Payload Production Project Engineer – Mechanical Engineering

The Space Systems Business Area at Leidos currently has an opening for a Project Engineer to support our Proliferated Space Portfolio in Huntsville, AL. This is an exciting opportunity to apply your technical and operational expertise to the execution of OPIR Space Payload programs in direct support of the Space Development Agency (SDA) missile warning and missile tracking architecture.

In this mission we design, produce, and deliver next-generation Infrared (IR) Sensor Payloads that protect our nation.

As a Project Engineer embedded on the production floor, you will serve as the critical communication link between program leadership and the manufacturing team — translating program direction into floor-level action and ensuring leadership has accurate, real-time visibility into hardware status and production impacts. This role demands someone with strong situational awareness, clear and disciplined communication, and the credibility to operate effectively in both the program office and on the production floor.

Primary Responsibilities

• Provide clear, concise daily hardware status updates to the Operations Lead and Production Manager; lead and participate in daily build station stand-ups with technicians, inspectors, and support personnel — ensuring leadership has accurate, current visibility into hardware production status, production flow, and emerging impacts across the full payload production effort
• Maintain real-time awareness of all flight hardware location, build status, and configuration across the production floor; ensure that visibility is consistently and accurately communicated to program leadership
• Monitor production flow and hardware movement; identify impacts to schedule, understand the downstream effects of shifts in sequencing or priority, and ensure those impacts are clearly surfaced to the appropriate program-level audience for recovery discussions
• Track and flow program-level changes — including engineering direction, configuration updates, and priority shifts — back to the Manufacturing team; ensure MFG has what they need to stay current and that all affected documentation, travelers, and processes are updated accordingly
• Coordinate with Manufacturing and Engineering to ensure process travelers accurately reflect the latest engineering direction at every build step; proactively flag discrepancies before they affect hardware
• Maintain awareness of Non-Conformance Reports (NCRs) and MRB dispositions across the production floor; ensure status is understood, visible, and communicated to program leadership with appropriate urgency
• Coordinate and support critical test events including functional test, environmental test, electrical interface verification, and Acceptance Test Procedure (ATP) execution; ensure test status and anomalies are clearly communicated and tracked to resolution
• Support Pre-Ship Review (PSR) preparation in coordination with Quality and Engineering; ensure all open items are visible, tracked, and resolved prior to delivery
• Support customer and Government Source Inspection (GSI) activities
• Document lessons learned after each unit delivery for continuous improvement on subsequent production units
• Drive technical issues to closure across Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing, and Program interfaces; coordinate the appropriate Responsible Engineers (REs), subject matter experts, and technical authorities to ensure issues are dispositioned and required engineering actions are completed.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing, or related technical field with 4+ years of experience or MS with 2+ years of experience.
• Demonstrated experience in hardware execution, production coordination, or systems integration role on a defense aerospace or space hardware production program
• Experience with flight hardware production including assembly, integration, and test of complex electro-optical or electronic systems
• Proven ability to operate effectively across organizational levels — translating program direction to the floor and communicating floor-level status clearly to program leadership
• Working knowledge of configuration management principles including ECPs, CCBs, and as-built documentation
• Experience with Non-Conformance Report (NCR) processes and Material Review Board (MRB) dispositions
• Familiarity with process travelers and manufacturing execution systems such as Solumina or equivalent
• Strong verbal and written communication skills; ability to translate technical hardware status into clear, actionable information for varied audiences across the program
• Must be able to obtain and maintain an Active Secret clearance; US Citizenship required

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in space payload production programs supporting DoD or Intelligence Community customers
• Familiarity with SDA (Space Development Agency) program requirements and delivery processes
• Experience with IR sensor payloads, electro-optical systems, or cryogenic hardware production
• Knowledge of AS9100 quality management system requirements
• Experience supporting Pre-Ship Reviews (PSR) and Flight Readiness Reviews (FRR)
• Demonstrated experience operating across Quality, Engineering, and Manufacturing in a fast-paced production environment

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 9, 2026

Pay Range:

Pay Range $87,100.00 - $157,450.00

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.