Chief Architect

Company: Leidos
Location: Gaithersburg
Posted on: January 5, 2026

Job Description:

Job Description Description Leidos’ Transportation Solutions helps the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and international providers of air traffic systems to modernize infrastructure, systems and security. We are a trusted partner of the Federal Aviation Administration and regulated international customers looking for transformative solutions to mission critical operations. Our customers take on the toughest challenges out there to make our world safer and more efficient. We are seeking an energetic and dynamic Chief Architect with experience architecting and implementing mission and safety critical systems to provide technical leadership for our organization. The successful candidate will serve as the lead technical authority guiding architectural design, systems integration, and enterprise strategy across a high-visibility air traffic modernization initiative. The Chief Architect will work closely with our customer leadership, mission stakeholders, and other contractors to develop and implement a scalable, secure, and resilient enterprise architecture supporting the air traffic management domain. This role will lead a team of Architects serving multiple programs in the Transportation Solutions Business Area. Primary Responsibilities: ? Define, design, and validate architectures for large-scale FAA automation systems, ensuring alignment with enterprise goals and regulatory requirements. Develop strategies to integrate new technologies into existing FAA infrastructures for mission-critical air traffic data functions. Collaborate with FAA leadership, engineering teams, and contractors to align architectural approaches with program objectives and industry best practices. Conduct cost-benefit analyses and trade studies to identify optimal solutions using commercial off-the-shelf products, reusable components, and custom designs. Ensure compliance with FAA technical frameworks, security standards, and interoperability requirements. Identify and evaluate emerging technologies, recommending strategies for adoption to enhance FAA automation capabilities. Provide technical guidance, mentoring, and oversight to engineering teams for consistent and high-quality design outcomes. Present clear insights on architectural tradeoffs, risks, and recommendations to FAA stakeholders and executive leadership. Prepare for and lead technical readiness reviews. Author white papers, prepare technical demonstrations, and deliver capability briefings to potential customers. Lead development of written and oral technical proposals, to include support for internal reviews and adjudication of feedback. Produce technical roadmaps that advance the technical baseline and address both the technical and the business factors. Basic Qualifications BS degree and 15 – 20 years of prior relevant experience or Masters with 13 – 15 years of prior relevant experience. May possess a Doctorate in technical domain. Extensive experience with FAA programs and deep knowledge of NAS Automation architectures. Expertise in designing, evaluating, and integrating large-scale automation systems for mission-critical environments. Proven leadership in developing architectures across multiple domains, ensuring performance, security, scalability, and interoperability. Strong leadership and communication skills. Prior experience managing geographically dispersed teams. Strong collaboration skills with FAA stakeholders, contractors, and engineering teams to align solutions with program objectives. Ability to translate complex technical requirements into practical, reliable, and future-ready solutions. Eligibility to obtain and maintain a Public Trust clearance. 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: November 7, 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 $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. About Leidos Leidos is an industry and technology leader serving government and commercial customers with smarter, more efficient digital and mission innovations. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with 47,000 global employees, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $16.7 billion for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2025. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com. Pay and Benefits Pay and benefits are fundamental to any career decision. That's why we craft compensation packages that reflect the importance of the work we do for our customers. Employment benefits include competitive compensation, Health and Wellness programs, Income Protection, Paid Leave and Retirement. More details are available at www.leidos.com/careers/pay -benefits. Securing Your Data Beware of fake employment opportunities using Leidos’ name. Leidos will never ask you to provide payment-related information during any part of the employment application process (i.e., ask you for money), nor will Leidos ever advance money as part of the hiring process (i.e., send you a check or money order before doing any work). Further, Leidos will only communicate with you through emails that are generated by the Leidos.com automated system – never from free commercial services (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail) or via WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. If you received an email purporting to be from Leidos that asks for payment-related information or any other personal information (e.g., about you or your previous employer), and you are concerned about its legitimacy, please make us aware immediately by emailing us at LeidosCareersFraud@leidos.com. If you believe you are the victim of a scam, contact your local law enforcement and report the incident to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Commitment to Non-Discrimination All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, ethnicity, age, national origin, citizenship, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, pregnancy, family structure, marital status, ancestry, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Leidos will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with relevant laws.

Keywords: Leidos, Lancaster , Chief Architect, IT / Software / Systems , Gaithersburg, Pennsylvania