Lead Systems Engineer

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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.

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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 is seeking a Lead Systems Engineer to join the IFPC Inc 2 systems engineering team. The IFPC Inc 2 is a ground-based, mobile system that aims to combat cruise missiles and unmanned aircraft systems. As part of the Indirect Fire Protection Capability program (IFPC), the system protects and defends civilian and military infrastructure and bridges the gap between tactical short range air defense systems and our strategic systems. 

The Lead Systems Engineer will play a critical role in driving technical excellence and innovation while ensuring program success through effective leadership and stakeholder management. The Lead Systems Engineer will supervise the technical work of a large team of systems engineers, including a requirements lead, verification lead, and architecture lead, while managing and reporting on team output and progress including requirements burndown, verification burndown, model development, and process improvement. This Lead Systems Engineer will guide the vision for the Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) model and weapon system architecture, leverage artificial intelligence to improve and optimize systems engineering processes, support proposals and new program efforts as the program works towards fielding, and serve as a technical liaison with customer representatives.

This position requires providing monthly team status reports to Program Leadership, ensuring systems engineering effort remains within budget constraints, and guaranteeing that Systems Engineering objectives are achieved according to the program schedule. The Lead Systems Engineer will oversee the development and management of critical systems engineering artifacts including Requirements Specifications, Verification Objectives, Verification Closure Notices, and SE-related action item tracking, burndown charts, and task management, while ensuring technical rigor and quality across all engineering deliverables and maintaining alignment between technical execution and program objectives. Additionally, this Lead Systems Engineer will coordinate systems engineering activities across functional areas, drive integration of new technologies and methodologies into existing processes, and support program milestones and fielding objectives and serve as a technical liaison with customer representatives. This position is highly visible to assist in delivering new capability for an innovative and revolutionary ground-based defense system.

The Lead Systems Engineer will work in a matrixed organization, which supports multiple programs at once in a variety of engineering fields with all different team environments. When the ground-based defense program ends, the Lead Systems Engineer will have the opportunity to support a different program in the matrixed engineering portfolio. A candidate with experience in other systems engineering areas such as Model-Based Systems Engineering, Safety Engineering, and Reliability Analysis will be treated preferentially. However, a strong background in traditional systems engineering and technical leadership is what is required for this position.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Software Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or equivalent degree from an ABET-accredited university with 8+ years of experience or an MS with 6+ years.
• Experience in deriving and managing requirements for complex electrical, electro-mechanical, mechanical, and software systems.
• Experience creating verification and test plans, and coordinating system integration and test activities to support verification of system level requirements.
• Basic understanding of radar systems or at minimum sensor system operations
• Experience leading cross-discipline and product teams
• Demonstrated experience effectively communicating within a team environment, including leading and conducting Technical Design Reviews
• 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

Preference shown to candidates who possess a Master of Science in System Engineering from an ABET-accredited university, and/or have at least 2-4 years of direct systems engineering experience.

Preferred candidates will also have experience and/or working knowledge with:

• Requirements management tools, such as DOORS, JAMA, or Cameo/MagicDraw.
• Demonstrated experience effectively leading a team of engineers.
• 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 $107,900.00 - $195,050.00

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.