Lead Systems Engineer

About Leidos

Leidos is a FORTUNE 500® company bringing a mix of innovative technology and sector expertise to customers in the national security, engineering, and health industries. We deliver innovative solutions through the efforts of our diverse and talented people who are dedicated to our customers' success. Guided by our Mission, Vision, and Values, Leidos empowers its teams, contributes to its communities, and operates sustainably—always with a commitment to doing the right thing for our customers, our people, and our community.

The Leidos Intel Sector combines technology-enabled services and mission software capabilities to support Intelligence Community customers as they address evolving national security challenges.

About the Opportunity

Leidos is seeking a highly experienced Lead Systems Engineer – RF Systems to plan and lead systems engineering activities supporting complex mission capabilities. You will translate user needs, Concepts of Operations (CONOPS), and high-level architectures into well-defined system requirements while providing technical leadership across design, integration, verification, implementation, and lifecycle engineering activities.

In this role, you will work across hardware, software, facilities, personnel, security, and operational considerations to maintain the technical integrity of complex systems. You will collaborate with Government stakeholders, developers, engineers, program personnel, and senior leaders to resolve technical issues, evaluate alternatives, manage interfaces and requirements, and guide engineering activities supporting mission delivery.

Why This Role Matters

Complex RF and mission systems depend on disciplined systems engineering to keep requirements, architectures, interfaces, technologies, and operational needs aligned throughout the system lifecycle.

As a Lead Systems Engineer – RF Systems, you will bring extensive engineering judgment to that challenge—helping ensure requirements remain traceable, interfaces are fully defined, technical risks are understood, system baselines remain controlled, engineering decisions consider lifecycle impacts, and solutions can be verified against mission requirements.

What You'll Do

Requirements Engineering & Management

• Analyze user requirements, CONOPS, and high-level system architectures to develop system requirements specifications.

• Guide users and stakeholders in formulating requirements, evaluating alternative approaches, and assessing technical feasibility.

• Manage system and derived requirements to support delivery of production systems compatible with defined system architectures.

• Assist in developing system and functional requirements and allocating them to hardware, software, facility, and personnel components.

• Derive lower-level requirements from higher-level allocated requirements and ensure they are complete, correct, unique, unambiguous, realizable, and verifiable.

• Identify functions implied by system requirements and stakeholder needs that are essential to overall system effectiveness.

• Establish disciplined requirements-change processes that evaluate impacts before commitment, maintain traceability to source requirements, reduce ambiguity, gain stakeholder agreement, and track resulting actions.

• Develop derived security and Information Assurance requirements addressing confidentiality, integrity, non-repudiation, availability, identification, authentication, access control, accountability, and applicable security mechanisms.

System Architecture & Design

• Analyze system requirements and lead design and development activities.

• Develop system architecture and system design documentation.

• Generate alternative system concepts, physical architectures, and design solutions.

• Develop and implement system design alternatives that consider lifecycle cost, reuse, complexity, technical risk, system expansion, and future growth.

• Develop system design solutions that satisfy system requirements and functional analyses.

• Use validated models, simulations, and prototypes to mitigate technical risk and reduce system-development cost.

• Develop operational scenarios and threads describing interactions among the system, users, and operating environment across operational, support, maintenance, and disposal needs.

• Incorporate new plans, designs, and systems into ongoing operations.

Interface Engineering & System Integration

• Participate in interface definition, design, and configuration changes among affected organizations and technical teams throughout the system lifecycle.

• Fully define software interfaces in terms of origination, destination, stimulus, and data characteristics and hardware interfaces in terms of applicable electrical and mechanical characteristics.

• Capture interface designs using common interface-control formats and maintain interface information in accessible repositories.

• Establish and follow formal procedures for coordinating system integration activities across multiple teams and ensuring complete interface coverage.

• Improve integration strategies using lessons and rationale from previous engineering decisions and integration performance.

• Provide technical direction for development, engineering, interfacing, integration, and testing of components within complex hardware/software systems.

