Chief Engineer
About the job
- A bachelor's degree and 12 or more years of prior relevant experience are required.
- At least seven years of experience managing a large engineering team as part of an IT organization is required.
- Strong leadership abilities, attention to detail, and effectiveness under deadlines are required.
- Strong analytical skills are required.
- Budgeting and organizational skills are required.
- Demonstrated experience in strategic planning is required.
- Demonstrated success building relationships with customers and teammates is required.
- Experience executing development programs in an agile environment is required.
- Experience developing Estimates to Complete and Estimates at Completion is required.
- Ability to effectively brief Leidos and NASA senior leadership is required.
- Technical knowledge in one or more of network solutions such as LAN, WAN, SDA, or SD-WAN; data center technologies such as virtualization, capacity management, or data backup; cloud-based architectures such as AWS, Azure, or GCP; or collaboration services such as conferencing or VoIP is required.
- U.S. citizenship is required.
- Ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance ranging from Public Trust to Top Secret, as required, is required.
- Lead engineering across AEGIS technologies, including data centers, cloud, networking, voice over IP, cybersecurity, and collaboration services.
- Build relationships with senior NASA and Leidos leadership to align engineering work with agency priorities.
- Assess enterprise system baselines and recommend improvements to support modernization.
- Translate NASA Office of the Chief Information Officer and Office of Engineering objectives into actionable engineering priorities, plans, milestones, and measurable outcomes.
- Ensure daily engineering work aligns with long-term organizational goals.
- Lead a multidisciplinary engineering team supporting networking, firewalls, voice over IP, data centers, and cloud services across NASA.
- Foster a culture of innovation, learning, and technical excellence.
- Mentor engineers at all levels on career growth, skills, and technical decision-making.
- Communicate clear expectations, provide timely feedback, and model strong leadership behaviors.
- Promote collaboration across engineering, architecture, security, operations, and program leadership.
- Cultivate accountability, transparency, and a strong customer service mindset.
- Ensure actions have clear owners and due dates and are followed through, reducing the tactical burden on the government Engineering Office.
- Perform systems analysis and planning to support NASA's infrastructure strategy.
- Develop feasibility studies, trend analyses, business cases, benchmarks, and strategic roadmaps.
- Understand contract technical requirements and guide the team toward solutions that meet user needs and contract obligations.
- Review emerging technologies and assess their impacts on NASA architectures, standards, and long-term service evolution.
- Lead design, development, integration, testing, deployment, and logistics activities.
- Maintain visibility across engineering projects, initiatives, studies, modernization efforts, and operational work.
- Provide leadership with clear views of status, schedules, dependencies, risks, constraints, and required decisions.
- Assess infrastructure impacts of new requirements and NASA network expansions.
- Operate network technology labs for asset management, testing, standards evaluation, requirements analysis, and technology investigation.
- Recommend standards for implementing new services across NASA.
- Ensure engineering coordination across networks, telecommunications, cable plant, data centers, cloud, cybersecurity, and voice/video.
- Identify dependencies and prevent cross-domain engineering conflicts.
- Support AEGIS program governance to ensure new technologies align with NASA's direction.
- Participate in NASA IT policy, architecture, standards, and process reviews, and recommend updates to maintain AEGIS compliance.
- Establish consistent engineering practices, including design reviews, documentation, standards, configuration management, change control, peer reviews, and decision records.
- Ensure engineering consistency across technical areas.
- Advise the Program Manager on impacts to stability, cost, architecture, interoperability, or compatibility, and recommend mitigation strategies.
- Implement structured methods for identifying, prioritizing, escalating, and resolving risks and issues.
- Inform NASA and Leidos leadership early when risks may affect mission or service delivery.
- Develop strategic and implementation plans guiding the future of AEGIS services.
- Assess IT innovations, product releases, and technology changes to introduce new capabilities and retire outdated ones.
- Support development of comprehensive technology roadmaps capturing customer requirements and service evolution.
- Maintain the five-year hardware lifecycle plan for AEGIS-supported hardware.
