SEIT Project Engineering Lead

Leidos

About The Position

Looking for an opportunity to make an impact? At Leidos, we deliver innovative solutions through the efforts of our diverse and talented people who are dedicated to our customers’ success. We empower our teams, contribute to our communities, and operate sustainable. Everything we do is built on a commitment to do the right thing for our customers, our people, and our community. Our Mission, Vision, and Values guide the way we do business. Are you ready for your next career challenge? Leidos Defense provides a diverse portfolio of systems, solutions, and services covering land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace for customers worldwide. Solutions for Defense include enterprise and mission IT, large-scale intelligence systems, command and control, geospatial and data analytics, cybersecurity, logistics, training, and intelligence analysis and operations support. Our team is solving the world’s toughest security challenges for customers with “can’t fail” missions. Leidos’ Defense Space Business Area is seeking a SEIT Project Engineering Lead to join a collaborative Systems Engineering Integration and Test team developing a variety of sensor payloads for space. This is an exciting opportunity to leverage your expertise in successfully deploying complex engineering projects, while contributing to our national defense mission. The SEIT Project Engineering Lead will provide hands‑on technical leadership applying systems engineering best practices across the Space SEIT organization. Working closely with the Chief Engineer, Solution Architects, Systems Engineers, Project Managers, Software Engineers and Manufacturing teams, this role combines deep technical expertise, systems thinking, and stakeholder engagement, with accountability for guiding teams through change, risk and technical decision‑making along with financial control (i.e., Control Account Manager (CAM)) responsibilities across a variety of efforts. We are looking for an engineer who thrives in fast-paced environments and have a passion for developing and delivering high-tech solutions. While being an experienced engineer who has worked on LEO, MEO, and GEO is important, and we value and welcome those with experience working for organizations like SDA, RCO, or DARPA, we are most excited about candidates who have demonstrated success in delivering complex, reliable space systems under tight timelines. If you enjoy solving challenging technical problems in a dynamic and innovative environment working in a wide range of technical areas, this job in sunny San Diego is for you!

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree in an engineering field (e.g., mechanical, electrical, systems, industrial), or related technical field with 12+ years of prior relevant experience or master’s degree with 10+ years of relevant experience.
Must be a US Citizen.
Must have an active Secret security clearance to be considered.
Experience with developing and/or providing integrated master schedule (IMS) development and critical path management (CPM).
Experience with Planning and Cost estimating experience with either SE or SW process, process improvement, SE/SW metrics tracking / affordability initiatives
Proven experience with supporting highly critical customer missions.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
Ability to demonstrate a commitment to personal and corporate excellence, ethical behavior and integrity.

Nice To Haves

Eligibility to obtain and maintain a DoD TOP SECRET clearance.
3+ years of experience with model-based systems engineering (MBSE) and related tools such as SysML.

Responsibilities

Act as Technical Lead for systems engineering activities within assigned workstreams or projects.
Work alongside other senior Systems Engineers to implement the Chief Engineer’s vision and technical direction.
Lead technical decision‑making, trade‑offs, and design assurance in line with program and customer requirements.
Act as a trusted technical authority, able to explain complex technical topics clearly to both technical and non‑technical audiences.
Regular travel to Huntsville, Alabama and San Diego, California to work with onsite test teams
Support SEIT manager with staff planning and test engineering management
Apply Systems Engineering principles across the full engineering lifecycle (V‑Model), including requirements, design, integration, verification and transition to service.
Own and assure key engineering artifacts, including impact assessments, high‑level and low‑level designs, and technical change documentation.
Ensure designs are aligned with program architecture, security constraints, and operational needs.
Develop and maintain Test & Evaluation Master Plans (TEMP)
Support Control Account Manager (CAM) activities, including schedule status and cost/estimates as well as providing full analysis and status updates.
Support Project Managers with technically robust inputs to planning, costing and scheduling.
Establishing budgets, defining work scope, tracking performance, and managing variances.
Review staffing needs with all CAMs / functional managers across each control account.
Work to develop organizational CAM processes and procedures.
Provide technical mentoring and coaching to junior and mid‑level engineers.
Promote good engineering practice, reuse of patterns, and continuous improvement across programs.
Contribute to the development of common ways of working and engineering maturity within the program.