Data Driven Operations Manager

The Digital Modernization sector at Leidos has an opening for an experienced Data-Driven Operations Functional Manager to lead a high-performing team focused on delivering scalable, real-time, and resilient data capabilities across the DISN enterprise. This is a dual-role position that requires both strong people leadership and technical acumen in building and maintaining modern data platforms.

This contract includes the Operations, Sustainment, Maintenance, Repair and Defense of the Defense Information System Network (DISN) within the DOD Information Network (DODIN) in support of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). This role is primarily remote, but candidates should be willing to travel to Scott AFB, IL or Ft. Meade, MD for on-site support or leadership as needed. At a minimum, a Secret clearance is required upon the start of employment and within 14 days following the start date the employee must obtain their Security + certification. 

The ideal candidate brings deep knowledge in streaming data architectures, cloud-native technologies, and platform engineering, and thrives in guiding teams through technical delivery while also developing talent and promoting a strong engineering culture. This role involves leading design, development, and implementation of secure, scalable data solutions. The candidate will preferably have experience in Defense Information Systems Network (DISN) environments with a background in Systems Engineering, Solution Architecture, Network Engineering, or Software Development to apply their expertise to support complex data integration and interoperability efforts across the project within DoD network infrastructures. There is an emphasis on automation and AI and ML-driven data processing and data governance best practices to support the Global Management Systems (GMS) Team for the Global Solutions Management – Operations II (GSM-O II) contract.

The candidate will be responsible for working across multiple GMS Innovations portfolio projects, ranging from leading technical design and implementation for a variety of AI and ML solution capabilities to integrating various data sources into Confluent (Kafka) and Elastic platforms, leading the design of robust data integration solutions, and enforcing the program’s CI/CD processes and data governance practices.

As a GMS team member, you will work as a critical team member in a fast paced, Agile development and implementation team to architect, design and develop an integration solution that expands the foundational Integrated Data Architecture platform (Confluent and ELK platform). You will lead a mission-critical function driving enterprise data capabilities, have a strong influence on the technology strategy roadmap across hybrid cloud and containerized environments, and will work with cutting-edge tools in a collaborative, innovation-focused environment.  We have a culture of technical excellence, ownership, and continuous improvement and invite you to apply for this exciting opportunity.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Manage team capacity, hiring needs, and workload prioritization.
• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of engineers and analysts focused on data operations, platform reliability, and observability.
• Serve as the primary functional manager responsible for team performance, growth planning, and technical direction.
• Oversee the development and maintenance of a scalable data platform using Confluent Kafka, Elastic Stack, AWS, and Red Hat OpenShift (Kubernetes).
• Drive adoption of best practices in DevSecOps, CI/CD, monitoring, and incident management.
• Partner with product owners, architects, and cross-functional leaders to ensure delivery aligns with strategic goals.
• Ensure operational excellence and service reliability through proactive monitoring, alerting, and automation.
• Foster a data-driven culture and support enterprise initiatives in data integration, analytics, and observability.
• Lead the DDO Agile team, including leading the design and implementation of key data integration architectures that support secure and efficient data exchange within DISN and DoD environments.
• Lead the development and maintenance of middleware, APIs, and data pipelines to enable interoperability across disparate systems.
• Apply expertise in network security, transport protocols, and DISN architectures to ensure compliance with DoD cybersecurity and data governance policies.
• Work closely with cross-functional teams including software developers, network engineers, and system architects to deliver high-performance integration solutions.
• Leverage AI/ML techniques to optimize data processing, anomaly detection, predictive analytics, and automation in data integration workflows.
• Lead and enforce strong data governance practices, ensuring data accuracy, security, and compliance with DoD and industry regulations.
• Troubleshoot and optimize data flows, network configurations, and system performance issues.
• Stay up-to-date with evolving DISN, DoD, and industry best practices for data integration, security, and AI/ML applications.

Basic Qualifications:

• Proven leadership experience managing technical teams, ideally in data engineering, DevOps, or platform operations.
• Strong hands-on knowledge of Confluent Kafka, including schema management, stream processing, and Kafka Connect.
• Experience with Elastic Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) for logging, monitoring, and observability.
• Prior experience with implementing enterprise data lakes, ETL pipelines, and distributed data architectures.
• Proficient in AWS services relevant to data platforms (e.g., EC2, S3, Kinesis, Lambda, IAM, CloudWatch).
• Experience deploying and managing workloads in OpenShift or Kubernetes-based environments.
• Familiarity with infrastructure as code, CI/CD pipelines, and container orchestration best practices.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to align technical solutions with business outcomes.
• Effectively managing remotely with a geographically dispersed team.
• Strong communication skills that enable proactive and effective collaboration with a virtual team.
• Working knowledge of DISA STIGs, RMF, and other DoD compliance frameworks.
• Strong background in data governance, metadata management, and data quality frameworks.
• Develop DoD requirements, traceability, and detailed plans/schedules.
• Lead development of software systems engineering documents and interface documents (IDDs/ICDs)
• Strong understanding of DoD network infrastructure, security requirements, and data exchange protocols.
• Experience in application integration design and strong communication skills for collaboration with virtual teams.
• Proficiency in data integration technologies, APIs, message brokers, and middleware solutions.
• Experience with network security, encryption, and access controls in classified and unclassified environments.
• Prior experience in big data analytics or cybersecurity solutions within a DISN environment
• Background in observability platforms, incident response, or real-time analytics.
• Experience implementing AI/ML-driven data processing, including NLP, anomaly detection, or predictive modeling.
• Ability to obtain interim Secret DoD Security clearance prior to start date.
• Ability to obtain Security+ certification or equivalent DoD 8570 IAT II certification within 14 days of start date.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Deep understanding of DISN networks with a technical background in Systems Engineering, Solution Architecture, Network Engineering, or Software Development within a specific technical area
• Experience developing and deploying software in a DoD environment (DISA experience is a plus), including experience building and deploying software applications that meet DoD security standards, including updating applications and code to meet security scans and meeting security implementation guidelines (e.g. STIGs).
• Experience in data technologies like Kafka, Elastic, Spark, NiFi.
• Familiarity with AWS GovCloud and cloud infrastructure, including networking and security policies.
• Experience in developing software detailed designs, particularly in ksql or kstreams.
• Experience with Agile methodologies and related tools. Experience with Atlassian tools, including JIRA and Confluence.
• Working knowledge of programming languages such as Python, Java, and SQL
• Experience with distributed version control software such as Git and Bitbucket.
• Working knowledge of and ability to apply principles, theories, and concepts of Software Engineering.

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.

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.