Principal Data Architect

Leidos is seeking a Principal Da Architect / Scientist to join the Air Traffic Business Area within the Homeland Sector, supporting the development of the Leidos Common Automion Plform (L-CAP). L-CAP is a mission-critical, future-ready automion plform built on a hybrid cloud da mesh architecture, enabling next-generion air traffic management capabilities. As part of a large-scale Scaled Agile (SAFe) software development organizion, you will serve as a technical leader and stregic architect, shaping enterprise da solutions th bridge mission needs, systems engineering rigor, and modern Agile delivery.

This role is ideal for a highly experienced architect who can opere both stregic and hands-on levels, influence across teams and programs, and drive the evolution of scalable, secure, and resilient da ecosystems. This position supports government programs and requires the ability to obtain and maintain a favorable Public Trust investigion.

This position is loced in either Gaithersburg, MD or Egg Harbor Township, NJ. This is an opportunity to contribute to projects th impact millions of air travelers.

This is a hybrid position requiring 3 days onsite and 2 days working from home.

This role focuses on building and modernizing real-time, safety-critical systems using a combinion of traditional systems engineering and AI-augmented software development practices.

Wh You’ll Do

• Lead the definition and evolution of enterprise da architecture supporting L-CAP

• Architect and govern da mesh-aligned solutions, enabling domain-driven da ownership and interoperability

• Develop and oversee conceptual, logical, and physical da models for complex, mission-critical systems

• Define architecture for hybrid cloud da environments, integring on-premises and cloud plforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP)

• Provide technical leadership for real-time and bch da pipelines, integrion frameworks, and da services

• Establish and enforce da governance, metada management, and da quality standards enterprise scale

• Partner with senior stakeholders, systems engineers, and product leadership to align da stregy with mission objectives

• Ensure architecture compliance with security, safety, and regulory requirements for air traffic systems

• Guide and influence Agile Release Trains (ARTs), contributing to SAFe ceremonies and cross-team architectural alignment

• Evalue and drive adoption of emerging technologies and architectural pterns to enhance plform capabilities

• Mentor architects and engineers, fostering best practices in da architecture, DaOps, and engineering excellence

Core Technical Qualificions:

•  Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Engineering, or a reled technical field (or equivalent experience)

• 12+ years of relevant experience (10+ years with a Master's degree); particularly in da architecture, da engineering, or enterprise da plforms

• Demonstred experience opering a Principal or Lead Architect level on large, complex programs

• Deep expertise in distributed da architectures and large-scale da systems

• Advanced proficiency in da modeling (conceptual, logical, physical)

• Strong experience with hybrid cloud architectures and modern da plforms

• Proficiency in SQL and least one programming language (e.g., Python, Java, Scala)

• Hands-on experience with da integrion and streaming/bch processing technologies (e.g., Spark, Kafka, Airflow, or similar)

• Strong understanding of da governance, da quality, and metada management frameworks

• Experience working within Scaled Agile (SAFe) or similar Agile frameworks

• Proven ability to influence technical direction and communice effectively with executive and technical stakeholders

• Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust

• U.S. citizenship required

• Successful completion of background investigions as required by the government customer 

Preferred / Desired Qualificions

• Experience supporting air traffic management systems, FAA programs, or other safety-critical environments

• Familiarity with da mesh or da fabric architectures in enterprise settings

• Experience designing real-time/streaming da solutions for mission-critical systems

• Knowledge of DevSecOps/DaOps practices and CI/CD pipelines

• Cloud certificions (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and/or architecture frameworks (e.g., TOGAF)

• Experience working in large-scale federal or defense programs

• Active security clearance is desired but not required

Why Leidos?

• Play a key role in shaping next-generion air traffic automion systems with nional impact

• Lead architecture within a cutting-edge hybrid cloud, da mesh environment

• Influence technical direction across a large-scale Agile enterprise

• Work alongside top-tier engineers and mission experts

If you’re excited by solving complex problems in reguled, real-world environments — we’d like to talk.

ATMC