Senior Systems Engineer — Product Owner

Leidos is hiring a Senior Systems Engineer to serve as a Product Owner to support the Leidos Common Automation Platform (L-CAP) in an Agile/SAFe delivery environment for air traffic management capabilities. This role connects platform and mission needs to testable work while supporting a safety-critical, highly regulated development process.

Responsibilities

• Own and prioritize the backlog for one or more Agile teams, sequencing work based on stakeholder needs, program priorities, and dependencies to ensure the team delivers the correct functionality.
• Review program requirement documents, system specifications, and applicable FAA standards and orders to extract intent, constraints, and acceptance criteria.
• Translate high-level platform and mission capabilities into specific, testable capability statements in the form of Agile features and stories, including clear acceptance criteria.
• Maintain end-to-end traceability from source requirements through features, stories, and verification evidence to support demonstrable compliance outcomes.
• Work with customer stakeholders to identify use cases with emphasis on completeness, testability, alignment with operational workflows, and readiness for validation and field activities.
• Define team PI objectives, participate in PI planning and backlog refinement, make timely scope decisions, and accept completed work.
• Capture and communicate design decisions, performance trade-offs, compliance rationales, and risk assessments with each release so reviewers can trace decisions and provide informed feedback.
• Prepare and review technical documentation, including use cases, user interface specifications, and interface definitions.
• Coordinate with the Release Train Engineer, Product Management, systems engineering, and Test and Evaluation teams to manage dependencies and align delivery with integration and verification milestones.
• Lead and participate in structured reviews and inspections.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related discipline with 8+ years of relevant experience, or a Master’s degree with 6+ years of relevant experience (equivalent experience may be used in lieu of degree).
• Experience with Agile methodology, principles, and tools.
• Experience as an Agile Product Owner, including owning and prioritizing the product backlog, defining complete backlog items (user stories), making timely scope decisions, and accepting completed work.
• Ability to decompose complex requirements into testable work items with clear, verifiable acceptance criteria.
• Strong understanding of disciplined engineering processes and attention to detail.
• Practical exposure to writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining software or scripts.
• Experience with the design of cloud-based systems.
• Experience engaging customers to understand needs, deliver solutions, manage expectations, and maintain ongoing relationships.
• Experience working in a Scaled Agile (SAFe) organization, including PI planning and cross-team coordination.
• Clear, effective verbal and written communication.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust.
• U.S. citizenship required, including successful completion of background investigations as required by the government customer.

Technologies

• Agile
• SAFe
• CI/CD pipelines

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of and experience with AI-assisted development workflows and tools (Claude Code, Codex, etc.).
• Experience with Java, Python, React, and scripting languages.
• SAFe Product Owner / Product Manager (POPM) certification.
• Knowledge of DevSecOps practices and CI/CD pipelines.
• Knowledge of hybrid cloud data mesh architectures and microservices platforms.
• Familiarity with MBSE concepts and systems engineering integration.
• Knowledge of air traffic control systems, air traffic management, general aviation, and/or flight services.
• Practical knowledge of FAA/DoD systems, technical policies, standards, and orders.
• Knowledge of FedRAMP, FISMA, or government security compliance frameworks.
• Experience supporting verification and validation of safety-critical systems.
• Track record of successful delivery on large government programs.
• Desired but not required: Commutable distance to Gaithersburg, MD; Eagan, MN; or Egg Harbor Township, NJ.

Compensation and Location

Location: Gaithersburg, MD (hybrid).
Pay Range: USD 107,900 - 195,050 per year.

Benefits

• Health and Wellness programs
• Income Protection
• Paid Leave
• Retirement