Division Project Lead

The Leidos Mission Operations Division is both established and growing. Our Mission Operations Program Operations team provides functional support for this $590M+ and growing, worldwide organization across 14 current contracts / task orders along with both on-contract and competitive growth opportunities. Within the Mission Operations Division is the GSM-O II IDIQ program with a worldwide team currently supporting multiple active task orders on an IDIQ with a $6.5B ceiling and $3.2B current lifecycle value with a period of performance into 2030 along with task orders on the SETI IDIQ and other programs. The division Program Operations Organization has functional responsibilities including finance, contracts, subcontracts, proposal operations, past performance, quality, HR and talent acquisition, and process operations including security, data management, and infrastructure.

The Program Operations team has an opportunity for a hands-on project leader to lead in a collaborative, business-relevant environment having a direct impact on P&L. This is a high-paced environment with over 70 projects on average per year across concurrent task orders. The successful candidate will serve as the end-to-end project lead for complex customer-driven projects and business actions, including ROM requests, RFP-driven tasking, cost/business analyses, and other division priorities requiring coordinated technical, operational, contractual, and financial inputs. The role combines project leadership, cross-functional execution, advanced Excel-based analysis, cost and resource planning, risk management, and leadership-ready communication. The successful candidate must take initiative, work effectively through ambiguity, manage multiple concurrent priorities, and independently drive assigned efforts from intake through final delivery.

This role includes defining and leading projects from initial requirement intake and decomposition through planning, execution, review, approval, delivery, and closeout across multiple professional areas. The Project Leader engages task order PMs, technical leads and SMEs, Finance/Pricing, Contracts, Subcontracts, Procurement, Quality/Security, and other functional areas to clarify scope, establish assumptions and dependencies, identify data gaps and decisions, define the execution approach, and integrate required inputs. The Project Leader also leads strategic planning and Basis of Estimate (BOE) development sessions to translate technical solutions into workload drivers, staffing assumptions, labor categories, hours, periods of performance, and documented estimating rationale. The Project Leader is accountable for scope, schedule, resources, risks, quality, and the completeness, accuracy, traceability, compliance, and timely delivery of the overall project effort.

As part of defining and leading projects to meet mission, customer, and Leidos business objectives, the role requires expert knowledge of Leidos and division-specific project and business operations processes, including ROM and RFP-driven tasking. The Project Leader applies advanced principles and concepts, analyzes detailed technical, financial, and operational information, translates findings into recommendations and actions, influences project/team leaders, and identifies meaningful improvements to division processes and individual projects. This role requires a high degree of initiative and ownership: the Project Leader is expected to proactively identify and resolve obstacles, establish accountability across the team, escalate decisions when required, and drive commitments to closure without continual direction.

The successful candidate will possess a strong combination of operational experience, advanced business process knowledge, financial and analytical expertise, and advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel. The role requires hands-on experience organizing, manipulating, and analyzing complex datasets; building and interpreting PivotTables and PivotCharts; using advanced formulas and functions; performing actuals, target-rate, reconciliation, trend, variance, labor-mix, and scenario analysis; and working directly within structured Excel-based cost and resource models. The candidate must be comfortable developing and validating model inputs, reconciling outputs, preparing structured data for system uploads, integrating labor and non-labor inputs, and producing leadership-ready summaries of scope, assumptions, cost drivers, deltas, risks, and decisions. The ideal candidate is a proactive, detail-oriented project leader who can operate at both the strategic and detailed level, lead PMs and technical SMEs through planning and BOE development, and personally drive complex work from start to finish.

