Had a long plentiful 15 yr career at SAIC / Leidos, then I got too expensive - Mechanical Engineer Leidos Employee Review

4.0
1 Oct 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Lots of cross-division work if your manager will "take care" of you and find work for you when budget dries up. Lots of different gigs if you're willing to go off the typical career path. If you are young, cheap, flexible, and want to travel - there is a lot of opportunity, again, if your manager values you and moves you around with the work.

Cons

Newer generation of managers don't take care of their employees - you're just a number that sucks up their budget. After you've been there a while, getting the standard annual raise, you get too expensive and manager X decides to cut you early when budget dries up. Often each division works as its own small company, in a way, so employees don't end up in cross-company job openings.

Explore other reviews about Leidos

5.0
20 Apr 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

great work life balance nice

Cons

none, i like it here

3.0
27 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Leidos provides opportunities to work on complex government programs with meaningful technical challenges. Depending on the contract and team, there can be exposure to cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, systems engineering, networking, and mission-focused work that is difficult to find elsewhere. The company also has a large footprint, so there may be internal opportunities for people who are able to navigate the organization.

Cons

My experience was that the quality of management varied significantly by program. Communication around expectations, roles, and priorities was often inconsistent, and decisions that affected employees were not always explained clearly or handled in a transparent way. Work-life balance also depended heavily on local management. Flexibility that existed in practice could be changed quickly, and employees were sometimes left trying to reconcile changing expectations with existing workloads and personal obligations. In my view, the company would benefit from stronger oversight of program-level management decisions, especially where employee responsibilities, workplace flexibility, and performance feedback are concerned. I also found that technical decision-making was sometimes driven more by schedule pressure than by sound engineering judgment. On complex government programs, that can create unnecessary risk and frustration for employees who are trying to do things correctly.

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