First Article Inspection Systems Engineer

Ready to start your systems engineering career on one of the most exciting technologies in defense?

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 sustainably. 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.

Your Greatest Work is Ahead!

Leidos Defense is seeking a Systems Engineer to support an active Hypersonics production program. In this role, you'll work directly with the Lead Systems Engineer to manage the First Article Inspection (FAI) effort for the program, ensuring that production elements meet design criteria.

Your Mission: Support the systems engineering team by developing FAI documentation and criteria, and helping coordinate the inspection event with the production element. You'll collaborate with Quality, Hardware Development, Integration, and Test, and Scheduling teams while gaining hands-on experience in production systems engineering. This could be a good opportunity for a Systems Engineer who wants to be more hands-on in a production environment, or a Quality Engineer who wants to learn more about Systems Engineering.

Why This Role Stands Out: Work on hypersonics technology in a matrixed organization supporting multiple programs across diverse engineering fields. Gain mentorship from senior engineers while building your SE expertise. When this program completes, transition to other exciting programs in our engineering portfolio and continue growing your career.

If this sounds like the kind of environment where you can thrive, keep reading!

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.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering, Software Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or equivalent degree from an ABET-accredited university with 4+ years of experience or an MS with 2+ years of experience.
• Demonstrated ability to learn from peers and/or mentors.
• Resident of the North Alabama area or willing to relocate to the Huntsville - North Alabama, AL area.
• Possess a secret clearance, or have the ability to obtain a secret clearance.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in a production environment, or with Quality Engineering processes.
• Experience in deriving requirements for integration, manufacturing, and production systems.

• Manufacturing processes and procedures.       

• MagicDraw and/or other Model Based System Engineering (MBSE) modeling tools.
• Demonstrated experience effectively leading a team of engineers.
• Demonstrated cross-discipline collaboration.
• Demonstrated experience accurately estimating the engineering effort (i.e. hours) associated with Systems Engineering tasks.
• DOORS and/or other requirements database tools.
• Understanding of the DoD acquisition processes and methods.
• Experience supporting one or more DoD programs.
• Object Management Group (OMG) Certified System Modeler Professional (OCSMP) certification.
• INCOSE Systems Engineering Professional (SEP) certification (ASEP or CSEP).

 AppKinetic

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.

Original Posting:

November 6, 2026

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.