Senior Systems Engineer - Product Owner

Leidos is seeking a Senior Systems Engineer to act as a Product Owner within an Agile/SAFe delivery environment, supporting development of next-generation flight service and air traffic systems for the Homeland Sector. This role supports government programs and requires the ability to obtain and maintain a favorable Public Trust investigation.

Location

• Gaithersburg, MD (onsite)

Salary

• USD 107,900 - 195,050 per year

Key Responsibilities

• Review FAA requirement documents, advisory circulars, and applicable regulations (including 14 CFR parts) to extract intent, constraints, and acceptance criteria.
• Manage the backlog for one or more Agile teams, prioritizing features based on stakeholder needs and ensuring the team builds the required functionality.
• Partner with customer stakeholders to identify use cases with a focus on completeness, testability, alignment to operational workflows, and readiness for validation trials.
• Translate high-level regulatory requirements into specific, testable capability statements (Agile features) with clearly defined acceptance criteria mapped to FAA compliance outcomes, such as performance thresholds, safety margins, and required reporting formats.
• Capture and communicate design decisions, performance trade-offs, regulatory compliance rationale, and risk assessments for each release to support traceable decision-making and informed review.
• Prepare and review technical documentation, including use cases, user interface specifications, and requirements traceability.
• Lead and participate in structured reviews and inspections.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field with at least 8 years of relevant experience, or a Master’s degree with at least 6 years of experience
• Experience with Agile methodology, principles, and tools
• Experience in the Agile Product Owner role, including owning and prioritizing the product backlog, defining complete product backlog items (user stories), making timely scope decisions, and accepting completed work
• Strong understanding of disciplined engineering processes and attention to detail
• Hands-on experience with writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining software or scripts
• Clear verbal and written communication
• Experience designing cloud-based systems
• Experience engaging customers to understand needs, deliver solutions, manage expectations, and maintain an ongoing relationship
• Ability to obtain an SF-85 Public Trust suitability determination
• US Citizenship

Technologies

• Agile
• Java
• Python
• React
• Claude Code
• Codex

Benefits

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

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Java, Python, React, and scripting languages
• Knowledge of AI-assisted development workflows and tools (for example, Claude Code, Codex)
• Knowledge of DevSecOps practices and CI/CD pipelines
• Knowledge of air traffic control systems, general aviation, and/or flight services
• Practical knowledge of FAA/DoD systems, technical policies, standards, and orders
• Experience using requirement-management tools and documentation platforms that support linking, reviews, and exportable RTMs (for example, CAMEO, DOORS, Jama, Jira with traceability plugins)

Posting Date

• April 29, 2026