Leidos has a career opening for a U.S. Air Force Strategic Account Executive (SAE), located at Leidos Global Headquarters, Reston VA.  Depending on the candidate’s overall qualifications and prior experience, this position may be “mobility employment” eligible, whereby remote work is authorized and a local home address is not a condition of employment.

The Strategic Account Executive is the lead Leidos executive responsible for building, sustaining, and advancing trusted relationships with strategic-level U.S. Air Force, Joint, Combatant Command, Department of Defense, and other Federal Government officials with U.S. National Security and National Military strategy and policy roles and responsibilities.  The candidate will serve as the senior Leidos executive responsible for U.S. Air Force customer relationships and engagements and will be a key contributor to the company’s business growth strategy to expand and grow Leidos business supporting the Department of the Air Force.  The candidate will communicate and collaborate extensively with company technical matter experts, including CIO & CTO leaders internal to Leidos and its wholly owned subsidiaries, to develop strategies to serve the operational needs of Air Force and Joint military customers, where possible to disrupt the traditional platform providers.  Additionally, the Air Force SAE will work to identify customer technology requirements and facilitate discussions to inform technology and capability development efforts, including Leidos Internal and commercial R&D investments.

The SAE should be knowledgeable of, and maintain working relationships with, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Space Force, Joint & Combatant Command senior leaders and decision makers, as well as other senior executives and leaders across the Department of Defense, Intelligence Community and Federal Government.   Specifically, the SAE will seek to strengthen Leidos customer relations and enhance business growth across the company’s Defense Solutions, National Security, Civilian & International Sector portfolios related to USAF national security programs, services, and solutions.  The SAE must thoroughly understand key influencers and decision makers within the Department of Defense, including other Joint Military Services and Fourth Estate Agencies, the Intelligence Community, other Federal Government Agencies and strategic customers and partners with essential roles in U.S. military operations and matters.  The candidate must demonstrate a working knowledge of the roles and responsibilities of each department or agency, including organizational design, acquisition and procurement, governance, and funding mechanisms.  Additionally, the candidate should possess significant career government and/or industry credentials including executive-level leadership experience, extensive operational experience and background, a comprehensive understanding of current and evolving missions, operational concepts, policy, doctrine, acquisition, and procurement, contracting and funding.

The position regularly updates and reports to the Chief Growth Officer and the Company’s Executive Leadership Team.

Core Responsibilities:

General responsibilities include: identifying, qualifying, and supporting business opportunities and captures, creating future business opportunities featuring Leidos disruptive technologies, facilitating on-contract growth and capture on U.S. Air Force and Joint Service operations and programs where business opportunities exist; facilitating requirements development; marketing the full range of corporate capabilities; and maximizing internal collaboration as detailed in the specific responsibilities below.

Customer Relations:

• Develop and strengthen a trusted relationship with current and potential Leidos customers while serving as the primary company executive representative.

• Ensure a coherent, integrated Leidos message to the customer while promoting corporate capabilities and solutions to meet customer needs.

• Build, improve and manage significant key individual customer relationships.

• Promote and introduce corporate capabilities, technologies, services, and solutions to the customer and be familiar with tech development efforts and with new and improved offerings.

• Possess an in-depth understanding of the customer’s missions and Leidos services, solutions, and products.

• Possess an in-depth understanding of the U.S. Air Force account’s competitive landscape, including competitors and potential partners.

• Develop, track, and execute a strategic-level Customer Engagement Plan, including regular, periodic meetings with strategically relevant influencers, decision makers, and leaders.

• Host senior customer visits to Leidos and arrange visits to customer sites, as appropriate.

• Function as senior Air Force executive representative responsible for customer engagement and government relations related to customer matters, issues, and concerns.

Strategic Communications:

• Represent Leidos to the U.S. Air Force and the Department of the Air Force to Leidos.

• Define Leidos to the customer by communicating the full breadth and depth of Leidos’ services and solutions that can support their missions.

• Define the customer to Leidos Business Area and Growth stakeholders to ensure a comprehensive understanding of customer needs and trends.

• Track pertinent Air Force account information horizontally across all Leidos Groups and communicate it to leaders to aid in business development, capture, and program execution.