• Coordinate resolution of cross-discipline action items resulting from Configuration Control Boards (CCBs), design reviews, program reviews, and test reviews.

• Participate in Integrated Product Teams (IPTs) developing new capabilities based on development and operational considerations.

Technical Baseline & Configuration Management

• Establish and support approval of system or component definitions—including requirements, designs, interfaces, and test procedures—to provide a common technical reference for hardware and software developers.

• Manage and maintain the technical integrity of the system baseline as changes are introduced throughout development, deployment, operations, and maintenance.

• Ensure effective periodic review and control of evolving hardware, software, and associated system documentation.

• Assess technical changes and help maintain consistency across requirements, designs, interfaces, test procedures, and verification activities.

• Maintain knowledge of applicable agency, national, and international system-development standards and apply and enforce appropriate standards to support consistency and interoperability.

Verification, Validation, Test & Certification

• Define methods, processes, and evaluation criteria for verifying systems, subsystems, and work products against established requirements.

• Develop written verification approaches and plans supporting system and subsystem evaluation.

• Plan verification activities for new and unproven designs early in the development lifecycle in coordination with system stakeholders.

• Guide system development and implementation planning through preparation or assessment of Systems Engineering Management Plans and system integration and test plans.

• Lead planning and test analysis supporting DoD Certification and Accreditation and other applicable Government C&A processes.

• Support technical reviews and maintain alignment among requirements, system design, integration, verification, and test activities.

Risk, Trade Studies & Lifecycle Engineering

• Assess program risks and determine probability of occurrence and quantified consequences of failure in accordance with approved risk-management plans.

• Conduct and/or approve end-to-end system trade analyses to optimize lifecycle operations and balance non-functional system performance considerations.

• Conduct quantitative analysis in areas such as reliability, maintainability, vulnerability, survivability, producibility, and other non-functional performance characteristics.

• Evaluate system alternatives considering technical performance, lifecycle cost, reuse, complexity, risk, expansion, and growth.

• Apply modeling, simulation, prototyping, and engineering analysis to reduce risk and inform system-development decisions.

Systems Engineering Documentation & Program Planning

• Develop and contribute to systems engineering documentation including Systems Engineering Plans, Initial Capabilities Documents, Requirements Specifications, and Interface Control Documents.

• Review and/or approve systems engineering documentation to ensure processes and specifications are accurate, comprehensive, complete, and responsive to system needs.

• Review and provide input to program and contract Work Breakdown Structures (WBS), work packages, and the Integrated Master Plan (IMP).

• Develop technical documentation supporting system architecture, design, integration, implementation, verification, and lifecycle activities.

Technical Leadership & Stakeholder Coordination

• Plan and lead Systems Engineering efforts supporting complex mission systems.

• Provide technical leadership for the integration of requirements, design, and technology.

• Maintain responsibility for the technical integrity of assigned Systems Engineering work and associated deliverables.

• Interact with Government stakeholders regarding technical considerations, problems, issues, and conflicts.

• Communicate effectively with program personnel, Government overseers, users, developers, and senior executives.

• Provide technical direction across requirements elicitation, analysis, functional allocation, engineering, interfacing, integration, and testing activities.

• Coordinate across engineering disciplines and technical teams to resolve issues and maintain alignment throughout the system lifecycle.

This posting is for multiple opportunities.

Required Qualifications

Clearance

• TS/SCI with Polygraph, at time of Application, to be considered for the position.

Education & Experience

• Minimum of twenty (20) years of experience supporting programs and contracts of similar scope, type, and complexity.

• Demonstrated experience planning and leading Systems Engineering efforts.

• Master's degree in Systems Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering Science, Engineering Management, or a related discipline from an accredited college or university.

• Five (5) additional years of relevant RF experience may be substituted for the Master's degree.

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:

August 18, 2026

Pay Range:

Pay Range $154,050.00 - $278,475.00

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.