Job Description

The Defense Sector, Space Business Area at Leidos currently has an opening for the Senior Director of Engineering for Space to work in our San Diego, California office. This is an exciting opportunity to use your experience helping the Space Business Area develop its engineering team in support of multiple mission areas. The Space BA supports multiple agencies with their Missile Warning/Tracking/Defense missions and is working to insert new technology into various space sensing missions. Additionally, we are currently supporting the ground side of the space missions with several efforts. Our team is building a solid foundation upon which to grow across the Sensing and Ground opportunities in Space.

Primary Responsibilities.

As the Sr. Director of Engineering Space for the Space BA, you will be working with group of highly talented and skilled individuals to design and develop, build, test and deliver products across a range of Sensor Payloads and Ground solutions to our customers. Leading the Engineering Matrix, you will provide support and guidance in order to apply advanced technologies in the development of new products, materials or processes.

You will be a key point of contact for establishing and maintaining vendor/client relations and new business development by representing the skills and capabilities of our engineering team.

The Sr. Director of Engineering Space coordinates with all of the business area leadership to develop the strategic plans for the engineering function over the short, middle and long-term that align to our goals for product development, delivery and growth.

As the head of the Engineering organization, you will be called upon to provide technical advice/input that contribute to developing new solutions, processes, standards or operational plans that position Leidos competitively in the marketplace.

Functional Management Responsibilities:

• Mentors and coaches other technical staff.

• Proposing project and program budgets.

• Hiring and supervising staff.

• Making determinations for staff and training needs.

• Instilling the appropriate tools and equipment and supported training and operating procedures.

• Supervising the work of multiple teams, including ensuring technical accuracy.

• Ensuring the validity of methods used by staff.

• Coordinating work with other managers and staff.

Program Support Responsibilities:

• Planning and executing strategies for completing projects on time and on budget.

• Leading research and development projects that produce new designs, products, and processes.

• Developing an updated engineering culture focused on delivering on-time and on-budget, with an ownership of the need to build a producible/repeatable product

• Step in if needed to assist and guide resolution of highly complex and multi-dimensional problems requiring consideration of variables that impact multiple aspects of the project/program.

Basic Qualifications

• Typically requires Bachelors with at least 25 years of prior relevant experience, or Masters with 15+ years of prior relevant experience, or Doctorate with 13+ years of prior relevant experience.

• Experience leading a team of leaders.

• Demonstrated experience managing an engineering team using modern tools.

• Must be reliable and demonstrate a high standard of personal integrity.

• Must have the ability to work independently with little supervision.

• Must have the ability to communicate with senior executive leadership (internally or client) regarding matters of strategic importance to the organization/project.

• Must apply management techniques that emphasize negotiation and compromise to convince internal and external parties to accept concepts, practices and approaches to solutions.

• U.S. Citizenship and current U.S. passport.

• Candidate must reside in the San Diego, CA area or be willing to relocate to the area.

• Current Secret clearance and eligibility for a Top Secret clearance is required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong skills leveraging Microsoft 365 products including Microsoft Project and Visio

• Experience with implementing digital tools such as the Atlassian tool suite (Confluence, JIRA, Bitbucket) Experience with GitLab suite of products

• Experience with Enterprise common tool approach, such as SharePoint, Windchill PLM, Solumina

• Experience with Integration of Optical Systems, RF Systems, Space Systems, Test Equipment, Ground Equipment

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:

May 20, 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.