Systems Engineer Intern

Join Leidos' mission-focused engineering team and deliver software that powers data analytics, computer vision, and AI capabilities for national security customers. At Leidos, we don't just offer internships, we offer career acceleration. This is your chance to work alongside industry-leading experts in Artificial Intelligence (AI), autonomous systems, and multi-modal information retrieval.

Leidos is looking for a curious and enthusiastic Systems Engineer Intern to join our team in Arlington, VA supporting our national security customer. You'll work side-by-side with system and software engineers and research/data scientists to help evolve a production platform that combines microservices, data search and analytics, and machine learning services. This is a great role if you enjoy translating real user needs into clear technical requirements, improving processes, and building the engineering documentation that turns ideas into delivered capability.

Primary Responsibilities

• Partner with engineers and stakeholders to capture use cases and decompose requirements
• Research and evaluate technologies to improve performance, usability, reliability, and maintainability
• Support system design and architecture efforts for a platform that includes:
  • a user-facing interface for search and analytics
  • microservice-based components
  • multiple ML-enabled services
• Produce high-quality engineering artifacts such as SysML/UML diagrams and design notes
• Contribute to an iterative delivery environment by communicating progress, risks, and dependencies clearly

Basic Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a Bachelor's or Master's in Systems Engineering or related field
• Experience with SysML and/or UML
• Must be a U.S. Citizen
• Eligible to obtain and maintain a Secret security clearance. Leidos will guide you through the clearance process.

Preferred Qualifications

• Exposure to Agile / Lean-Agile practices
• Familiarity with the software development lifecycle and/or DevOps concepts
• Hands-on experience using Git
• Ability to obtain/maintain Top Secret security clearance with polygraph.

Work location and schedule

• Arlington, VA. Hybrid: 4 days on-site, 1 day remote per week.
• 8-10 week internship, target start May/June 2027.

How to stand out

• Share a link to your GitHub/portfolio and briefly describe a project you're proud of (what you built, technologies used, and your role).
• If team-based, clarify your individual contributions.

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.