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Defense, Government Contracting, Cybersecurity, IT Services, Aerospace, Healthcare Technology

Principal Cloud Systems Engineer

RemoteRemoteFull TimePrincipal$131,300–$237,350 /yrPosted 5 days agoVisa sponsorship available

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Required skills

  • US Citizenship
  • distributed systems
  • zero-trust network
  • hybrid on-premise
  • cloud deployment
  • application modernization
  • NIST
  • FedRAMP
  • FISMA
  • IAT Level II

Nice to have

  • Atlassian suite
  • Jira
  • Confluence

Role summary

Leidos is seeking an experienced Principal Cloud Systems Engineer for its Defense Enclave Services (DES) team to support a critical digital modernization program for DISA and DoD agencies. The role focuses on distributed systems and cloud infrastructure, involving the design, deployment, testing, and migration of network solutions for zero-trust initiatives. This remote position requires an active SECRET or above DoD clearance and 12+ years of relevant experience, with expertise in Azure, AWS, or GCP, virtual networking, and identity management. Understanding of government security requirements like NIST, FedRAMP, and FISMA is essential, along with relevant certifications.

Leidos is seeking an experience Principal Cloud Systems Engineer to join our Defense Enclave Services (DES) team, who will support an extensive digital modernization program critical to Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and Department of Defense (DoD) Fourth Estate Agencies. A Systems Engineer with a focus on Distributed Systems and understands how cloud infrastructure is built and maintained.


The position will support multiple engineering projects modernizing the DoD Environment, including the migration of applications and services from on-premise to the cloud for zero-trust network initiatives. These engineering efforts will include design, deployment, test, and migration of the network solutions the candidate develops. 

PROGRAM Link: www.leidos.com/des

JOB LOCATION: Remote 

CLEARANCE REQUIREMENT: Must possess an Active SECRET or above DoD clearance to be considered. (US Citizenship required) 

Primary Responsibilities 

  • Leverage experience in Systems Engineering and Architecture to design zero-trust network solutions for a hybrid on-premise and Azure enclave 
  • Demonstrate an understanding of system Virtualization and Design by ensuring network modernization efforts properly address security requirements and can be implemented without affecting operations. 
  • Support Cloud Deployment of modernized network services 
  • Develop modern and secure network solutions by demonstrating experience with Virtual switches, VPC’s, and Virtual Firewalls 
  • Provide inputs to the design of the enterprise’s cloud and mission architecture 
  • Evaluate and support application architectures across platforms to ensure alignment to cloud and application modernization strategies, capabilities and requirements 
  • Continually identify opportunities for improvement, including innovations aimed at improving the user experience, improving efficiencies, and lowering sustainment costs 
  • Enforce security best practices and guidelines, leveraging knowledge of security policies, network security, and data security 

Basic Qualifications 

  • Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience and 12+ years of prior relevant experience 
  • Expertise designing, deploying, and operating solutions built on Azure, AWS or GCP 
  • Experience with Virtual switches, VPC’s, and Virtual Firewalls 
  • Experience with Identity Access Management (IDAM), AzureAD, and CyberArk, Okta or other modern ICAM solutions. 
  • Understanding of Federal Government application, server, and network security requirements such as NIST, FedRAMP, and FISMA 
  • Ability to work effectively within a distributed technical team, aided by strong written and verbal communication skills 
  • Current IAT Level II (or higher) Certification such as Security + or CISSP 

Preferred Qualifications 

  • Recognized cloud certification, such as Microsoft Azure Associate Administrator 
  • Familiarity with the Atlassian suite, including Jira and Confluence 

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:

November 2, 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 $131,300.00 - $237,350.00

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.

Sample Leidos interview questions

  • 1

    What are the key considerations when designing a highly available and consistent service registry?

    system designmedium
  • 2

    Buildings with an Ocean View Find all buildings that have an ocean view. Input: heights = [1,2,3,4] Output: [3] Explanation: Since the ocean is to the right, only the rightmost tallest building (index 3) is not blocked by any others.

    codingmedium
  • 3

    Merge K Sorted Linked Lists Merge K sorted linked lists. Input: lists = [[2,2,3],[1,5]] Output: [1,2,2,3,5] Explanation: Extracts the smallest current node iteratively using a priority queue to build a single merged and sorted linked list.

    codingmedium
  • 4

    Optimal Meeting Point Calculate the optimal meeting point for multiple people on a 2D grid. Input: grid = [[1,0],[0,1]] Output: 2 Explanation: The optimal meeting point is either (0,1) or (1,0), requiring exactly 1 step from each person resulting in a total distance of 2.

    codingmedium
  • 5

    Maximize the minimum distance between aggressive cows in stalls. Input: stalls = [0,4,3,7,10,9], cows = 3 Output: 4 Explanation: Placing the cows at positions 0, 4, and 10 yields a maximum possible minimum distance of 4 between any two cows.

    codingmedium

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