Primary Responsibilities

• Lead complex customer-driven projects and business actions from initial requirements through final delivery, including ROM requests, RFP-driven tasking, cost/business analyses, and other division priorities; maintain end-to-end accountability for requirements, scope, schedule, resources, risks, cross-functional execution, reviews, approvals, and final project deliverables.
• Lead requirements decomposition and strategic planning sessions with Program Managers, technical leads, SMEs, and functional stakeholders to clarify scope, identify assumptions and dependencies, surface data gaps and decisions, define execution approaches, and establish actionable plans.
• Lead BOE development sessions that translate technical solutions into workload drivers, staffing assumptions, labor categories, hours, periods of performance, and documented estimating rationale; ask probing questions and challenge inputs to ensure estimates are supportable and aligned to the proposed solution.
• Perform hands-on Microsoft Excel analysis and data manipulation, including data cleanup, advanced formulas and functions, lookups, PivotTables and PivotCharts, reconciliation, data modeling, actuals analysis, target-rate analysis, labor-mix assessment, trend and variance analysis, scenario/what-if analysis, and repeatable reporting.
• Work directly within structured Excel-based cost and resource models to develop, validate, reconcile, and quality-check labor, material, subcontractor, travel, and other inputs; prepare and validate structured data for system uploads; and verify model outputs against source assumptions and supporting documentation.
• Maintain traceability across customer requirements, technical approach, BOE assumptions, staffing, material and subcontractor inputs, cost models, CLIN structures, schedules, and final deliverables to ensure the complete project package is internally consistent and supportable.
• Coordinate and integrate inputs from task order PMs, technical SMEs, Finance/Pricing, Contracts, Subcontracts/Procurement, Quality/Security, and other stakeholders; obtain and integrate vendor quotes and BOM inputs; proactively identify gaps, challenge assumptions, resolve disconnects, and drive required actions and decisions to closure.
• Develop and present leadership-ready summaries that clearly communicate scope, solution, key assumptions, cost drivers, deltas, risks, alternatives, and decisions required; lead working-level and leadership reviews through approval and synthesize complex technical, financial, contractual, and operational information for leadership and customer audiences.
• Perform detailed quality reviews of analytical models, BOEs, schedules, cost inputs, assumptions, supporting documentation, and final deliverables to ensure completeness, mathematical accuracy, internal consistency, compliance, and readiness for leadership/customer review.
• Manage multiple concurrent, high-priority efforts with competing deadlines, independently reassessing priorities, communicating impacts, and maintaining quality and schedule discipline during surge periods.
• Identify recurring execution gaps and implement practical improvements, reusable templates, analytical tools, estimating constructs, and standard work that improve quality, speed, consistency, and organizational scalability; coach, review, and delegate work to less experienced team members as needed.

Basic Qualifications

• Typically requires a BS degree and 8-12 years of prior relevant experience or a Master's degree with 6-10 years of prior relevant experience. May possess a Doctorate in a technical domain.
• Expert knowledge of and ability to apply advanced project/program management principles and concepts, Leidos processes, and Mission Operations Division processes, including experience leading complex customer-driven projects from ambiguous requirements through final delivery across multiple professional areas.
• Advanced analytical skills with expert proficiency in Microsoft Excel, including data manipulation and cleanup, advanced formulas and functions, lookups, PivotTables and PivotCharts, data modeling, reconciliation, actuals analysis, target-rate analysis, labor-mix analysis, trend and variance analysis, scenario/what-if analysis, and complex reporting; demonstrated ability to analyze large datasets and convert results into actionable insights is required.
• Demonstrated experience facilitating strategic planning and solution-development sessions with Program Managers, technical leads, and SMEs and translating requirements and technical approaches into BOEs, staffing/resource estimates, workload drivers, or analogous bottom-up estimating outputs.
• Demonstrated experience working with financial, cost, resource, or estimating models; validating model inputs and outputs; reconciling multiple data sources; and identifying discrepancies that require resolution.
• Demonstrated experience independently owning complex customer-driven projects or comparable cross-functional efforts from initiation through completion, including ROM requests and RFP-driven tasking, requirements, scope, schedule, resources, supporting data, risks, stakeholder coordination, reviews, approvals, actions, and final deliverables.
• Strong verbal, written, facilitation, and presentation skills with demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional planning sessions, communicate complex requirements clearly, challenge assumptions constructively, and drive teams toward decisions and actionable outputs.
• Effective leadership and interpersonal skills with the ability to influence without direct authority, delegate work, hold stakeholders accountable for inputs and due dates, resolve conflict, and drive issues and decisions to closure.
• Demonstrated ability to operate at both the strategic and detailed level - understanding the overall business and mission objective while personally validating detailed schedules, assumptions, calculations, source data, and supporting documentation.
• Expertise in Microsoft Office applications, particularly Excel and PowerPoint.
• Experience working effectively in a virtual team environment across multiple time zones and ability to support infrequent travel and occasional surge requirements.
• Demonstrated ability to coach, mentor, review, and delegate work to less experienced team members.
• Demonstrated experience implementing process, reporting, analytical, estimating, or model improvements that increase operational efficiency, quality, consistency, and effectiveness.
• Active DoD Secret clearance with the ability to obtain a Top-Secret clearance.

Preferred Qualifications

• Government contracting experience, including IDIQ/task-order environments and familiarity with PWS requirements, CLIN structures, periods of performance, labor categories, BOEs, BOMs, and contract types.
• Experience with business strategy, business operations, financial/cost analysis, actuals and target-rate analysis, or complex customer-driven tasking in government contracting environments.
• Experience with complex Excel-based financial/cost/resource models, model reconciliation, structured cost-system uploads, vendor/subcontractor inputs, and development of leadership-ready business recommendations.
• Strong internal/external customer interface skills and experience presenting analytical findings, risks, tradeoffs, and recommendations to senior stakeholders.

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:

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:

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.

Originally posted on Himalayas