Lead DevSecOps Platform Engineer

Leidos is seeking Lead DevSecOps Platform Engineers to join the Air Traffic Business Area within the Homeland Sector, supporting the development of next-generation flight service and air traffic systems. This work aligns with the FAA's broader initiative to modernize legacy flight service capabilities, replacing aging infrastructure with scalable, cloud-based platforms designed to improve safety and operational efficiency—particularly in remote and high-dependency aviation environments. These efforts focus on delivering mission-critical, future-ready solutions that provide safety-critical flight services to the pilot community.

Please note, this exciting position is currently unfunded and is in anticipation of future work.

In this position, you will serve as a Lead DevSecOps Platform Engineer supporting Agile software development teams through the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of secure software delivery platforms and automated development pipelines. You will be responsible for enabling automated build, test, security scanning, deployment, and release processes while integrating security throughout the software development lifecycle.

This role is primarily responsible for the software delivery platform, GitLab administration, CI/CD pipelines, deployment automation, and developer enablement. Cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes platform administration, and cloud operations are performed in close partnership with the Cloud Systems Owner team. Working closely with software engineers, Cloud Systems Owners, systems engineers, cybersecurity personnel, Product Owners, and solution architects, you will help ensure software can be developed, validated, and deployed rapidly while meeting the operational, security, and compliance requirements of mission-critical FAA applications.

This position supports government programs and requires the ability to obtain and maintain a favorable Public Trust investigation.

Primary Responsibilities

• Own the implementation and operation of software delivery pipelines, from build through production release
• Develop, administer, and maintain automated build, test, deployment, and release workflows using GitLab CI/CD, GitLab Runners, AWS CodePipeline, AWS CodeBuild, and related automation technologies.
• Administer GitLab platform infrastructure (projects, groups, runners, repositories, and permissions), and develop reusable CI/CD templates and pipeline libraries adopted across Agile teams.
• Integrate automated security capabilities into software delivery pipelines, including static application security testing (SAST), software composition analysis (SCA), container image scanning, secrets detection, Infrastructure-as-Code scanning, and software supply chain security.
• Design and maintain automated deployment strategies for Kubernetes-based applications utilizing Helm, GitOps methodologies, and progressive deployment techniques.
• Configure and administer GitLab Container Registry, package repositories, artifact repositories, and software dependency management solutions supporting secure software delivery.
• Collaborate with Cloud Systems Owners to ensure cloud platforms effectively support automated software deployment, scalability, operational monitoring, and application reliability.
• Partner with software development teams to improve build reliability, deployment consistency, release quality, and developer productivity through automation and self-service engineering capabilities.
• Work closely with cybersecurity teams to integrate security throughout the software development lifecycle and ensure compliance with organizational security requirements.
• Troubleshoot build failures, deployment issues, pipeline performance, dependency management, and software delivery problems across development, integration, and production environments.
• Develop and maintain pipeline documentation, deployment procedures, release management processes, operational guidance, and engineering standards.
• Participate in Agile ceremonies while supporting multiple software development teams through automation, continuous integration, and continuous delivery.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, Engineering, or related field with 4–8 years of relevant experience, or Master's degree with 2–6 years of experience.
• Experience designing, implementing, and maintaining secure CI/CD pipelines supporting enterprise software development.
• Experience developing and administering GitLab CI/CD pipelines, including GitLab Runners, pipeline templates, variables, artifacts, deployment workflows, and pipeline optimization.
• Experience administering GitLab repositories, merge requests, branching strategies, repository permissions, and source code management workflows.
• Experience developing Infrastructure as Code using Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, or similar technologies.
• Experience deploying containerized applications (Docker, Kubernetes) using Helm or comparable tools.
• Experience developing automation using Bash, Python, or similar scripting languages.
• Familiarity with Linux administration and command-line tools.
• Experience with AWS cloud services supporting modern application deployments.
• Knowledge of software supply chain security, secrets management, dependency management, and secure software development practices.
• Experience integrating automated testing and security scanning into CI/CD pipelines.
• Strong troubleshooting, communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to obtain an SF-85 Public Trust suitability determination.
• US Citizenship.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting FAA, DoD, or other Federal software development programs.
• Knowledge of DevSecOps methodologies and modern cloud-native software engineering practices.
• Experience implementing GitOps deployment methodologies using GitLab and Kubernetes.
• Experience with security scanning tools such as GitLab Ultimate Security, SonarQube, Checkmarx, Veracode, Snyk, Trivy, or similar technologies.
• Experience administering GitLab Container Registry, Nexus Repository Manager, Artifactory, or comparable artifact management solutions.
• Experience supporting cloud-native application development using Kubernetes and AWS.
• Experience implementing automated testing, quality gates, and deployment approvals within CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience supporting Agile and SAFe software development organizations.
• AWS, GitLab, Kubernetes, Terraform, or comparable industry certifications.

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:

Pay Range:

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.