How to Apply to Leonardo DRS

16 min read Last updated April 20, 2026 151 open positions
Blake Crosley
Blake Crosley Researched using publicly available information, hiring data, and ATS analysis.

Key Takeaways

  • Leonardo DRS is a ~6,500-person US defense prime headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, listed on NASDAQ and TASE under DRS since the November 2022 RADA merger, and operating as the US subsidiary of Leonardo S.p.A. under a Special Security Agreement with the Department of Defense.
  • The Special Security Agreement erects a firewall between Italian parent leadership and DRS's classified US programs; a cleared US Government Security Committee oversees proxy-held voting, facility security, personnel, and access to classified information under NISPOM / 32 CFR Part 117, and CEO William J. Lynn III (former US Deputy Secretary of Defense) has led that structure since 2012.
  • Flagship products cluster around advanced sensing (cooled and uncooled infrared, electro-optical targeting, tactical hemispheric radar), electric power and propulsion (Columbia-class SSBN and Virginia-class SSN drive trains, motors, and power conversion), force protection (Trophy APS, CROWS-J), and network computing / battlefield effects (ruggedized mission computers, FWS-I thermal weapon sights, IVAS-related night vision).
  • All applications flow through Workday at leonardodrs.com/careers (leonardodrs.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/External and /LeonardoDRS); Workday performs literal keyword screening against the structured profile fields (degrees, citizenship, clearance, skills) and the resume PDF, so both must be complete and aligned with the requisition.
  • US citizenship is mandatory for the overwhelming majority of technical, program, manufacturing, supply-chain, and leadership roles, and at least Secret clearance is standard; many roles require Top Secret or TS-SCI with CI or Full Scope polygraph, and clearance timelines can push start dates 3 to 12+ months out for first-time applicants.
  • Resumes should put US citizenship and clearance status at the top, quantify program outcomes on named platforms (Columbia-class SSBN, Virginia-class SSN, Abrams, Stryker, MPF, IM-SHORAD, FWS-I, CROWS-J), mirror DoD and DRS vocabulary verbatim (MOSA, OpenVPX, MIL-STD-810/461/1553, ITAR, EAR, NISPOM, CMMC, DFARS), and surface degrees, publications, and patents prominently.
  • Interviews are conducted by working engineers and program managers from the relevant business unit (Naval Electric Power & Propulsion, Land Electronics, Airborne & Intelligence Systems, Electro Optical & Infrared); expect first-principles technical problems in your domain, STAR behavioral questions oriented around security and program execution, and explicit conversations about SSA, export control, and foreign-contact history.
  • Competitors in the US hiring market are RTX (Raytheon), L3Harris, BAE Systems Inc., Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, and to a lesser extent Lockheed Martin and HII; Leonardo DRS differentiates as a focused sensing, electric-propulsion, and force-protection specialist with strong Navy submarine and Army ground-vehicle franchises rather than a platform integrator.
  • Recent 2024-2025 tailwinds include continued Columbia-class electric-propulsion deliveries, expansion of tactical radar into counter-UAS and layered air defense (Stryker, IM-SHORAD, MPF), growth in advanced infrared programs linked to Next Generation Squad Weapon Fire Control, and a record backlog above 8.6 billion dollars, which is driving hiring across Fitchburg MA, Melbourne FL, Dallas/Richardson TX, Cypress CA, and the Israeli sites in Netanya and Beit Shemesh (Leonardo DRS Israel) for eligible candidates.

