Senior Systems Engineer — Product Owner

Join Leidos as a Senior Systems Engineer and Product Owner in a hybrid role based in Gaithersburg, MD. You will support development of the Leidos Common Automation Platform (L-CAP) for air traffic management capabilities in an Agile/SAFe environment. This position connects mission and platform needs to delivery through a backlog you own, prioritize, and refine in a highly regulated, safety-critical context.

Leidos also supports team members with programs focused on health and wellbeing, along with income protection, paid leave, and retirement benefits.

Responsibilities

• Own and prioritize the backlog for one or more Agile teams, sequencing work based on stakeholder needs, program priorities, and dependencies while ensuring the team builds the right functionality.
• Review program requirement documents, system specifications, and applicable FAA standards and orders to identify intent, constraints, and acceptance criteria.
• Translate platform and mission capability needs into specific, testable capability statements as Agile features and stories, including clear acceptance criteria.
• Maintain traceability from source requirements through features, stories, and verification evidence to support demonstrable compliance outcomes.
• Engage customer stakeholders to identify use cases with an 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 to support review and 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 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 related discipline with 8+ years of relevant experience, or 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 in an Agile Product Owner role: owning and prioritizing the product backlog, defining complete user stories, making timely scope decisions, and accepting 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 in design of cloud-based systems.
• Experience engaging customers to understand needs, deliver solutions, manage expectations, and maintain an ongoing relationship.
• Experience working in a Scaled Agile (SAFe) organization, including PI planning and cross-team coordination.
• Clear verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust.
• U.S. citizenship required.
• Successful completion of background investigations as required by the government customer.

Technologies

• Agile
• SAFe
• CI/CD pipelines

Benefits

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

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.

Pay Range: $107,900.00 - $195,050.00 per year