- Maintain strong connections with Leidos Digital Sector Chief Technology Officer and Solutions Architect organizations to leverage enterprise expertise.
- Support program growth by shaping innovative technical solutions and recommending improvements to services and operating models.
- ITIL certification is preferred.
- SAFe Agile Product Manager or Lean Portfolio Manager certification is preferred.
- Project Management Professional certification is preferred.
- Experience working with NASA or other federal agencies is preferred.
About the company
Leidos is a large technology and engineering company that serves defense, intelligence, healthcare, and civil government customers. It provides scientific, engineering, and IT solutions to help ensure safety, health, and efficiency, from upgrading air traffic control to strengthening cybersecurity for critical missions. The company delivers integrated systems and services—software, research, cyber defense, and digital modernization—through programs that span government and commercial clients. Leidos stands out through its long history as SAIC’s split-off and rapid growth via major acquisitions, creating a broad, mission-focused portfolio across defense, space, intelligence, and civilian sectors. Its overarching goal is to help customers solve hard problems with advanced technology, enabling safer operations and better public services.
Company Size
10,001+
Company Stage
IPO
Headquarters
Reston, Virginia
Founded
1969
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Leidos raised 2026 guidance after Q2 revenue reached 4.6 billion and bookings hit 4.9 billion.
- Leidos won 926 million for Navy networks and 127 million to extend ARTEMIS through 2027.
- Jeff McElfresh joined the board October 1, 2026, strengthening infrastructure, cybersecurity, and transformation credibility.
What critics are saying
- Leidos lost the CBP cyber operations center recompete, triggering 84 Ashburn layoffs starting November 23, 2026.
- Leidos still relies on huge federal incumbencies; any recompete loss quickly hits revenue and staffing.
- If Navy or Army renewals slip in 2027, Leidos loses mission-critical scale and credibility.
What makes Leidos unique
- Leidos pairs federal mission work with productized AI, like UpHold Effect, launched September 29, 2026.
- Leidos runs sticky, scale contracts: Navy networks, ARTEMIS, and Department of War cyber operations.
- Leidos combines defense, civil, health, and intelligence delivery across 50,000 employees and 48.7 billion backlog.
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Benefits
Medical, dental, & vision insurance
Health Savings account
Income protection
PTO
Paid parental leave
Jury duty pay
Bereavement leave
401(k) Retirement Plan
Employee Stock Purchase Plan
Family Benefits
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
↑ 8%1 year growth
↑ 8%2 year growth
↑ 8%Leidos has appointed Jeff McElfresh, AT&T's chief operating officer, to its board of directors effective 1 October. McElfresh brings over 30 years of experience at AT&T, where he currently oversees a $250 billion nationwide advanced connectivity infrastructure transformation. His expertise in cybersecurity, data management, and infrastructure aligns with Leidos' digital operations and expanding energy infrastructure business. Before AT&T, McElfresh worked as a defence technology engineer on aerospace and maritime projects. With McElfresh's addition, Leidos' board expands to 11 members. He will serve on the Corporate Governance and Ethics and Technology and Information Security committees. Leidos, headquartered in Reston, Virginia, employs 50,000 people globally and reported annual revenues of approximately $17.2 billion for the fiscal year ended 2 January 2026.