• Provide senior customers an avenue to communicate satisfaction or dissatisfaction with Leidos program and contract performance.

• Communicate internally across Leidos by hosting monthly/quarterly Air Force Account Calls to facilitate planning and execution, coordinating engagement and events, tracking Air Force account financial performance, disseminating customer information, and tracking emerging opportunities, issues, and results.

• Build a sense of community among Leidos Department of the Air Force stakeholders.

• Exercise active thought leadership through speaking, writing, and personal communications to promote Leidos brand awareness and technology leadership.

Strategic Planning:

• Inform the annual strategic planning process by providing insights into U.S. Air Force trends, requirements, challenges, and opportunities.

• Assess all USAF customer directions, trends, and strategic opportunities on a 3–5-year time horizon, providing results to strategic captures and campaigns to internal business and technology leaders.

• Help develop new ideas and solutions to capture new business. Contribute to strategic planning by providing insights into changes in joint defense, intelligence and federal government missions, acquisition, procurement, contracting approaches and funding profiles.

• Participate in identifying requirements and creating novel solutions for key international U.S. Air Force partners and affiliated government agencies. 

• Demonstrate critical thinking, assessment and analysis of published Air Force, Joint Service, DoD, Intelligence Community and Federal government plans and strategy documents reflecting mission and business priorities and requirements.

• Contribute to the company’s Competitive Intelligence efforts by providing insights, assessments and recommendations on customer, partner and competitor activities, intentions, and trends.

• Coordinate and attend meetings, as requested, with line management at the Sector, Business Area, and Divisional levels to identify and shape strategic approaches to the customer.

Portfolio Management:

• Support and coordinate among Leidos organizations seeking to develop business with the U.S Air Force.

• Support identification of the right Leidos capabilities and resources for identified opportunities.

• Actively contribute to the development of new ideas and solutions to capture new business to increase Leidos’ market share across the U.S. Air Force and any related Combatant Command, and Commercial & International partners.

• Coordinate with line management to identify and resolve/mitigate OCI issues as they emerge, and work with strategic, line and business development leaders to avoid these concerns as necessary.

• Work with designated capture and campaign teams to identify and engage the right leaders to shape customer opportunities.

• Identify specific growth opportunities, including related to merger & acquisition and teaming opportunities.

• Contribute to opportunity preparation and capture strategy to include participation in various business reviews and updates, as appropriate.

• Help grow the pipeline of qualified target opportunities.

• Coordinate across Group and Operation lines to prepare for trade show events and maximize Leidos exposure, messaging, communications, and value.

General U.S. Air Force Account Oversight:

• Manage all account-specific resources within the budgets established in the Account Management Plan, including trade shows, sponsorships, and travel.

• Conduct customer assessments on contract performance and provide feedback to appropriate business line organizations.

• Coordinate with account line management to resolve any conflicting internal or customer-based issues.

• Develop and maintain organization hierarchies to support engagement planning, execution, and tracking within the company’s Customer Resource Management platform.

Required Experience, Education, and Skills:

• Bachelor’s degree required, and 20+ years of experience with extensive senior-levels of leadership, professional knowledge and job experience working for key government agencies or in an executive position of equal standing with another Defense Department or Intelligence Community agency.  Master’s degree or equivalent preferred.

• Service as former U.S. Air Force Officer or within the U.S. government’s Senior Executive Service.

• Must possess extensive understanding of Department of Air Force and Department of Defense organization, doctrine, concepts, and requirements.

• Demonstrated ability to develop new and innovative ideas and solutions to address emerging missions and capabilities, leading to year over year business growth.

• Ability to track changing needs and match Leidos' wide range of capabilities to these needs.

• Proven ability to work in a complex, multi-faceted organization with a wide range of customer offerings.

• Ability to develop and sustain government relationships at all levels.

• Recognized thought and innovation leadership with excellent oral and written communication skills.

• Desired personal attributes include self-initiative, self-reliance, teamwork, strong social skills, exceptional problem-solving abilities, well-developed personal and professional network.

• Must hold Top Secret security clearance at minimum and be eligible for TS/SCI, if necessary.

Original Posting Date:

2024-06-21

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 $207,200.00 - $333,000.00

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.