Principal Systems Engineer

Leidos is seeking a Systems Engineer who will be a member of a dynamic team who will be working on the United Kingdom's National Air Traffic Services (NATS) Flight Data Processing Replacement (FDP-R) program. FDP-R is a system that will modernize and enhance the Flight Data Processing system to increase efficiency and performance of the UK National Airspace System (NAS). This system will seamlessly integrate into the NATS ecosystem, serving as a robust and reliable replacement for the current operational NAS.

Location: Gaithersburg/Virtual

Responsibilities:

• Lead team to design and develop architectural and systems solutions white papers
• Lead and coordinate process and baseline updates to requirements and architectural diagrams
• Track and report execution status, generating detailed reports and artifact packages for stakeholders and clients.
• Manage and track schedules, risks, opportunities, defects, change requests, and action items.
• Facilitate planning meetings, peer reviews, and customer-facing sessions to align on objectives and schedules.
• Collaborate with developers, integrators, and schedulers to ensure schedules are in alignment with project timelines.
• Mentor and train team members on tools, processes, and applications.
• Support the development and updating of systems engineering documentation, such as requirements verification matrices and architectural design documents.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited college in a related discipline with 12+ years of professional experience; or a master's degree from an accredited college in a related discipline with 10+ years of professional experience.
• Ability to obtain an SF-85P Public Trust clearance from the FAA customer.
• Experience leading and directing activities of a team
• Experience with workload, staffing and schedule management
• Strong communication skills to interface with internal and external customers
• Air Traffic Knowledge and experience working on Air Traffic programs
• Experience with conducting technical reviews with a government agency / customer

Desired Skills:

• The successful candidate will possess advanced leadership skills and the ability to work independently
• A good academic understanding and/or exposure to system engineering practices to contribute to and/or assist with system integration, requirements engineering, operational and decision analysis, systems definition, requirements baseline control and management.
• Highly organized, demonstrating the ability to work independently at times due to fast-paced and highly productive work environment

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:
December 11, 2025

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 $131,300.00 - $237,350.00

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.