Leidos Holdings, Inc. introduces UpHold Effect? Agentic SOC Automation. Published on 09/29/2026 at 03:43 pm EDT S&P Capital IQ Leidos Holdings, Inc. introduced UpHold Effect? Agentic SOC Automation, a capability that uses AI agents around the clock to help security operations center teams identify threats requiring immediate action amid a deluge of cyber alerts. UpHold Effect? Agentic SOC Automation helps federal security teams move from alert overload to clear guidance and automated response while keeping human analysts in control. Around-the-clock investigation: AI agents can triage alerts, gather context and assemble findings for analysts to review. Integration with existing tools: The capability is designed to work with current security technology rather than require agencies to replace their existing systems. Customer-controlled autonomy: Organizations decide what the AI can investigate, recommend or act on. Auditable decisions: Recommendations and actions create records showing what the AI observed, concluded and proposed or did. Federal deployment options: A FedRAMP Class D (High) deployment option is available. The capability can also provide a pathway toward Department of war Impact Level 4 and 5 environments with appropriate government sponsorship. UpHold Effect? Agentic SOC Automation works across an organization's existing security tools to investigate alerts, gather information and recommend next steps. Customers determine how much authority the AI receives based on their mission, risk tolerance and governance requirements. Agentic SOC Automation is a feature within UpHold Effect?, Leidos' offering for agentic cyber response and part of the UpHold? product suite. UpHold Effect? applies automation across areas including adversary detection, cyber deception, cloud security and threat hunting while allowing customers to set governance and operational controls. (C) S&P Capital IQ - 2026
Leidos has launched UpHold Effect Agentic SOC Automation, an AI-powered platform designed to help federal security teams respond faster to cyber threats. The system uses AI agents to triage alerts, gather context, and assemble findings for human analysts to review around the clock. The platform integrates with existing security tools rather than requiring system replacements. Organisations control what the AI can investigate, recommend, or act upon, with all decisions creating auditable records. A FedRAMP Class D deployment option is available, with pathways to Department of war Impact Level 4 and 5 environments possible with government sponsorship. "Cyber teams need to keep pace with threats without giving up control," said Steve Hull, president of Leidos Digital. The platform aims to reduce investigative workload whilst allowing analysts to focus on threats requiring human judgement. Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $17.2 billion for the fiscal year ended 2 January 2026.
Leidos has secured a contract worth up to $127 million to continue providing the Airborne Reconnaissance and Targeting Exploitation Multi-Mission Intelligence System (ARTEMIS) for the U.S. Army. The contract extends ARTEMIS intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) operations within the U.S. European Command area of responsibility through summer 2027, with two additional option years. Leidos has supported the mission since 2020. The company provides a comprehensive Contractor-Owned, Contractor-Operated ISR capability built around a modified Bombardier Challenger 650 aircraft, including the aircraft, mission systems, flight operations, and support services. Originally fielded as a technology demonstrator, ARTEMIS has evolved into a globally deployable, high-altitude ISR platform that strengthens the Army's intelligence collection capabilities whilst providing flexibility to support operations across multiple theatres.
Former Leidos executive Kim Denver named KBR contracts, supply chain SVP. * Denver will lead a newly created contracts and supply chain organization * He spent more than 13 years at Leidos, most recently as global chief supply chain officer * He previously served as deputy assistant secretary of the Army for procurement KBR has named Kim Denver senior vice president of contracts and supply chain, putting him in charge of a newly created organization combining both functions. The company announced the appointment Monday in a LinkedIn post, noting that Denver will focus on growth, strategic partnerships and commercial practices. Who is Kim Denver? Denver spent more than 13 years at Leidos, most recently as senior vice president and global chief supply chain officer and chief contracts executive. He joined the company in 2013 as corporate contracts director and held successive roles covering contracts, procurement and pricing. Before that, he served as deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Army for procurement, directing more than 8,000 military and civilian contracting personnel and overseeing more than 270 Army contracting offices worldwide. He held that post from 2011 to 2013. Denver earlier led the Army Corps of Engineers' National Contracting Organization, serving as principal contracting adviser to the chief of engineers. From 2003 to 2008, he was the principal assistant responsible for contracting at the Army's Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation. He holds a master's degree in business administration from the University of Central Florida and a bachelor's in business administration from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Why does the role matter for KBR? KBR cited Denver's experience supporting the U.S. Antarctic Program in announcing the appointment. The company won a potential $8 billion contract from the National Science Foundation in June to support the program, covering logistics, infrastructure and scientific mission support across three year-round research stations. The 20-year, single-award indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract followed a full and open competition NSF launched in 2025. Its scope spans management and planning, laboratory services, vessel operations, IT and communications, infrastructure maintenance, and medical services.