $131,300.00 - $237,350.00

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.

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.