Senior Defect Management Jobs in Illinois (NOW HIRING)

Description

Job Description:

Are you passionate about ensuring mission-critical systems perform flawlessly when it matters most? Do you thrive in fast-paced, collaborative environments where quality and innovation go hand in hand? Leidos is seeking an experienced Senior Test Engineer to join the Chinook Program supporting an Intelligence Community customer. In this role, you’ll help deliver cutting-edge capabilities that directly support our nation’s intelligence mission while working alongside some of the industry’s brightest engineers, developers, and mission experts.

If you’re ready to make a meaningful impact through technical excellence and quality engineering, we’d love to hear from you.

As a Senior Test Engineer, you will play a key role in ensuring the delivery of reliable, secure, and high-performing software solutions. You’ll work as an integral member of a cross-functional Agile Scrum Team, developing and executing comprehensive test strategies that support rapid, iterative delivery while maintaining exceptional quality standards.

Position may be performed in the following locations below.  Please note Gaithersburg, MD is the program’s primary work location.

• Gaithersburg, MD

• Alexandria, VA
• Chantilly, VA
• Englewood, CO
• St. Louis, MO
• Tucson, AZ 

Clearance Level Required:

Active Top Secret/SCI with the ability to successfully pass a Polygraph examination.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Lead planning, development, execution, and documentation of comprehensive test strategies for complex software systems.
• Design and execute functional, integration, system, regression, and end-to-end testing activities.
• Develop, maintain, and enhance automated test frameworks and test scripts to improve efficiency and coverage.
• Collaborate daily with software engineers, product managers, system engineers, and Scrum Masters to define acceptance criteria and ensure quality is built into every release.
• Analyze system requirements and technical documentation to create detailed test plans and test cases.
• Identify, document, prioritize, and track software defects through resolution.
• Support Agile development teams by participating in sprint planning, backlog refinement, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives.
• Validate system performance, reliability, security, and scalability against mission requirements.
• Generate test metrics, status reports, and quality assessments for program leadership and customer stakeholders.
• Mentor junior test engineers and promote quality engineering best practices across the program.
• Support Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipelines by integrating automated testing into deployment workflows.

Basic Qualifications:

• US citizenship is required per contract.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology or related field and 8-12 years of prior relevant experience or Master’s with 6-10 years of prior relevant experience.
• 8+ years of software testing or quality engineering experience.
• Experience developing and executing automated test solutions using modern testing frameworks such as Cypress, Playwright, or equivalent.
• Experience testing distributed, cloud-based, or enterprise applications.
• Demonstrated experience creating and executing manual and automated test plans.
• Experience with API testing using tools such as Postman or REST Assured.
• Experience with CI/CD tools including Jenkins, GitLab, Azure DevOps, or similar platforms.
• Experience with defect management tools such as Jira.
• Ability to communicate results and issues to technical and non-technical customer stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience supporting DoD or Intelligence Community programs.
• Familiarity with scripting languages including JavaScript, and Python.
• Knowledge of containerized applications using Docker and Kubernetes.
• Experience with performance testing tools such as JMeter or LoadRunner.
• Experience with cloud technologies including AWS, Azure, or OpenShift
• Knowledge of DevSecOps pipelines and automated quality assurance practices.
• Experience working with modern software delivery environments.
• Experience with geospatial applications or GEOINT data.
• Certifications such as ISTQB, CASTP, CAST, CSTE, Security+, or similar.

#Chinook

#ASBA

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:August 4, 2026 Pay Range:Pay Range $107,900.00 - $195,050.00

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.

About Leidos

Leidos is an industry and technology leader serving government and commercial customers with smarter, more efficient digital and mission innovations. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with 47,000 global employees, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $16.7 billion for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2025. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com.

Pay and Benefits

Pay and benefits are fundamental to any career decision. That's why we craft compensation packages that reflect the importance of the work we do for our customers. Employment benefits include competitive compensation, Health and Wellness programs, Income Protection, Paid Leave and Retirement. More details are available at www.leidos.com/careers/pay-benefits.

Securing Your Data

Beware of fake employment opportunities using Leidos’ name. Leidos will never ask you to provide payment-related information during any part of the employment application process (i.e., ask you for money), nor will Leidos ever advance money as part of the hiring process (i.e., send you a check or money order before doing any work). Further, Leidos will only communicate with you through emails that are generated by the Leidos.com automated system – never from free commercial services (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail) or via WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. If you received an email purporting to be from Leidos that asks for payment-related information or any other personal information (e.g., about you or your previous employer), and you are concerned about its legitimacy, please make us aware immediately by emailing us at LeidosCareersFraud@leidos.com.

If you believe you are the victim of a scam, contact your local law enforcement and report the incident to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Commitment to Non-Discrimination

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, ethnicity, age, national origin, citizenship, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, pregnancy, family structure, marital status, ancestry, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Leidos will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with relevant laws.