About Leonardo DRS

Leonardo DRS, Inc. is a US defense technology company headquartered at 2345 Crystal Drive in Arlington, Virginia, listed on the NASDAQ and Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under the ticker DRS following its November 2022 merger with RADA Electronic Industries of Israel. The company employs approximately 6,500 people across roughly thirty principal US facilities and two Leonardo DRS Israel sites in Netanya and Beit Shemesh, generating approximately 3.15 billion dollars in revenue in 2024 with a backlog that crossed 8.6 billion dollars by late 2024 as Columbia-class submarine propulsion, advanced infrared sensing, tactical radar, and force protection awards continued to compound. Legally Leonardo DRS is the US-incorporated subsidiary of Leonardo S.p.A., the Italian aerospace, defense and security group headquartered in Rome (Piazza Monte Grappa), but from a national security perspective Leonardo DRS operates under a Special Security Agreement (SSA) with the US Department of Defense that erects a firewall between the Italian parent's leadership and DRS's classified US programs; the Italian parent owns the economic interest while a US-resident Government Security Committee of cleared US citizens oversees proxy-held voting, facility security, personnel, export control, and access to classified information under the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM) and 32 CFR Part 117. William J. Lynn III, a former United States Deputy Secretary of Defense under President Obama, has served as Chief Executive Officer since 2012 and also chairs the board, an arrangement that is central to how the SSA functions in practice and how DoD customers perceive the company's independence from its foreign parent. The flagship product portfolio clusters around four mission areas: advanced sensing (cooled and uncooled infrared imagers, electro-optical/infrared targeting sights, and the Leonardo DRS / RADA tactical hemispheric radar family now deployed on Stryker, IM-SHORAD, MPF, and a growing list of counter-UAS systems), electric power and propulsion (integrated electric propulsion drive trains, motors, generators, and power conversion for the US Navy's Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine and Virginia-class attack submarine programs), force protection (Trophy active protection on Abrams tanks, CROWS-J remote weapon stations, and command and control nodes), and network computing and battlefield effects (ruggedized mission computers, thermal weapon sights like the Family of Weapon Sights - Individual program, and night vision integrated with Integrated Visual Augmentation System work). Leonardo DRS sits alongside RTX (Raytheon), L3Harris Technologies, BAE Systems Inc., Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics in the middle tier of US defense primes, typically as the US-centric sensors, electric-propulsion, and force-protection specialist rather than a platform integrator. Recent years have sharpened that profile: the 2022 RADA merger pulled tactical radar into the portfolio and opened the Israeli market, the 2023 divestiture of the Advanced Acoustic Concepts naval-acoustics joint venture focused the business on sensing and power, and 2024-2025 saw continued Columbia-class propulsion deliveries, expansion of Stryker and counter-UAS radar sales, and growth in advanced infrared programs tied to Next Generation Squad Weapon Fire Control and layered air defense.

Application Process

  1. 1
    Search and apply at leonardodrs

    Search and apply at leonardodrs.com/careers, which routes every external requisition into Workday under the Leonardo DRS tenant (leonardodrs.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/External and /LeonardoDRS); every hire, including cleared and executive roles, produces a Workday candidate record even when the original lead came from a referral, event, or recruiter outreach.

  2. 2
    Create one Workday candidate profile and complete the structured fields thorough

    Create one Workday candidate profile and complete the structured fields thoroughly: legal name, US citizenship (yes/no), current and highest clearance level (None / Confidential / Secret / Top Secret / TS-SCI / TS-SCI with CI or Full Scope poly), degrees, GPA, certifications, work authorization, veteran status, and export-control questions; Workday and recruiters filter on these structured fields before the resume is read.

  3. 3
    Expect a recruiter phone screen within one to three weeks for shortlisted candid

    Expect a recruiter phone screen within one to three weeks for shortlisted candidates covering technical background, US citizenship status, clearance eligibility and current clearance level, export-control (ITAR/EAR) questions for engineering roles, salary expectations, location preference (Arlington VA, Melbourne FL, Germantown MD, Cypress CA, Fitchburg MA, Dallas/Richardson TX, Beavercreek OH, Bridgeton MO, Menomonee Falls WI, Huntsville AL, Largo FL, and others), and relocation flexibility.

  4. 4
    A hiring manager interview follows, almost always with the working engineering m

    A hiring manager interview follows, almost always with the working engineering manager or program lead rather than a pure HR interviewer; for Columbia-class power and propulsion, infrared sensing, tactical radar, and force-protection roles expect deep-dive technical questions about your thesis, prior programs, specific tools (MATLAB, Simulink, Python, C/C++, VHDL/Verilog, Altium, Creo, CATIA, Cameo/MagicDraw SysML, DOORS, Jira/Confluence), and the physics or math underlying your specialty.

  5. 5
    Onsite or virtual loops typically include three to six interviews across the hir

    Onsite or virtual loops typically include three to six interviews across the hiring team and adjacent groups, mixing technical whiteboard or screen-share problems, behavioral STAR questions, a brief presentation of prior work (unclassified only), and at least one conversation focused on working under a Special Security Agreement, export control discipline, and how you would handle foreign-national and foreign-parent interaction rules.

