The Intelligence Sector at Leidos has an exciting and strategic opening for a Principal Solution Architect & Innovation Lead to work in our Gaithersburg, MD or Chantilly, VA offices. This is a unique opportunity to use your deep technical expertise and leadership experience to help shape the future of end-to-end space and geospatial intelligence systems. We are seeking a visionary technical leader who thrives on complex challenges, takes ownership of them, and drives their success with innovative solutions that push the envelope. If you are passionate about solving the nation's toughest global monitoring challenges and inspiring teams to deliver groundbreaking results, this role is for you.

In this dynamic role, you will be a go-to technical leader, deployed to solve our customers' most pressing problems and to architect their future-state systems.

Primary Responsibilities

• Technical Strategy & Innovation: Champion and architect innovative, next-generation system solutions. You will lead technical planning and Analysis of Alternatives for high-consequence acquisition decisions, evaluating alternatives based on cost, risk, and supportability for the total system life cycle.
• Proposal & Business Development Leadership: Serve as the technical visionary and lead for high-priority proposal efforts, including RFPs and RFIs. You will shape winning strategies and solutions that align with customer needs and differentiate Leidos in the marketplace.
• Program Execution & Recovery: Act as a technical "first responder" to diagnose and resolve complex issues on challenged programs. You will provide expert-level diagnostics, recovery planning, and hands-on leadership to guide teams back to success.
• Architect Next-Gen Solutions: Design end-to-end solutions that integrate emerging technologies (Generative AI, Computer Vision, Edge Compute) into mission-critical workflows, spanning from sensor collection to final exploitation.
• Customer Engagement & Inspiration: Engage directly with senior government customers, program managers, and stakeholders to understand their challenges, build trust, and inspire confidence. You will translate their mission needs into actionable technical requirements and roadmaps.
• Team Leadership & Mentorship: Lead and mentor dynamic, multi-disciplinary teams, often in transient settings. You will foster a culture of innovation, ownership, and technical excellence, coaching other technical staff to elevate their performance.

Required Qualifications:

• Modern Technical Fluency: While you have extensive tenure, your recent experience (last 5+ years) must demonstrate hands-on leadership in modern architectures:
  • Cloud Native: Architecting solutions on AWS/Azure (Serverless, Containers/Kubernetes, Microservices)
  • Data & AI: Experience integrating Data Fabrics, AI/ML pipelines, or automated processing of overhead sensor data.
• Capture & Proposal Experience: Demonstrated track record of leading technical responses for federal acquisitions. You must be able to deconstruct an RFP L&M (Section L and M) and architect a compliant, winning technical solution.
• Large Development Program Experience: Proven leadership experience in technical planning, system design, and full life cycle systems engineering (requirements analysis, functional analysis, integration, verification, and validation).
• Education & Tenure: BS in Computer Science or related field with 15+ years of relevant experience (MS with 13+ years, or PhD with 10+ years)
• Clearance: Must possess an active TS/SCI security clearance with a polygraph.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Complex Solution Landscapes: Demonstrated experience resolving highly complex, multi-dimensional problems that require consideration of variables impacting multiple aspects of a program.
• GovCon & Domain Expertise: Deep, proven understanding of the Intelligence Community (IC) landscape, specifically space-based architectures, ground processing, GEOINT, and TCPED missions. You must understand the constraints and requirements of classified environments.
• Excellent Writing and Communication Skills: Exceptional communication and presentation skills, with a proven ability to engage and influence senior executive leadership and customers.
• Mission Domain Experience: Direct, hands-on experience supporting satellite ground systems, mission management, or geospatial intelligence programs.
• Large Program Solutioning: Demonstrated success leading the solutioning of capture and proposal efforts for major government contracts.
• Modern Engineering Skills: Experience with modern engineering methodologies such as Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), Agile, and DevSecOps.
• Deep Technical Skills: Familiarity with key technology areas such as cloud architectures (AWS, Azure), Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML), data analytics, and cybersecurity.
• Strong Software Development / R&D Experience: Hands-on experience developing innovative solutions in a modern language (e.g. Java, C++), preferably in both program and R&D settings.

At Leidos, the Principal Solution Architect is more than a technical role—it is a strategic partnership. You will sit at the intersection of mission strategy and technical execution, influencing how our government partners approach their most complex collection and analysis challenges. We offer the stability of an industry leader combined with the autonomy to shape technical tradecraft. If you are seeking a role where your architectural vision directly translates into mission success and business growth, we invite you to lead the way with us.

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.