Systems Engineer

Leidos; Ashburn (VA); On-site; USD 87,000 - 157,000; Full time

Job summary

Leidos is hiring a Lead Systems Engineer for an Agile SAFe team in the Air Traffic domain. You will drive requirements, traceability, and validation across cross-functional teams to deliver safety-critical flight services in regulated environments.

The role emphasizes collaboration with product owners, architects, and developers. You will ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, support verification efforts, and maintain system-level behavior traceability throughout development

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field with 4–8 years of relevant experience.
• Experience in Agile development environments and familiarity with Agile methodologies, principles, and tools.
• Experience performing systems engineering across the lifecycle including requirements analysis, decomposition, traceability, integration, and verification.
• Familiarity with cloud-based systems and modern software architectures; ability to obtain SF-85 Public Trust suitability; US Citizenship.

Responsibilities

• Review FAA requirement documents and regulations to extract intent and acceptance criteria.
• Translate requirements into detailed, testable system requirements and acceptance criteria.
• Refine backlog items with Product Owners and teams ensuring traceability.
• Identify use cases with an emphasis on readiness for validation trials and operational workflows.
• Develop and maintain requirements traceability across artifacts and verification activities.
• Coordinate with software, test, cybersecurity, and DevSecOps teams to ensure implementation and validation.

Skills

Agile development

Systems engineering lifecycle

Requirements analysis

Documentation

Cloud-based systems

SF-85 Public Trust suitability

US Citizenship

Education

Bachelor’s degree in computer science or engineering

Master’s degree (preferred)

Tools

Cameo

DOORS

Jama

Jira

Job description

Description

Lead Systems Engineer – Agile Team Systems Engineering

Leidos is seeking Lead Systems Engineers to join the Air Traffic Business Area within the Homeland Sector, supporting the development of next-generation flight service and air traffic systems. This work aligns with the FAA’s broader initiative to modernize legacy flight service capabilities, replacing aging infrastructure with scalable, cloud-based platforms designed to improve safety and operational efficiency—particularly in remote and high-dependency aviation environments. These efforts focus on delivering mission-critical, future-ready solutions that provide safety-critical flight services to the pilot community.

As a member of a Scaled Agile software development organization, you will contribute to the technical execution of a program that integrates proven, globally deployed technologies with modern cloud-native capabilities. You will work alongside cross-functional teams and technical leaders to deliver predictable outcomes in a highly regulated, safety-critical environment.

In this position, you will serve as the dedicated Systems Engineer for an Agile/SAFe development team, partnering closely with Product Owners, architects, software engineers, testers, DevSecOps engineers, and customer stakeholders to define, refine, and validate system capabilities. You will ensure that operational needs, regulatory requirements, and system-level behaviors are fully understood, traceable, testable, and aligned to program objectives throughout the development lifecycle. This position supports government programs and requires the ability to obtain and maintain a favorable Public Trust investigation.

Primary Responsibilities

• Review FAA requirement documents, advisory circulars, and applicable regulations (e.g., 14 CFR parts) to extract intent, constraints, interfaces, and acceptance criteria.
• Translate operational and regulatory requirements into detailed, testable system requirements, features, and acceptance criteria that support Agile development activities.
• Collaborate with Product Owners and development teams to refine backlog items, clarify system behaviors, and ensure technical completeness and traceability.
• Engage with customer stakeholders, operators, and subject matter experts to identify use cases with an emphasis on completeness, testability, alignment with operational workflows, and readiness for validation trials.
• Decompose high-level regulatory and operational requirements into specific capability statements with measurable performance criteria and traceability to FAA compliance outcomes.
• Develop and maintain requirements traceability between stakeholder needs, system requirements, architecture artifacts, implementation tasks, and verification activities.
• Support system design discussions by evaluating technical approaches, documenting trade-offs, identifying integration impacts, and assessing operational or regulatory risks.
• Prepare and review technical documentation, including system specifications, interface definitions, use cases, operational workflows, verification plans, and requirements traceability matrices.
• Participate in Agile ceremonies, technical interchange meetings, structured reviews, and system inspections.
• Coordinate with software engineering, test, cybersecurity, and DevSecOps teams to ensure system requirements are fully implemented, validated, and operationally supportable.
• Assist in defining verification and validation strategies, including support for demonstrations, integration testing, operational assessments, and customer reviews.
• Systematically capture and communicate design decisions, performance trade-offs, compliance rationales, and risk assessments to support program transparency and technical governance.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, systems engineering, or a related field with 4–8 years of relevant experience, or a Master’s degree with 2–6 years of experience
• Experience working within Agile development environments, including familiarity with Agile methodologies, principles, and tools
• Experience performing systems engineering activities across the system development lifecycle, including requirements analysis, decomposition, traceability, integration, and verification
• Strong understanding of disciplined engineering processes and attention to detail in highly regulated or mission-critical environments
• Experience collaborating with cross-functional technical teams, customers, and stakeholders to define and refine system capabilities
• Experience preparing and maintaining technical documentation and requirements artifacts
• Familiarity with software development concepts, architectures, interfaces, and integration considerations
• Clear and effective verbal and written communication skills
• Experience with cloud-based systems and modern software architectures
• Ability to obtain SF-85 Public Trust suitability determination
• US Citizenship

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Java, Python, React, and scripting languages
• Knowledge of AI-assisted development workflows and tools (i.e., Claude Code, Codex, etc.)
• Knowledge of DevSecOps practices and CI/CD pipelines
• Knowledge of air traffic control systems, general aviation, and/or flight services
• Practical knowledge of FAA/DoD systems, technical policies, standards, and orders
• Experience leveraging requirements-management and model-based engineering tools (e.g., Cameo, DOORS, Jama, Jira with traceability plugins, etc.)
• Experience supporting verification and validation activities in regulated environments
• Familiarity with systems integration, interface management, and operational testing in large-scale distributed systems

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 $87,100.00 - $157,450.00

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.