  6. 6
    Conditional offers for cleared roles are contingent on clearance reciprocity or

    Conditional offers for cleared roles are contingent on clearance reciprocity or a fresh investigation; new Secret applications run through the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) via the e-QIP/eApp SF-86 process and currently average several months, while Top Secret and TS-SCI with CI or Full Scope polygraph can push the start date 6 to 12+ months out, especially for first-time applicants or candidates with dual citizenship or extensive foreign contact.

  7. 7
    End-to-end timelines average roughly 30 to 60 days from application to offer for

    End-to-end timelines average roughly 30 to 60 days from application to offer for cleared candidates with transferable clearances and substantially longer for first-time clearance applicants; intern and co-op candidates follow cohort calendars (summer internship offers concentrate from late fall through early spring, and university recruiting is heaviest at Virginia Tech, Penn State, Purdue, Georgia Tech, UCF, University of Massachusetts, and the Naval Postgraduate School).

Resume Tips for Leonardo DRS

recommended

State US citizenship and clearance status (None / Secret / Top Secret / TS-SCI /

State US citizenship and clearance status (None / Secret / Top Secret / TS-SCI / TS-SCI with CI or Full Scope poly, with last investigation date if known) in plain text at the top of the resume; US citizenship is a hard prerequisite for the overwhelming majority of Leonardo DRS requisitions because of the Special Security Agreement and classified program portfolio, and recruiters screen on it literally.

recommended

Lead each role with quantified mission and engineering outcomes: kilowatts of el

Lead each role with quantified mission and engineering outcomes: kilowatts of electric-propulsion power delivered, infrared sensor noise-equivalent temperature difference improved, radar detection range extended, FPGA gate count or DSP throughput achieved, weight-power-cost envelopes hit on a ruggedized computer, Critical Design Reviews led, or Production Readiness Reviews cleared, and name the platform or program (Columbia-class SSBN, Virginia-class SSN, Abrams, Stryker, MPF, IM-SHORAD, FWS-I, CROWS-J) where unclassified.

recommended

Mirror Leonardo DRS and DoD vocabulary verbatim from the job description: integr

Mirror Leonardo DRS and DoD vocabulary verbatim from the job description: integrated electric propulsion, permanent magnet motor, power conversion, cooled/uncooled FPA, MWIR, LWIR, SWaP-C, tactical radar, S-band AESA, counter-UAS, Trophy APS, FWS-I, CROWS-J, MOSA, Modular Open Systems Approach, ITAR, EAR, CUI, NISPOM, DFARS, CMMC, AS9100, MIL-STD-810, MIL-STD-461, MIL-STD-1553, VPX, OpenVPX, since Workday keyword screening is literal.

recommended

Name specific toolchains and standards on each relevant role: MATLAB/Simulink, P

Name specific toolchains and standards on each relevant role: MATLAB/Simulink, Python, C/C++, VHDL/Verilog, Xilinx/AMD Vivado, Altium, Creo, CATIA, ANSYS, Cameo/MagicDraw SysML, DOORS, Jira, Confluence, Git, GitLab CI, ROS, Kubernetes for ground systems, and standards such as ASME Y14.5 GD&T, IPC-A-610/620 for electronics manufacturing, and MIL-STD environmental and EMI specs.

recommended

For early-career and intern candidates, list degree program, university, GPA if

For early-career and intern candidates, list degree program, university, GPA if 3.0+, graduation date, relevant coursework, capstone or thesis topic in one or two sentences, and any robotics, CubeSat, rocket, formula SAE, or cyber competition team leadership; intern-to-full-time conversion is a primary hiring pipeline at DRS and university hires typically flow through Workday into one of the early-career cohorts (Engineering Leadership Development, Manufacturing Leadership, Finance Leadership).

recommended

Translate military and government experience into Leonardo DRS-relevant signals:

Translate military and government experience into Leonardo DRS-relevant signals: submarine Navy propulsion and electrical tours (MMN, ETN, EMN, submarine officer), Army armor and infantry experience with Abrams/Stryker platforms, Marine Corps ground combat element experience with MPF and counter-UAS systems, prior experience at a PEO (PEO Ground Combat Systems, PEO Soldier, PEO Missiles and Space, NAVSEA 07, NAVSEA 08), DAWIA certifications (Engineering, Program Management, T&E, Contracting), and any prior employment at Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, BAE, L3Harris, General Dynamics, or Lockheed Martin that overlaps the DRS portfolio.

