Hardware/Software-in-the-Loop (HWIL/SWIL) Integration Lead

Leidos is dedicated to making the world a safer place. This starts with helping our customers in the Defense Industry achieve their critical missions. Our dedicated Defense Group employees are solving critical challenges across the globe. At Leidos, we deliver innovative solutions through the efforts of our diverse and talented people who are dedicated to our customers’ success. We empower our teams, contribute to our communities, and operate sustainably. Everything we do is built on a commitment to do the right thing for our customers, our people, and our community. Our Mission, Vision, and Values guide the way we do business. With offices across the United States engaging in the defense, space, cyber and commercial fields, Leidos provides responsive, cost-effective engineering, scientific and IT solutions. Leidos is well known for our people-oriented culture, positive work environment, technical excellence, and resilient business ethics.

The Kinetic Effects Business Area in the Leidos Defense Sector currently has a special job opening for a talented Hardware/Software-in-the-Loop (HWIL/SWIL) Integration Lead to work onsite in our Huntsville, AL office in support of the Guided Munitions Center of Excellence. This is an exciting opportunity to use your knowledge, skills, and experience to architect and stand up the modular hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) and software-in-the-loop (SWIL) environments that enable rigorous, repeatable test and integration of guided munitions and related weapon systems. In this role you will define a common, modular core configuration that can be networked across Leidos and customer sites throughout the Huntsville area and reused across supported programs — allowing any given system under test to be exercised in a standardized, well-documented, and safety-conscious environment.

Primary Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical lead and design authority for the Guided Munitions Center of Excellence HWIL and SWIL test environments, from concept through design, build, integration, and sustainment.

• Architect a modular test environment built around a common core configuration that can be networked across multiple Leidos and customer sites in the Huntsville area and reused across supported programs, so that a given system under test can be integrated and exercised in a standardized manner.

• Translate a Bill of Materials (BOM) into a coherent, documented design — ensuring the design intent is captured, engineering drawings and interface documentation are created, controlled, and followed, and that each HWIL/SWIL is constructed consistently against those drawings and configuration baselines.

• Establish and enforce standardization: reusable building blocks, common interfaces, naming and configuration conventions, and documented procedures that allow labs to be replicated and extended predictably across programs.

• Apply a Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) to maximize reuse, interoperability, upgradability, and vendor independence across the test environment.

• Ensure the design and integration of the test environments account for safety-critical system considerations and applicable airworthiness/software assurance standards (e.g., DO-178C) as they apply to the systems under test and the test infrastructure.

• Develop and maintain the technical documentation baseline — architecture descriptions, interface control documentation, wiring/connection and assembly drawings, configuration baselines, and standard build/integration procedures.

• Plan and lead integration and checkout activities; define networking and connectivity between the core configuration and supported program assets across sites.

• Collaborate across software, hardware, systems, cybersecurity, and test teams, and interface directly with program leadership, customers, and end users to align the test environments with program needs.

• Contribute to proposals, technical planning, cost/schedule and materiel estimates, and standards development for the Center of Excellence.

Basic Qualifications

• Must be a U.S. Citizen.

• A Bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, Aerospace/Aeronautical Engineering, or a related technical field is preferred; equivalent relevant experience will be accepted in lieu of a degree in accordance with Leidos Guidelines for Equivalency. A formal degree is not required for this position.

• 15+ years of relevant technical experience in systems/test engineering, integration, or a closely related discipline (additional experience may be substituted for a degree per the equivalency guidelines).

• Demonstrated experience designing, building, and integrating hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) and/or software-in-the-loop (SWIL) test environments, integration labs, or comparable test/integration infrastructure.

• Experience developing modular, reusable designs with a common core configuration that can be networked and replicated across multiple sites or programs.

• Experience taking a Bill of Materials (BOM) through to a documented design, including creation and control of engineering drawings, and constructing systems in accordance with those drawings and configuration baselines.

• Working experience with applicable safety-critical and software assurance standards such as DO-178C.

• Hands-on experience applying a Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA).

• Experience with safety-critical systems and the disciplines (requirements, traceability, verification, configuration management) required to develop and integrate them.

• Excellent communication (verbal and written) and technical leadership skills, with the ability to work independently, set direction for a technical team, and drive standardized outcomes.

Preferred Qualifications

• Guided Munitions / Weapon Systems: Experience with guided munitions, missiles, or precision weapon systems and their test and integration environments.
• Test Infrastructure: Experience with real-time simulation, data acquisition and instrumentation, signal/interface emulation, and the computing hardware used in HWIL/SWIL rigs (single-board computers, real-time targets, rugged mission computers, custom PCBAs).
• Networking: Experience designing and securing networked/distributed test environments spanning multiple facilities, including relevant DoD cybersecurity practices (e.g., DISA STIGs, RMF).
• Standards & Safety: Familiarity with additional applicable standards such as MIL-STD-882E (system safety), MIL-STD-461/810, and airworthiness/software assurance frameworks.
• Engineering Tooling: Proficiency with CAD/drawing and PLM tools for creating and controlling drawings and BOMs; experience with requirements/config management tools (e.g., Jama, Jira, Confluence, DOORS) and MBSE tools (e.g., Cameo/SysML).
• Configuration Management: Strong grounding in configuration and data management, version control, and controlled release of designs, drawings, and baselines.
• Leadership: Ability to comprehend changes, characterize impact and assess risk, estimate level of effort and resources, describe courses of action, and facilitate team consensus while working responsibly and independently in a fast-paced, collaborative, cross-organizational environment.

Clearance Qualifications

• Candidate must be a U.S. Citizen with the ability to obtain and maintain a Secret Security Clearance (interim and final).

Other Qualifications

• Embedded & Real-Time Systems: Understanding of the fundamentals of critical or time-sensitive software and hardware for integrated systems, including hardware-in-the-loop simulation.

• Interface Design: Experience with electrical and software interface design and interface control documents (ICDs).

• Mission Support: Ability to devise new concepts for computing infrastructure and automation to support ground test facilities, integration labs, and data collection and analysis.

• Standardization & Reuse: A demonstrated bias toward reusable, well-documented, standardized solutions that can be extended across multiple programs.

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:

September 11, 2026

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.