Senior Chief IaaS Engineer

Join the Leidos Homeland Sector in a senior technical leadership role supporting a high-impact international program. As the Senior Chief Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Engineer, you will lead the design, development, integration, and implementation of IaaS capabilities enabling the fully automated deployment of a VMware-based private cloud Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) within a NATO-secured environment.

You will serve as the program’s technical authority for IaaS engineering, shaping infrastructure architecture, virtualization, automation, and platform modernization. Your work will deliver secure, scalable, resilient infrastructure platforms supporting Enterprise Core Services (ECS), Client Provisioning Services (CPS), DevOps, and Service Management Control (SMC), while ensuring alignment with program objectives, engineering standards, and NATO security requirements.

In this highly visible role, you will lead and coordinate the Platform, Network, Firewall, and Backup and Recovery engineering disciplines to deliver a fully integrated private cloud capability. You will maintain technical oversight of both automation and physical implementation activities, ensuring deployed solutions align with the approved architecture and customer requirements. You will also provide technical leadership for Agile engineering delivery through backlog management, sprint planning, roadmap development, dependency resolution, and cross-team coordination.

This position offers an exciting opportunity to work directly with international customers and technical partners, with approximately 25% travel to The Hague, Netherlands, and other NATO locations as needed to support solution integration, implementation, testing, and customer acceptance. It is an ideal opportunity for a senior engineering leader interested in advancing mission-critical cloud capabilities while gaining valuable international program experience.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the design, development, integration, and implementation of enterprise Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solutions supporting private cloud SDDC modernization initiatives.

• Serve as the technical authority for VMware-based private cloud infrastructure, ensuring scalable, resilient, secure, and supportable platform designs.

• Provide technical leadership, engineering direction, and integration oversight for the Platform, Network, Firewall, and Backup & Recovery engineering teams, ensuring all infrastructure components are delivered as a cohesive enterprise IaaS capability.

• Develop enterprise infrastructure architectures supporting Enterprise Core Services (ECS), Client Provisioning Services (CPS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), DevOps, and Service Management Control (SMC).

• Design and implement enterprise virtualization solutions using VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), ESXi, vSphere, vCenter, vSAN, NSX, AVI and associated platform technologies.

• Lead heavily Automation driven implementation of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and infrastructure automation using Terraform, Ansible, PowerShell, Python, or equivalent technologies.

• Collaborate with Platform, Network, Firewall, Backup & Recovery, cybersecurity, and DevOps engineering teams to ensure seamless integration of enterprise infrastructure capabilities.

• Lead cross-functional engineering reviews to ensure infrastructure automation, platform configuration, network integration, security controls, and backup solutions operate as a unified enterprise capability throughout development and implementation.

• Provide technical leadership for Agile engineering execution by managing the infrastructure engineering backlog, refining user stories, defining acceptance criteria, and prioritizing work in alignment with programme objectives.

• Develop and maintain the IaaS engineering roadmap, ensuring technical dependencies, milestones, implementation priorities, and architectural decisions are accurately reflected within Jira.

• Identify, manage, and resolve cross-functional engineering blockers and dependencies impacting Platform, Network, Firewall, Backup & Recovery, and DevOps engineering activities.

• Partner with Scrum Masters and Product Owners to support backlog refinement, sprint planning, technical estimation, sprint reviews, release planning, and roadmap execution.

• Monitor engineering execution through Jira dashboards, Agile metrics, and dependency tracking to ensure predictable delivery of infrastructure capabilities and timely resolution of technical risks.

• Integrate Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) infrastructure technologies into secure enterprise environments while ensuring compliance with NATO security policies, programme requirements, and engineering standards.

• Develop and maintain enterprise infrastructure architectures, engineering designs, implementation strategies, technical standards, engineering documentation, and reference architectures.

• Participate in Agile development activities including sprint planning, architecture reviews, engineering governance, backlog prioritization, and cross-functional technical collaboration.

• Mentor senior engineers and establish engineering standards, design methodologies, automation strategies, implementation best practices, and technical governance across the infrastructure engineering organization.

• Provide technical oversight and engineering governance for infrastructure implementation activities, ensuring Platform, Network, Firewall, and Backup & Recovery engineering teams deliver integrated solutions consistent with the approved architecture, automation strategy, engineering standards, and customer requirements.

• Support infrastructure modernization initiatives, technical planning, architecture strategy, customer engagements, and proposal development activities.

Required Experience, Skills, and Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related discipline with 10–15 years of relevant experience, or Master's degree with 8–12 years of relevant experience.

• Active NATO Secret clearance (or higher).

• Demonstrated experience leading multidisciplinary infrastructure engineering teams, including platform, networking, cybersecurity, and data protection engineers, within secure or regulated environments utilizing automated provisioning and devops tools.

• Extensive experience designing and implementing VMware-based private cloud and Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) environments.

• Strong experience with VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), VMware ESXi, vSphere, vCenter, vSAN, and NSX.

• Extensive experience of implementing Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and infrastructure automation using Terraform, Ansible, PowerShell, Python, or similar technologies.

• Strong understanding of enterprise compute, virtualization, storage, networking, disaster recovery, cyber resilience, and infrastructure engineering principles.

• Experience integrating enterprise infrastructure with networking, firewall, backup and recovery, identity management, and cloud services.

• Demonstrated experience leading Agile engineering teams using Jira, including user story development, backlog management, sprint planning, roadmap management, dependency tracking, blocker resolution, and release planning.

• Demonstrated understanding of enterprise infrastructure automation and physical implementation methodologies, including deployment planning, system integration, technical validation, and customer acceptance activities.

• Experience operating within Agile, SAFe, or DevSecOps delivery frameworks.

• Strong leadership, communication, stakeholder engagement, mentoring, and technical collaboration skills.

• Experience supporting defence, government, or highly regulated development environments.

Preferred Experience, Skills, and Education:

• VMware Certified Professional (VCP), VMware Advanced Professional (VCAP), VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), or equivalent VMware certifications.

• Experience with VMware Aria Suite, VMware HCX, VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM), or equivalent VMware management technologies.

• Experience supporting NATO environments and compliance frameworks.

• Experience with HPE Synergy, HPE ProLiant, Dell PowerEdge, or equivalent enterprise compute platforms.

• Familiarity with enterprise storage platforms, software-defined storage, SAN technologies, and hybrid cloud infrastructure.

• Experience leading large-scale infrastructure modernization and enterprise platform engineering initiatives.

• Knowledge of infrastructure lifecycle management, engineering governance, capacity planning, enterprise architecture principles, and Agile delivery management.

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:

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.