recommended

Keep the resume clean, single-column, and Workday-parseable: avoid columns, tabl

Keep the resume clean, single-column, and Workday-parseable: avoid columns, tables, headers or footers with embedded data, text-in-images, and exotic fonts; submit as PDF or DOCX with clear section headers (Clearance, Education, Experience, Projects, Publications, Patents, Skills) and never include classified program details, classified performance data, codeword names, or ITAR-controlled technical data in the resume text.

recommended

For experienced hires coming from non-defense industries (commercial semiconduct

For experienced hires coming from non-defense industries (commercial semiconductors, automotive electric propulsion, power electronics, consumer imaging, or industrial robotics), explicitly map civilian skills to defense equivalents on the resume: AEC-Q100 to MIL-STD-883, IATF 16949 to AS9100, automotive CAN bus to MIL-STD-1553, grid-tie inverters to naval power conversion, so that defense recruiters can see the translation without having to guess.

ATS System: Workday

Leonardo DRS hosts all external requisitions in Workday under the Leonardo DRS tenant at leonardodrs.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com (primarily the External and LeonardoDRS sites), surfaced through leonardodrs.com/careers. Every external hire - including cleared, experienced, and executive roles sourced through referrals or recruiter outreach - produces a Workday candidate record. Workday performs literal keyword screening against both the structured profile fields (legal name, US citizenship, work authorization, current clearance level, degrees, GPA, certifications, veteran status, export-control answers) and the uploaded resume, so the structured fields matter as much as the PDF. Because Leonardo DRS operates under a Special Security Agreement with DoD, the citizenship and clearance questions in the Workday profile are treated as hard filters rather than soft preferences, and recruiters use them to screen before the resume is read.

  • Create one Leonardo DRS Workday candidate profile at leonardodrs.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com and complete every structured field - US citizenship, work authorization, current clearance level (None / Secret / TS / TS-SCI / TS-SCI with CI or Full Scope poly), degrees, GPA, certifications, veteran status - because the AI matcher and recruiters filter on these fields, not just on the resume PDF.
  • Mirror Leonardo DRS and DoD vocabulary verbatim from the job description: MOSA, OpenVPX, MIL-STD-810/461/1553/167/901, ITAR, EAR, NISPOM, CMMC, DFARS, Columbia-class, Virginia-class, Abrams, Stryker, MPF, IM-SHORAD, FWS-I, CROWS-J, Trophy APS, AESA, cooled FPA, MWIR, LWIR, SWaP-C.
  • Put US citizenship and clearance status in the top section of your resume and repeat it in the Workday structured fields; SSA-governed hiring treats these as hard filters rather than soft preferences.
  • Use a clean single-column resume in PDF or DOCX with no tables, columns, headers or footers with embedded data, or text-in-images, because Workday's parser fails silently on those layouts and your data may not populate the structured profile correctly.
  • Never include classified program details, classified performance data, codeword names, or ITAR-controlled technical data in the resume or Workday profile; security reviewers screen for this and violations will end a candidacy immediately.
  • Track each application from the Workday candidate home (cloud icon in the upper right of the candidate portal) under My Submitted Applications; status transitions (Under Consideration, Interview, Offer) are the canonical signal and move faster than recruiter email.

