Lead Systems Engineer

Leidos•Gaithersburg, MD

About The Position

Leidos is seeking an Infrastructure Implementation Engineer to join the Air Traffic Business Area within the Homeland Sector, supporting the design, implementation, and lifecycle management of lab and data center infrastructure. This work is at the forefront of FAA modernization programs that depend on well-engineered software development and test environments to build and validate next-generation air traffic and flight service systems before operational deployment. You own the low-level design layer: rack elevations, wiring lists, port assignments, cable schedules, power budgets, methods of procedure, and as-built documentation. You own the full documentation lifecycle for your labs. You run design reviews, commission installations, maintain configuration baselines, and provide technical direction to hardware technicians. This is a hands-on engineering role. You work closely with the Architect as a technical authority on the lab floor, the technicians ask when reality doesn't match the drawing, and the person responsible for keeping the physical infrastructure documentation accurate, current, and traceable.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in engineering, information technology, computer science, or a related field and at least 4 years of relevant experience, or a master’s degree with at least 2 years of experience.
Demonstrated experience producing detailed infrastructure documentation.
Practical understanding of data center or lab infrastructure: structured cabling, power distribution, rack systems, and network hardware.
Experience with commissioning, validating, or accepting infrastructure installations.
Familiarity with networking fundamentals sufficient to make port-assignment and connectivity decisions (switching, VLANs, patching, fiber/copper media selection).
Proficiency with Visio, CAD, or equivalent diagramming tools for rack layouts, floor plans, and wiring diagrams.
Comfortable working across multiple concurrent projects with shifting priorities and compressed timelines.
Willingness to learn complex, non-standard environments that take time to understand.
Clear and effective verbal and written communication.
Able to translate complex architectural intent into unambiguous, executable work products.
Ability to obtain and maintain a favorable Public Trust investigation.
US Citizenship.

Nice To Haves

Experience with AI-assisted engineering workflows and tool-building (e.g., Claude Code, Copilot, custom automation leveraging large language models for documentation generation, validation, or data extraction).
Net+, CCNA, or equivalent network implementation experience.
Experience with infrastructure source-of-truth platforms (NetBox or similar).
Experience with scripting or automation applied to infrastructure documentation, validation, or data extraction.
Familiarity with configuration management and change-control processes in regulated or quality-managed environments (ISO 9001 or equivalent).
Experience in technical leadership capacity.
Familiarity with data center infrastructure design standards (TIA-942 or similar).
Prior experience in FAA, civil aviation, or government lab environments.

Responsibilities

Develop low-level infrastructure designs from approved architectural concepts, including rack elevation drawings, wiring lists, port/patch-panel assignments, cable schedules, and bills of material.
Produce installation work packages (methods of procedure, sequencing, prerequisites, acceptance criteria) that enable technicians to execute independently and that satisfy corporate and customer deliverable and auditable requirements.
Commission new installations and own punch-list resolution. You confirm implemented state matches design intent, coordinate with system administrators on readiness verification, and drive discrepancies to closure.
Maintain authoritative as-built documentation and configuration baselines. This means processing redlines, reconciling drawings against physical state, keeping version control current, and ensuring you can always trace from design to implementation to change history.
Provide technical work direction to hardware technicians when onsite. You assign tasks from active work packages, keep awareness of progress, resolve field questions against design intent, and redirect effort when priorities shift.
Serve as the engineering escalation point for physical/integration troubleshooting: Layer 1 failures, patching discrepancies, optic faults, power-feed issues, and documentation mismatches.
Lead design reviews for your environments. You prepare and present the review package, defend your implementation decisions, and drive findings to resolution before construction proceeds.
Interface with procurement and engineering departments on hardware delivery and RMA.
Develop and improve engineering standards, templates, labeling schemes, and repeatable deployment processes.
Support compliance implementation by ensuring physical installations conform to applicable security standards, network segmentation requirements, cable-path separation, and labeling standards.