Test Manager / Verification and Validation Manager

About Leidos Australia

At Leidos Australia, our work goes beyond a job title. We design, build, operate and support the systems, services and capabilities that help protect and advance the Australian way of life.

Backed by a global organisation of more than 40,000 people, our Australian team of around 2,000 has partnered with government, defence and national security customers for more than 30 years. We deliver mission-critical solutions where reliability, trust and purpose matter.

Leidos is a destination for people who want their work to have purpose, their contribution to be recognised, and their career to grow without needing to fit a single mould. Meaningful work is supported by benefits, flexibility and career pathways that help you grow while balancing life outside work. This includes:

• Flex Your Way – Tailor work to your life with options including Life Days (up to 12 extra days off per year), part-time arrangements, job sharing, and compressed hours.

• Wellbeing That Matters – Free access to Headspace and MeQuilibrium, plus dedicated wellness spaces to support your mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing.

• Learn Without Limits – Access over 120,000 on-demand courses, alongside technical, project management, leadership, and professional development opportunities.

• Work That Makes an Impact – Contribute to nationally significant projects that matter, solve complex challenges, and accelerate your career through unique growth opportunities.

• Build Your Future – Whether you're deepening technical expertise or preparing for leadership, we'll invest in your development every step of the way.

• And Much More – These are just a few of the ways we invest in our people and help them thrive.

About the Team

You’ll join a team where people work with integrity, inclusion, innovation, agility, collaboration and commitment. In practice, that means sharing ownership, solving complex problems together and staying connected to the customer context, the purpose behind the work and how each role contributes to meaningful outcomes.

Mission Software Systems (MSS) brings together expertise across intelligence, software, and cloud to deliver end-to-end capability supporting the full intelligence lifecycle, from planning through to dissemination and feedback. The team fosters a culture of innovation, leveraging modern engineering practices and shared infrastructure to rapidly build, test, and deploy software solutions across a range of environments, including cloud. MSS also plays a key role in advancing technology modernisation within Government, delivering scalable and adaptable solutions for complex enterprise challenges.

The Opportunity

As the Test Manager / Verification and Validation Manager, you will be the senior technical authority responsible for establishing and leading the verification, validation and testing approach for a complex Defence capability. Working across engineering, delivery, quality, customer and supplier teams, you will ensure system requirements are supported by objective evidence, technical risks are understood, and delivered solutions are assessed against their intended purpose and acceptance criteria.

In this role, you will:

• Lead the development and governance of the program's Verification, Validation and Test (V&V) strategy, establishing a structured, traceable and auditable framework that supports the delivery of a complex Defence capability.

• Provide technical leadership across all phases of testing, including system, subsystem, software, hardware, interface, integration and operational testing, ensuring requirements are verified through controlled evidence and clear acceptance pathways.

• Drive test readiness and assurance activities by defining entry and exit criteria, leading readiness reviews, assessing defects and technical risks, and providing evidence-based recommendations on quality, release readiness and customer acceptance.

• Partner with customers, delivery teams, engineering disciplines, subcontractors and suppliers to coordinate complex testing activities, improve assurance practices, strengthen V&V capability and help deliver mission-critical outcomes.

About You

You are an experienced testing and assurance leader who combines technical expertise with the ability to influence stakeholders, navigate complexity and provide objective advice in support of critical engineering outcomes. You enjoy building structure, leading multidisciplinary teams and ensuring decisions are grounded in evidence, quality and risk-based thinking.

Essential for this role:

• Extensive experience leading verification, validation, testing or systems assurance activities within large-scale or technically complex programs, including the development and governance of test strategies, master test plans and integrated V&V frameworks.

• Comprehensive understanding of the testing lifecycle, including planning, design, preparation, execution, reporting and closure, together with experience defining test readiness reviews, entry and exit criteria, acceptance criteria and completion requirements.

• Experience establishing and maintaining traceability between requirements, verification methods, test cases, results and acceptance evidence, ensuring outcomes are auditable, repeatable and supported by objective evidence.

• Experience leading multidisciplinary testing across integrated software, hardware, networks, platforms, interfaces or operational systems, including defect, anomaly, incident and non-conformance management through to resolution.

• Ability to evaluate complex test outcomes and provide objective, evidence-based recommendations on compliance, product quality, residual risk, release readiness and customer acceptance.

• Experience engaging and influencing customers, senior leaders, engineering teams, delivery teams, subcontractors and suppliers, and coordinating testing activities across multiple stakeholders and workstreams.

• Proven ability to lead, mentor and develop technical personnel, provide clear technical direction, and deliver high-quality strategies, plans, reports, briefings and assurance artefacts.

• Relevant tertiary qualifications in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology or a related technical discipline, or equivalent professional experience, together with the ability to resolve complex technical issues using sound judgement and recognised industry practices.

Advantageous, but not essential:

• Experience delivering verification and validation outcomes within Defence, national security, intelligence, aviation, critical infrastructure or other highly regulated environments.

• Experience supporting formal qualification, certification, operational test and evaluation, technical assurance, audit activities and customer acceptance programs.

• Knowledge of systems engineering, requirements management frameworks, risk-based testing methodologies and Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) practices.

• Experience implementing or improving test automation capabilities and working across performance, resilience, security, interoperability, usability and operational testing disciplines.

• Experience using Jira, Confluence, HP ALM or equivalent platforms, managing supplier-delivered test artefacts and verification evidence, and holding relevant industry certifications such as ISTQB, Systems Engineering, Quality or Project Management certifications.

This role requires the successful applicant to be an Australian citizen and hold an NV-1 security clearance, with the ability to uplift to an NV-2 security clearance.

If this role interests you, we encourage you to apply. We value different experiences and are interested in the capability and potential you could bring.

What to Expect When You Apply

Our hiring process is designed to be straightforward, respectful and easy to navigate. If your skills, experience and qualifications look aligned with the role, our Talent Acquisition team will contact you to discuss the next stage. You can expect:

• An initial conversation with our Talent Acquisition team

• An interview with the hiring manager or interview panel

• Any role-specific assessment, technical discussion or customer step required for the position

We’ll let you know what to expect before each stage, including who you’ll meet and how to prepare. If you need any adjustments or support during the process, please let us know.

Ready to explore what’s possible?

If this sounds like a role where you can make an impact and continue to grow, we’d like to hear from you. Please apply via the “Apply Now” button with your resume. If you have any questions about the role or recruitment process, please contact Praveena Sundarakumar, Talent Acquisition.

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.