Complete Workday Resume Guide →

Interview Culture

Leonardo DRS interviews are technically substantive, security-conscious, and culturally distinct from both the large primes and the software-first defense startups, shaped by the dual reality that the company is a publicly traded US defense prime with demanding Navy and Army programs and a subsidiary of a foreign parent that operates under a Special Security Agreement with the Department of Defense. Interviewers are almost always working engineers, program managers, and functional leaders drawn from the relevant business unit (Naval Electric Power & Propulsion, Land Electronics, Airborne & Intelligence Systems, or Electro Optical & Infrared Systems), and many of them came up through Navy submarine programs, Army armor programs, national laboratories, or other primes; they treat the interview as a realistic preview of how they would work with you rather than a theatrical performance. Expect an opening question that asks you to walk through a specific project, program contribution, or thesis in detail, and expect the panel to probe assumptions, failure modes, alternative approaches, and what you would do differently with more budget or schedule; vague ownership claims, marketing language about 'leading cross-functional teams' without concrete outcomes, or polished narratives that hide setbacks tend to land poorly because the people across the table have shipped real hardware into submarines, armored vehicles, and aircraft and can tell immediately when somebody is bluffing. Behavioral questions follow the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) and frequently target export-control judgment (how you handled an ITAR question from a foreign colleague), program-level conflict (a schedule-versus-quality disagreement with a government program office), subcontractor management, and working under classification where you could not tell teammates what you were doing. Technical interviews vary sharply by discipline: power electronics, electrical machines, and propulsion candidates face motor and drive topology questions, power-density and efficiency trade-offs, thermal management, fault-tolerant control, and Columbia-class-relevant questions about permanent magnet versus induction architectures, acoustic signature management, and qualification testing against MIL-STD-167 vibration and shock; infrared and electro-optical candidates face cooled versus uncooled FPA trade-offs, detector pitch, MTF, NETD, optical design questions, SWaP-C, and cryocooler integration; RF and radar candidates face link-budget problems, AESA beamforming, adaptive clutter suppression, low-probability-of-intercept waveforms, and counter-UAS engagement geometry; systems, software, and digital-engineering candidates face MOSA, OpenVPX, VICTORY, GVA, DDS, and real-time operating system questions, plus modest coding rounds in Python, C, or C++ and sometimes model-based systems engineering exercises in Cameo/MagicDraw SysML. Across every loop you should expect an explicit conversation about US citizenship, clearance eligibility, current clearance level, willingness to undergo polygraph if required, foreign travel and foreign contacts, and your understanding of what the Special Security Agreement means in practice (that you will work for Leonardo DRS's US management, that access to classified information is firewalled from the Italian parent, and that export-control and foreign-person rules are taken seriously on the ground). Leonardo DRS screens hard for security discipline, humility, strong written and oral communication, and the ability to be the technical adult in a room full of government program managers, prime-contractor counterparts, subcontractors, and warfighter users; candidates who admit what they do not know, ask sharp clarifying questions about requirements and environment, and engage the SSA and export-control context directly tend to do well, while candidates who treat clearance and export control as bureaucratic annoyances or who downplay the foreign-parent structure tend to stall.

