Test and Evaluation Lead

Description

The Air Traffic Business Area within the Homeland Sector is seeking a Test and Evaluation (T&E) Lead to define strategy and lead execution of the test mission for the Leidos Common Automation Platform (L-CAP). L-CAP is a mission-critical, future‑ready automation platform built on a hybrid cloud data mesh architecture, enabling next‑generation air traffic management capabilities for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

As part of a large‑scale Scaled Agile (SAFe) software development organization, you will lead the establishment of T&E processes, strategy, planning, execution, and reporting across the program.

The successful candidate will be responsible for transforming how testing and mission validation are performed on a large-scale, safety‑critical system. This role will establish the vision, strategy, tools, automation framework, and organizational approach for validating a continuously evolving platform operating within a highly regulated environment.

Location:

The position is located in Gaithersburg, MD or Egg Harbor Township, NJ. This is a hybrid position requiring 3 days onsite and 2 days working from home.

• Define and implement a modern quality engineering strategy focused on automation, continuous testing, system monitoring, simulation, and risk‑based test planning.
• Establish AI‑assisted and model‑based testing methods to improve test coverage, accelerate testing, and identify defects earlier.
• Lead the development of test environments, simulation capabilities, synthetic test data, and digital system models to support validation before deployment.
• Develop methods for validating systems in real‑world operations using production data, system monitoring, operational replay, and performance analysis.
• Promote early and continuous quality practices across systems engineering, software development, cybersecurity, and operations teams.
• Establish automated testing pipelines that support continuous integration and continuous software delivery.
• Develop resilience testing approaches that verify system behavior during failures, recovery events, degraded operations, and unexpected conditions.
• Define quality metrics that measure operational performance, mission success, system reliability, and user experience rather than simply counting completed tests.
• Evaluate the use of AI and machine learning to improve test creation, defect prediction, anomaly detection, and system validation.
• Lead the development and execution of the T&E strategy for L-CAP, encompassing developmental testing (DT), operational testing (OT), and integrated testing.
• Develop and maintain the Test and Evaluation Master Plan (TEMP), test procedures, and associated documentation in alignment with FAA and DoD T&E standards.
• Lead a multidisciplinary T&E team, including test engineers, analysts, and lab/field test personnel.
• Establish verification and validation (V&V) frameworks that ensure system safety, performance, and compliance with FAA requirements.
• Plan and execute test events across lab, simulation, and operational environments.
• Interface with FAA stakeholders, providing test status, risk assessments, and readiness recommendations.
• Ensure compliance with safety‑critical system testing standards, including DO-278A and applicable FAA orders.
• Lead test readiness reviews (TRRs), test incident resolution, and lessons‑learned processes.

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Systems Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• 12+ years of experience in test and evaluation for complex systems.
• Demonstrated experience performing T&E on large-scale, safety‑critical systems.
• Strong knowledge of T&E planning and execution methodologies (TEMP, test procedures, test reporting).
• Experience with verification and validation frameworks, requirements traceability, and defect management.
• Familiarity with Agile/SAFe development environments and integrating T&E into iterative delivery cycles.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to brief leadership, customers, and stakeholders on test readiness and risk.
• Experience working with test labs, simulation environments, or…