Program Manager

The Leidos Digital Modernization Sector is seeking a highly experienced Program Manager (PM) to lead the Data Replication Engineering and Management (DREAM) program for the U.S. Department of State. This program supports the Department of State (DOS), Bureau of, through maintaining and modernizing databases, and enabling various systems to communicate with one another, thereby promoting data sharing among 30 plus Federal agencies. This role serves as the primary interface between the contractor and the government, overseeing all aspects of project status, tasking, risk management, quality management, coordination, staffing, scheduling, and issue resolution.

The PM will be responsible for the overall execution and success of the contract—providing leadership, strategic direction, and day-to-day oversight for all contractor personnel. This includes ensuring technical excellence, operational efficiency, and financial performance.

The ideal candidate will be proactive, responsive, and collaborative, with the ability to build and lead high-performing teams, maintain strong customer relationships, and identify opportunities for continuous improvement.

Key Responsibilities:

• Serve as the primary contractor lead and principal point of contact to the Department of State for the DREAM program, providing proactive, accurate communication on status, risks, incidents, milestones, and deliverables.

• Lead and manage all DREAM contractor personnel, subcontractors, and technical workstreams across program management, database operations, engineering/architecture, data sharing, Tier III support, security operations, and continuity/disaster recovery.

• Develop, maintain, and execute the Program Management Plan, including WBS, staffing, communications, quality, security, metrics/SLAs, capacity, and configuration management.

• Manage program cost, schedule, scope, quality, and risk; maintain active risk and issue management; and ensure timely corrective actions to protect mission delivery.

• Ensure timely, accurate, and high-quality delivery of all contractual deliverables, reports, briefings, and ad hoc data calls.

• Direct staffing, retention, onboarding, clearance management, and required training to ensure fully qualified personnel are in place and contract performance is never degraded by staffing gaps.

• Oversee reliable 24x7 operational support for CCD and related environments, including database replication, monitoring, troubleshooting, performance tuning, Exadata/engineered systems support, and Tier III incident response.

• Oversee modernization efforts for database and integration environments, including legacy-to-modernized transitions, cloud adoption, APIs, microservices, ESB/web services, and secure interagency data-sharing patterns.

• Coordinate effectively across DOS, interagency partners, and other contractors to resolve issues, reduce incidents, improve service performance, and support border security and consular mission outcomes.

• Establish a culture of continuous improvement, disciplined documentation, and operational excellence through SOPs, knowledge management, lessons learned, trend analysis, and measurable service improvements.

• Foster trusted stakeholder relationships while improving innovation, security, and operational stability in a high-visibility, mission-critical environment.

Required Qualifications:

• Active Top Secret security clearance.

• Experience supporting the U.S. Department of State, or similarly complex federal mission environments involving border security, consular operations, or interagency data sharing.

• Minimum of 10 years of experience leading programs of similar scope, size, complexity, and multiple simultaneous projects in a federal IT environment, with responsibility for program execution, staffing, customer delivery, and contract performance.

• Experience with SAFe Agile delivery in a large enterprise or federal mission environment.

• PMI Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.

• Demonstrated ability to lead the full range of Program Manager scope areas under DREAM, including Program Management, Transition, Database Operations, Tier III Database Operations Support, Security Operations, and Continuity/Disaster Recovery.

• Demonstrated experience managing cost, schedule, scope, quality, staffing, and risk across mission-critical IT programs, including maintenance of risk/issue logs, corrective action management, and performance reporting.

• Ability to work within formal federal governance and delivery frameworks, including structured SDLC, change control, configuration management, and performance management processes.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to brief senior government stakeholders, respond to ad hoc data calls, and produce clear, compliant deliverables with minimal pass-backs.

Desired Qualifications:

• Additional certifications in risk management, scheduling, Agile management, ITIL, or Earned Value Management (EVM).

• Experience leading programs involving large-scale enterprise database environments, including Oracle, SQL Server, Exadata/engineered systems, enterprise data replication, and high-availability production operations.

• Experience managing legacy-to-modernized transitions, including cloud adoption, modernization roadmaps, phased migrations, and coexistence of legacy and modern platforms.

• Eligibility for or ability to support work requiring TS/SCI access for applicable Intelligence Community meetings, working groups, or projects.

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:

Pay Range:

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.