What Leonardo DRS Looks For

  • US citizenship and either an active Secret or TS/TS-SCI clearance or the willingness and background (no unresolved foreign-influence, financial, substance, or criminal concerns) to obtain and maintain one, since virtually every engineering, program, manufacturing, supply-chain, and leadership role at Leonardo DRS touches classified work or ITAR-controlled technical data.
  • Deep technical foundation in a relevant discipline (electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, power electronics, electric machines, thermal sciences, physics, optics, RF engineering, systems engineering, software engineering, cybersecurity, naval architecture, or manufacturing engineering) with the ability to reason from first principles rather than recite tools.
  • Mission orientation toward US national security and alliance partners; candidates who articulate why they want to build submarine propulsion, infrared sensors, tactical radar, force protection, or night-vision systems for US and allied warfighters consistently outperform candidates who treat defense as a generic engineering domain.
  • Security discipline and export-control fluency: candidates who understand ITAR, EAR, NISPOM / 32 CFR 117, CUI handling, and the specific implications of working for a US subsidiary under a Special Security Agreement with a foreign parent, and who can speak plainly about how they would handle foreign-person interaction, are dramatically easier to hire.
  • Program-execution maturity: the ability to manage a Critical Design Review, a Production Readiness Review, a qualification test campaign against MIL-STD-810/461/167/901, a First Article Inspection, or a technical data package handoff to manufacturing without drama, and the ability to push back on unrealistic schedules or underspecified requirements while preserving the program relationship.
  • Strong written and oral communication, including the ability to brief Navy, Army, Marine Corps, and allied program office customers, write technical memos and risk assessments, and translate engineering analysis into acquisition or sustainment recommendations inside the DoD 5000 series acquisition framework.
  • Diversity of background that maps to Leonardo DRS mission areas: cleared power-electronics and electric-machines engineers, cooled and uncooled infrared specialists, RF and radar engineers, MOSA/OpenVPX systems engineers, embedded software and firmware developers, manufacturing and supply-chain leaders, cyber and resilience engineers, and program managers with DoD acquisition (PEO GCS, PEO Soldier, PEO Missiles and Space, NAVSEA 07/08) experience are all in active demand.
  • Cultural fit with a mid-sized US defense prime that is proud of being an execution-focused sensing, power, and force-protection specialist rather than a platform integrator, that operates under an SSA with a foreign parent, and that rewards quiet professionalism, security discipline, and long tenure over self-promotion.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the Special Security Agreement actually mean for employees at Leonardo DRS?
Leonardo DRS is the US-incorporated subsidiary of Leonardo S.p.A., an Italian-headquartered defense prime, and because of that foreign ownership the company operates under a Special Security Agreement (SSA) with the US Department of Defense under NISPOM / 32 CFR Part 117. In practice this means that a cleared US-resident Government Security Committee, not Leonardo S.p.A.'s Rome leadership, controls proxy-held voting on security-relevant matters, facility clearances, personnel clearances, export control, and access to classified information; Italian parent management has economic rights but is firewalled from DRS's classified US programs and from communications that would expose classified or ITAR-controlled technical data. CEO William J. Lynn III, a former Deputy Secretary of Defense, has led DRS under this structure since 2012, which is central to how DoD customers perceive DRS's independence. For employees this translates into strict export-control training, foreign-person interaction rules, and a culture where security discipline is treated as a first-class engineering requirement rather than a compliance afterthought.
Is Leonardo DRS hiring non-US citizens, and what about dual citizens?
For the overwhelming majority of requisitions the answer is no: US citizenship is a hard prerequisite because the work involves classified information, ITAR-controlled technical data, or both, and SSA-governed companies apply citizenship screening rigorously. A small number of commercial, corporate, or IT roles may be open to US persons (lawful permanent residents) but not to general foreign nationals. Dual citizens who are US citizens are eligible to apply, but dual citizenship, foreign travel, and foreign contacts will be closely examined during the SF-86 process and DCSA adjudication, and candidates who are not prepared to document these facts in detail often see their clearance timelines stretch significantly. Leonardo DRS Israel roles in Netanya and Beit Shemesh follow Israeli employment and security law and are generally aimed at Israeli citizens; they are not a back door for non-US citizens to work classified US programs.
What ATS does Leonardo DRS use, and how should I optimize my resume for it?
Leonardo DRS uses Workday, hosted under the Leonardo DRS tenant at leonardodrs.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com (typically the External and LeonardoDRS sites), surfaced through leonardodrs.com/careers. Workday performs literal keyword screening against both the structured profile fields and the uploaded resume, so you should (1) complete every structured field in your candidate profile - legal name, US citizenship, work authorization, current clearance level, degrees, GPA, certifications, veteran status, and the export-control questions - because recruiters filter on those fields before reading the PDF; (2) mirror the exact vocabulary of the job description (for example MOSA, OpenVPX, MIL-STD-461, ITAR, Columbia-class, AESA, cooled FPA, Trophy APS) because the parser is literal; (3) submit a clean single-column PDF or DOCX with no tables, columns, headers or footers with embedded data, or text-in-images, because Workday's parser fails silently on those layouts and your data may not populate the profile; and (4) track the application from the Workday candidate home page under My Submitted Applications rather than relying on recruiter emails.
Where are the main US facilities and what kind of work happens at each?
