Quality Assurance Engineer Lead

Leidos has an opening for a Quality Assurance Engineer Lead to support the U.S. Army C5

ISR Center, Defensive Cyber Solutions Branch (DCSB) Cerberus Defensive Cyber Operations (DCO) Support program in Adelphi, Maryland. This is an opportunity to lead Quality Engineering and Mission Assurance for a complex, mission-critical cyber program supporting the U.S. Army and Department of Defense. As the program's senior quality subject matter expert and primary quality advisor to the Program Manager, you will help ensure contractual and mission requirements are translated into effective quality controls, measurable performance, and objective evidence of successful execution.

You will partner with program leadership, technical teams, functional leads, subcontractors, and Leidos QEC leadership to identify performance risks early, drive effective corrective action, strengthen program execution, and lead continual improvement across the program.

Location:

Hybrid - 3 days on site at Adelphi, MD

Clearance: U.S. Citizenship with an active Secret clearance

• Serve as the lead Quality Engineering subject matter expert and primary quality advisor to the Program Manager.
• Lead implementation, maintenance, and continual improvement of the DCSB Cerberus DCO Support Quality Control Plan (QCP).
• Establish and maintain traceability between the Performance Work Statement (PWS), Performance Requirements Summary (PRS), Contract Data Requirements Lists (CDRLs), program quality controls, performance measures, and objective evidence.
• Monitor program performance against the Government's PRS performance requirements and identify emerging risks and adverse trends before they affect mission or contractual performance.
• Develop and maintain quality and performance measures, dashboards, trend analyses, and management-level reporting.
• Plan and conduct internal quality reviews, process assessments, audits, inspections, and other quality-control activities.
• Coordinate internal quality reviews of contractual deliverables and CDRLs prior to Government submission.
• Evaluate nonconformities, requirement escapes, recurring deficiencies, Government/customer concerns, and other quality or performance issues.
• Lead or facilitate Causal Analysis and Root Cause Analysis (CA/RCA) for significant, systemic, or recurring issues.
• Develop, monitor, and verify corrective actions through implementation, effectiveness verification, and closure.
• Maintain quality records and objective evidence supporting contractual compliance and Government performance surveillance.
• Support and/or facilitate Quality Management Reviews (QMRs), Performance Management Working Groups (PMWGs), Monthly Operating Reviews (MORs), and other program governance activities.
• Provide independent assessment and escalation of significant quality, technical, contractual, schedule, staffing, security, property, procurement, and performance risks.
• Support subcontractor quality and performance oversight in coordination with Program and Subcontract Management.
• Identify and lead continual improvement, risk-reduction, and process-improvement initiatives using data-driven quality methodologies.
• Support internal and independent QMS assessments and ensure findings and resulting actions are effectively resolved.
• Collaborate with QEC and Mission Assurance leadership and facilitate significant unresolved quality or performance concerns through appropriate governance channels.

• Program leadership has timely, objective visibility into quality and performance.
• PRS performance is proactively monitored, and emerging risks are identified before they become contractual deficiencies.
• Contract deliverables are complete, accurate, timely, and supported by appropriate quality reviews.
• Quality issues are identified early, causes are understood, and corrective actions are effective.
• Quality records provide clear objective evidence of program performance.
• Technical and functional teams view Quality as an integrated partner in mission execution rather than a final inspection function.
• Lessons learned, performance data, and customer feedback result in measurable improvements to program execution.
• Leverage enterprise tools and platforms (e.g., SharePoint, Configuration Management repositories, AI-enabled analytics tools, and program governance systems) to enhance reporting transparency, operational visibility, and decision support.
• Contribute to enterprise-level quality strategy…