The Optical Sensing and Countermeasures Division of the Defense Sector is seeking a Chief Engineer to technically guide a technical high-performance team researching and developing aircraft protection technologies for the US Air Force. In this role, you will oversee and apply the entire portfolio of Leidos technical solutions to help our customers address their demanding challenges. You will work with subject matter experts to develop and apply optimal and differentiated Leidos solutions in the technical areas of aircraft threat countermeasures. You will assist the Program Manager to ensure all technical work meets or exceeds customer requirements.
Primary Responsibilities- Planning and managing the execution of Threat Countermeasures Branch technical activities to ensure customer research and development requirements are being met.
- Collaborating with technical staff, customer organizations, and other parts of Leidos to develop differentiated solutions and roadmaps for existing customers and new business opportunities
- Establishing Leidos best practices, lessons learned, and technological approaches related to threat sensing, threat countermeasures, and modeling and simulation, and ensuring they are pursued
- Assessing and mentoring technical talent to meet current needs and overcome future challenges
- Reporting on the technical status of numerous, simultaneous projects occurring at any one time.
- Ensuring the technical quality of the Threat Countermeasure Branch deliveries to the customer (models, software, reports, briefings, etc.)
- Pursuing opportunities to propose solutions that will address the challenges of current and future Threat Countermeasures Branch customers
Basic Qualifications- U.S. citizen with an active Top Secret/SCI clearance.
- Experience in at least one or more of the following: Electro-optic (EO) and/or infrared sensing, IR threat countermeasures, threat countermeasure modeling and simulation, and foreign threat exploitation.
- Master's degree with at least 13 years of prior relevant experience or PhD with at least 10 years of prior relevant experience in engineering or physics.
- Strong technical breadth and depth in support of relevant government markets
- Demonstrated technical leadership
Preferred Qualifications- Experience as a principal investigator or chief engineer of government research and development contracts
- Knowledge of hardware-in-the-loop testing
- Demonstrated ability to author, present, and articulate requirements and associated solutions in settings supporting customers and business development
- Experience in customer relationship building
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Original Posting:March 30, 2026
For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.
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.
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