Senior Director, Growth – Indirect Fires & Force Protection

At Leidos, we deliver innovative solutions through the efforts of our diverse and talented people, united by a commitment to our customers’ success. We empower our teams, invest in our communities, and operate sustainably—always doing the right thing for our customers, our people, and our mission. Our Mission, Vision, and Values guide everything we do.

Within the Defense Systems Sector, the Indirect Fires & Force Protection (IF&FP) Business Area designs, develops, integrates, and sustains advanced ground-based air defense systems; delivers processing, exploitation, dissemination, and analysis capabilities; and provides operational mission expertise and force protection solutions.

The Defense Systems Sector Growth organization is seeking a Senior Director, Growth to provide executive leadership for all Business Development and Strategy activities within the IF&FP Business Area. This role is responsible for setting and executing the long-term growth strategy for a complex and highly competitive defense portfolio. Primary customers include the U.S. Army (PEO IEW&S, PEO M&S, Army Space and Missile Defense Command), U.S. Air Force, and the Missile Defense Agency.

In this role, you will be accountable for enterprise-level business development performance, including revenue growth, pipeline health, capture excellence, customer engagement, and investment strategy. You will lead a multi-disciplinary growth organization and serve as a key advisor to Business Area and Sector leadership.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide executive leadership for all business development, capture, proposal, and growth strategy activities for the IF&FP Business Area.

• Partner with the VP of Program Integration Growth and senior sector leadership to define and execute near- and long-term growth strategies aligned with customer priorities, technical roadmaps, and enterprise objectives.

• Serve as a core member of the Business Area Leadership Team, contributing directly to P&L ownership, financial performance, and strategic decision-making.

• Lead senior-level customer engagement and relationship management, fostering trusted partnerships with key DoD and government stakeholders.

• Drive pipeline development and prioritization, ensuring disciplined opportunity selection, bid decisions, and investment alignment.

• Oversee capture and proposal execution for major, strategic opportunities, ensuring compelling, compliant, and differentiated solutions with a strong customer perspective.

• Champion probability of win (PWin) rigor, conducting executive reviews and ensuring opportunities mature to proposal readiness.

• Collaborate with Business Area leadership, CTO, and solution architects to align growth strategy with technology investments, IR&D, and adjacent market opportunities.

• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing growth organization, including talent strategy, succession planning, performance management, and workforce development.

• Provide executive oversight of B&P, IR&D, and other discretionary investments to maximize return and strategic impact.

• Support mergers, acquisitions, and strategic partnership evaluations to expand capabilities and market reach.

• Serve as a trusted, objective advisor to Business Area leadership on growth risks, opportunity trade-offs, and strategic investments.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a scientific or engineering discipline with 20+ years of relevant experience, including senior leadership roles

• 15+ years of progressive experience in business development, capture, and growth leadership within the defense or aerospace sector

• Demonstrated executive-level relationships with senior military leaders and government decision-makers, particularly within the U.S. Army and Huntsville defense community

• Deep understanding of DoD missions, acquisition organizations, and customer funding priorities

• Proven record of leading and winning large, complex, and highly competitive defense captures

• Demonstrated ability to develop and execute multi-year growth strategies at the portfolio or business area level

• Strong people leadership skills with experience building, scaling, and leading high-performing organizations

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree (MBA or technical master’s degree)

• Deep working knowledge of FAR-based competitive procurements

• Experience with DoD budget formulation, investment planning, and acquisition processes

• Prior responsibility for significant budgets and workforce planning

• Executive-level communication skills with the ability to influence across matrixed organizations

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and executive-level reporting tools

Security Clearance Requirement

• Active DoD Secret clearance, with the ability to obtain and maintain TS/SCI

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.