SME - Military Planning & Analysis (Operational Focus)

Company: Leidos
Location: San Diego
Posted on: April 3, 2026

Job Description:

Leidos’ Homeland Security Sector has an immediate opportunity for a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in Military Planning and Analysis to help shape and deliver next-generation mission planning capabilities supporting nuclear and strategic operations within the defense community. We are seeking a candidate with deep operational mission expertise who can translate real-world mission needs into clear, actionable requirements for software development teams. You will serve as the critical bridge between mission users and engineers—ensuring development efforts are aligned to operational realities and delivering capabilities that directly enhance mission execution. You will join a highly focused, diverse team of systems engineers, defense program managers, software developers, and test engineers. This job represents a rare opportunity to re-shape and develop new capabilities to improve military planning operations and requires someone who is innovative and self-motivated. In addition to your mission advisory responsibilities, you will serve in a Systems Engineer / Product Manager capacity—guiding requirements definition, validation, testing, user training, and fielding efforts. This role is not a software coding position; rather, it is centered on operational insight, capability integration, and product leadership. Leidos leverages modern agile and enterprise product methodologies and offers meaningful work-life balance with flexible scheduling. This is a rare opportunity to directly influence how military planning operations are enabled by software, while remaining grounded in operational reality. Primary work locations: San Diego, CA or Mons, Belgium. Remote work is supported; however, the selected candidate must be comfortable spending extended periods onsite as mission needs require. Relocation assistance will be discussed with the selected candidate, as applicable. Primary Responsibilities: Operational Leadership Serve as the operational authority for military and nuclear mission planning, ensuring software solutions accurately reflect real-world mission planning, execution, assessment, and reporting. Act as the primary liaison to end users, capturing and validating operational requirements across Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental, and Multinational (JIIM) defense environments. Provide subject matter expertise across targeting, delivery planning, consequence assessment, survivability, and command-level reporting. Requirements & Product Management Translate operational needs into clear, testable requirements, mission threads, and use cases. Maintain and prioritize product backlogs in alignment with mission priorities. Define acceptance criteria, support sprint and release planning, and ensure end-to-end requirements traceability. Develop and manage SOWs, CDRLs, and technical requirements documentation. Support user training, deployment, and incorporation of operational feedback into future releases. Systems Engineering & Program Support Contribute to system and interface requirements, validating assumptions and evaluating alternatives. Review technical artifacts and test results to ensure operational suitability. Participate in Agile ceremonies, program reviews, and status reporting to leadership. Collaborate with developers and testers to preserve operational intent throughout development. Analyze program metrics and recommend improvements to mission effectiveness. Travel Up to 15% annual travel in support of user engagement, training, deployment, and requirements activities. Basic Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in Operations Research, Systems Engineering, Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Industrial Engineering, Economics, or a related STEM field. 8 years of experience applying operations research, systems analysis, data analytics, or modeling and simulation in complex operational or defense environments. Demonstrated expertise in quantitative analysis, including statistical modeling, optimization, forecasting, simulation, and decision analysis. Experience translating analytical results into actionable insights for senior decision-makers and technical teams. Proven ability to apply analytic methods to operational planning, force structure analysis, mission effectiveness assessments, or capability development. Must be a US Citizen with a DoD Secret clearance to start and the ability to obtain and maintain a Top Secret / SCI security clearance. Familiarity with agile software environments, testing concepts, and tools (e.g., Jira, Confluence). Preferred Qualifications: Familiarity with advanced analytics tools and environments (e.g., Python, R, MATLAB, Julia, SQL, or similar) and experience working with large or complex data sets. Experience with software engineering including requirements, design, coding, testing and deployment. Experience supporting technical domains such as cyber, intelligence, networks, strategic operations, or other mission-critical defense areas. Demonstrated ability to operate effectively within multidisciplinary teams, including systems engineers, software developers, and program leadership. Experience developing technical documentation, requirements artifacts, analytic reports, or briefings for executive-level stakeholders. Active DoD Top Secret clearance. Understanding of defense acquisition and system development processes. Experience supporting user training, operational testing, or fielding of mission systems. 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: February 18, 2026 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: Pay Range $116,350.00 - $210,325.00 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.

Keywords: Leidos, El Centro , SME - Military Planning & Analysis (Operational Focus), Engineering , San Diego, California