Vice President, Mission Assurance

Description

The Vice President of Mission Assurance is the senior-most executive accountable for the strategic and operational leadership of the Mission Assurance function across a $17B portfolio. This role owns the direction, execution, and continuous evolution of assurance practices that directly impact national security, multi-billion dollar program performance, and the integrity of global corporate credentials.

Operating through a tiered leadership structure of Senior Directors and Directors, the VP sets the multi-year strategy, resolves high-consequence cross-enterprise issues, and serves as the principal advocate to executive stakeholders for modern, risk-based assurance models.

Primary Responsibilities

Strategic & Operational Leadership at Scale

• Functional Ownership: Lead the strategic direction of the Mission Assurance function for the Leidos enterprise, ensuring absolute alignment between quality operations and long-term corporate business objectives.
• Enterprise Strategy Translation: Convert corporate-level growth and performance goals into executable assurance plans across diverse business sectors (e.g., Defense, Homeland, Intelligence).
• High-Level Resource Optimization: Establish workforce strategies to ensure that the Leidos portfolio is supported by a technically elite and appropriately scaled assurance organization.

Enterprise Impact & Decision Authority

• Final Decision Authority: Serve as the executive authority for Mission Assurance matters affecting $1B+ programs, multi-sector portfolios, and critical delivery milestones.
• High-Consequence Risk Management: Lead initiatives with significant impact on corporate financial performance, delivery confidence, and the defensibility of corporate credentials.
• Strategic Trade Decisions: Address highly complex, ambiguous issues requiring expert judgment and enterprise-level trade decisions between schedule, cost, and mission integrity.

Influence, Communication & Executive Engagement

• Enterprise Influence: Influence Sector Leadership, Growth Officers, and Program Management teams to adopt and fund modern assurance concepts and operating models.
• Strategic Stakeholder Engagement: Influence and manage the corporation's strategic interface with external certification bodies and government regulators ensuring that enterprise certifications (AS9100, CMMI, ISO) serve as a validated foundation for mission success.
• Executive Decision Forums: Lead briefings and forums involving the organization's most sensitive and high-value program portfolios.

Program, Product & Risk Oversight

• Lifecycle Integrity: Ensure the assurance of critical engineering and program products that drive downstream cost and performance for the nation's most complex systems.
• Enterprise Governance: Oversee the governance of quality plans, global audit systems, and systemic corrective action frameworks.
• Systemic Resolution: Drive the resolution of difficult, multi-year systemic issues that span multiple programs, global sites, or international customers.

Compliance, Credentials & External Interface

• Global Credential Management: Maintain enterprise-wide compliance and certification integrity for AS9100, ISO 9001, ISO 27001, ISO 20000-1, CMMI-DEV, and CMMI-SVC.
• Modernization of Compliance: Lead the digital transformation of compliance execution to increase defensibility and efficiency across the Leidos portfolio.

Organizational Leadership & Workforce Planning

• Tiered Leadership Management: Direct an expansive Mission Assurance organization managed through a cadre of Senior Directors and Directors across multiple geographic regions.
• Executive Talent Development: Exercise full hiring, promotion, and reward authority, focusing on building a pipeline of future leaders in Mission Assurance.

Required Qualifications

• Tier-1 Executive Experience: 15+ years of experience in the Aerospace & Defense industry with a proven track record of managing a complex, global function within a $10B-$20B+ environment.
• Proven Strategic Impact: Demonstrated success in leading strategy and operations with enterprise-level impact on multi-billion dollar programs.
• Influencing at the Highest Levels: Proven ability to influence Executive leadership and lead through extreme ambiguity and high-stakes conflict.

Preferred Qualifications

• Large-Scale Modernization: Experience modernizing legacy quality/assurance operating models within a Tier-1 Defense Prime.
• Complex Program Support: Direct experience supporting "Program of Record" deliveries for major DOD or Intelligence Community customers.
• Security Clearance: Active Top Secret (TS/SCI) is preferred but not required.

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.

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 onlyand 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.

About Leidos

Leidos is an industry and technology leader serving government and commercial customers with smarter, more efficient digital and mission innovations. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with 47,000 global employees, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $16.7 billion for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2025. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com.

Pay and Benefits

Pay and benefits are fundamental to any career decision. That's why we craft compensation packages that reflect the importance of the work we do for our customers. Employment benefits include competitive compensation, Health and Wellness programs, Income Protection, Paid Leave and Retirement. More details are available at www.leidos.com/careers/pay-benefits.

Securing Your Data

Beware of fake employment opportunities using Leidos' name. Leidos will never ask you to provide payment-related information during any part of the employment application process (i.e., ask you for money), nor will Leidos ever advance money as part of the hiring process (i.e., send you a check or money order before doing any work). Further, Leidos will only communicate with you through emails that are generated by the Leidos.com automated system - never from free commercial services (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail) or via WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. If you received an email purporting to be from Leidos that asks for payment-related information or any other personal information (e.g., about you or your previous employer), and you are concerned about its legitimacy, please make us aware immediately by emailing us at LeidosCareersFraud@leidos.com.

If you believe you are the victim of a scam, contact your local law enforcement and report the incident to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Commitment to Non-Discrimination

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, ethnicity, age, national origin, citizenship, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, pregnancy, family structure, marital status, ancestry, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Leidos will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with relevant laws.