Virtual Desktop Engineering Lead

Leidos is seeking an experienced Virtual Desktop Engineering Lead to join our Defense Enclave Services (DES) team in Fort Meade, MD, who will support an extensive digital modernization program critical to Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and Department of Defense (DoD) Fourth Estate Agencies (DAFAs). The Virtual Desktop Engineering Lead will lead a team of engineers to design, implement, and deploy Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) solutions to meet DISA and DAFAs needs as part of DODNet modernization and DAFA migration efforts.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Lead design, development, and sustainment of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) hosted in cloud and on-premises environments

• Proven experience in designing and implementing solutions to support VDI environments ensuring high availability, scalability, low latency, and sufficient bandwidth requirements

• Engineering experience with NIPR and SIPR information systems is preferred

• Engage with DAFA agency stakeholders and DISA technical SMEs to translate mission requirements into secure, scalable virtual desktop services

• Create, maintain, and advance privileged access workstations (PAWs) for DISA and DAFA power users

• Provide thought leadership and mentoring to team of virtual desktop engineers, including frequent collaboration with the DES Chief Engineer and other engineering team leads

• Monitor and proactively mitigate performance or usability issues within VDI environments

• Draft and maintain documentation for VDI solutions, processes, and procedures

• Continually identify opportunities for improvement, including innovations in the VDI domain 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

• Conduct frequent meetings and discussions with a team of virtual desktop engineers to identify areas of improvement and facilitate open, honest, professional communication

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience and 12+ years of prior relevant experience or Masters with 10 – 13 years of prior relevant experience.  Specific experience, education and training may be considered in lieu of degree.

• Active DoD Secret clearance 

• Expertise with virtual desktop infrastructures (VDI), particularly Azure Virtual Desktop

• Proven understanding of government change management processes and partnering CAB/CCB briefings, including impacts to cost, implementation and schedule

• Experience managing teams of engineers, including mentoring and fostering communication and collaboration across the team

• Experience developing and deploying systems/services using automation functions

• Understanding of Federal Government application, server, and network security requirements such as NIST, FedRAMP, and FISMA

• Ability to work effectively within a geographically distributed technical team, aided by strong written and verbal communication skills

• Strong desire and willingness to collaborate with engineering peers to ensure mission success.

• Current IAT Level II (or higher) Certification such as Security + or CISSP

Preferred Qualifications:

• Relevant certifications such as: Microsoft Certified Azure Virtual Desktop Specialty, VMware Certified Professional - End-User Computing

• Experience leading migration projects from one VDI solution to another. 

• Familiarity with the Atlassian suite, including Jira and Confluence

• Familiarity with request and incident tracking systems such as ServiceNow or Remedy

• DoD 8140 qualified

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Original Posting:

July 28, 2025

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 $126,100.00 - $227,950.00

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.