Engineering Lead, Inner Developer Loop

Description

"Wanted:
An engineer who obsesses over the first hour—and makes it count for thousands of people."

Leidos is transforming how thousands of engineers build mission-critical software. That transformation starts before the first git commit—it starts the moment a developer opens their laptop.

Today, that moment takes weeks. New engineers file tickets, wait for access, manually configure their environment, and stumble through tribal knowledge before they can contribute. We're ending that.

This role exists to lead a team that completely reimagines the inner developer loop: the workstation, what's on it, how it connects to enterprise systems, how developers get what they need without waiting on anyone—and yes, how AI‑powered development tools become a first‑class part of that experience from day one. You'll lead the engineers who build that future.

This is not an IT role. This is not a Dev Ops role. This is not a tools evangelism role.

This is about proving—through systems you build, environments you ship, and experiences you create—that world‑class developer experience is possible inside a large, complex, security‑constrained organization.

The inner developer loop is where productivity is won or lost. When it works, engineers spend their time on mission software. When it doesn't, they spend their time fighting their tools, waiting for access, and re‑solving problems that hundreds of their colleagues already solved last month.

You’ll change that. You’ll lead a team that makes the first hour count—and keeps counting every day after. You'll make AI‑powered development a seamless part of how Leidos engineers work. And you'll help establish what great developer experience looks like at enterprise scale, in one of the largest engineering organizations supporting national security.

• Lead a team building the inner dev loop. Own the end‑to‑end experience from laptop‑in‑box to first pull request: workstation imaging and configuration, privilege and access workflows, enterprise connectivity, developer tooling, and the AI‑powered development environment that ties it all together.
• Turn "weeks to onboard" into "ready in an hour." The benchmark is real: a developer receives their machine, opens it, and is writing code for their team within their first hour. Your team designs and builds the systems that make that possible at enterprise scale.
• Make agentic development tools a first‑class citizen. AI coding tools aren't a plugin someone installs later—they're part of the standard environment your team ships. You also ensure developers actually know how to use them well: the workflows, the review patterns, the practices that separate real productivity gains from novelty.
• Lead by building. This is not a program management role. You write code, review code, and architect solutions alongside your team. Your credibility comes from what you ship.
• Engage deeply with program teams. Your team's work only succeeds if it fits how real engineering teams operate. You stay connected to 3–5 active programs, understand their constraints, and bring those lessons back to improve what you're building.
• Drive measurable impact. Success shows up in the metrics: onboarding time collapses, developer satisfaction improves, AI tool adoption climbs, and teams spend less time wrestling with their environment and more time delivering mission software.
• Stay ahead of the curve. Continuously evaluate emerging tools and practices—in workstation management, developer environments, and agentic development—and incorporate what's worth adopting into the enterprise standard.

• A builder first. You love writing code. You've shipped production systems that matter. You don't just talk about software quality—you deliver it, and you lead teams that do the same.
• A platform thinker. You understand that developer tooling is a product. You've built or maintained systems that other engineers depend on—and you know what it takes to earn and keep their trust.
• T‑shaped depth. You have deep expertise in at least one domain (systems engineering, Dev Ops/platform engineering, developer tooling, infrastructure, etc.) and enough…