Corporate headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia (2345 Crystal Drive), co-located with DoD customer engagement and executive leadership. Major engineering and production sites include Fitchburg, Massachusetts (naval electric power and propulsion, including Columbia-class and Virginia-class submarine drive trains, motors, and power conversion), Milwaukee / Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin (naval and industrial power), Melbourne, Florida (Airborne & Intelligence Systems, high-performance computing, ISR mission systems), Dallas / Richardson, Texas (electro-optical and infrared sensors, night vision, FWS-I), Cypress, California (tactical radar and RADA-heritage hemispheric sensors, following the 2022 merger), Germantown, Maryland (command and control, intelligence systems), Bridgeton, Missouri (force protection, remote weapon stations), Huntsville, Alabama (missile defense and air and missile defense customer support), Beavercreek, Ohio (airborne mission systems), Largo, Florida, and several smaller depot, logistics, and test sites. Leonardo DRS Israel operates in Netanya and Beit Shemesh as a distinct legal entity focused on tactical radar and counter-UAS.
How competitive is Leonardo DRS compensation compared to Raytheon, L3Harris, Northrop Grumman, BAE, and General Dynamics?
Leonardo DRS pays competitively within the US mid-tier defense prime market, generally in line with L3Harris and BAE Systems Inc. for comparable roles, modestly below RTX (Raytheon) and Northrop Grumman at the staff and principal engineer level in hot specialties such as AESA radar, power electronics, and cooled infrared, and modestly above non-defense industrials for cleared candidates. Total compensation is structured around base salary, an annual cash bonus tied to business unit and corporate performance, and - for director-level and above - a Long Term Incentive Plan with restricted stock units and performance share units vesting over multiple years; equity became materially more meaningful after the November 2022 NASDAQ listing. Benefits are standard for a US publicly traded defense prime: 401(k) with company match, medical/dental/vision, life and disability, paid parental leave, tuition reimbursement up to graduate level (including support for MBA, MS, and PhD programs in relevant fields), and clearance-maintenance support.
What is the interview process like end to end?
A typical process runs 30 to 60 days for cleared candidates with transferable clearances and longer for first-time clearance applicants. Step 1 is application through Workday at leonardodrs.com/careers. Step 2 is a 30-minute recruiter phone screen covering technical background, US citizenship, clearance level and eligibility, export-control questions for engineering roles, salary expectations, location, and relocation. Step 3 is a hiring-manager call, typically with the engineering manager or program lead, that goes deep on your resume and one or two prior programs. Step 4 is an onsite or virtual loop of three to six interviews mixing technical whiteboard or screen-share problems, behavioral STAR questions, a brief unclassified presentation of prior work, and at least one SSA / export-control / foreign-contact conversation. Step 5 is a conditional offer contingent on clearance reciprocity or a fresh DCSA investigation via e-QIP/eApp; new Secret investigations currently run several months, and TS-SCI with polygraph can push start dates 6 to 12+ months. Intern and co-op candidates follow cohort calendars with summer offers concentrated from late fall through early spring.
What does Leonardo DRS build for the Columbia-class submarine, and why does that matter for hiring?
Leonardo DRS is the prime integrator of the integrated electric propulsion drive train for the US Navy's Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine, the follow-on to the Ohio-class SSBN and arguably the Navy's single most strategically important shipbuilding program of the 2020s and 2030s, and DRS also supplies significant electric-propulsion and power content on the Virginia-class attack submarine. The work spans permanent-magnet and advanced induction motors, high-power-density power conversion, power distribution, motor drives, and system-level integration, executed largely out of Fitchburg, Massachusetts with supporting work in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. Because Columbia-class schedule is a national priority, DRS is hiring aggressively into power electronics, electric machines, electromagnetics, thermal, structural, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, and program management roles tied to this program, and candidates with submarine-relevant experience - Navy nuclear power, MIL-STD-167 and MIL-STD-901 qualification, electromagnetic signature, or high-power drive design - are in particularly high demand.
What did the November 2022 RADA merger change, and what is Leonardo DRS Israel?
In November 2022 Leonardo DRS merged with RADA Electronic Industries, an Israeli publicly traded maker of tactical software-defined radars, in a transaction that simultaneously took the combined company public on NASDAQ and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under the ticker DRS. The merger added RADA's hemispheric S-band tactical radar family to the Leonardo DRS portfolio, accelerated DRS's position in counter-UAS, IM-SHORAD, Stryker A1, and Mobile Protected Firepower programs, and established Leonardo DRS Israel as a distinct subsidiary operating in Netanya and Beit Shemesh under Israeli law and security rules. Leonardo DRS Israel hires Israeli engineers and technicians for radar, antenna, RF, signal-processing, and manufacturing roles and is not a pathway for non-US citizens to work classified US programs. The merger also changed the cap table: Leonardo S.p.A. remains the majority owner, with former RADA shareholders and public float holding the balance.
What technical specialties are Leonardo DRS hiring most aggressively in 2024-2025?
Based on public requisitions and stated program tailwinds, the highest-demand specialties are: (1) electric machines, power electronics, motor drives, and power conversion engineers for Columbia-class and Virginia-class propulsion at Fitchburg MA and Menomonee Falls WI; (2) cooled and uncooled infrared sensor engineers, optical designers, and focal-plane-array specialists at Dallas / Richardson TX for FWS-I, Next Generation Squad Weapon Fire Control, and adjacent programs; (3) AESA radar, RF, signal processing, and counter-UAS engineers at Cypress CA and the Leonardo DRS Israel sites; (4) ruggedized computing, MOSA / OpenVPX, embedded software, and cybersecurity engineers at Melbourne FL and Germantown MD; (5) manufacturing, quality, supply chain, and operations leaders across all major production sites as backlog converts to deliveries; and (6) program managers and systems engineers with DoD acquisition (PEO GCS, PEO Soldier, PEO Missiles and Space, NAVSEA 07/08) experience across Arlington VA and the major engineering sites.
Does Leonardo DRS offer internships and early-career programs, and how competitive are they?
Yes. Leonardo DRS runs a structured summer internship program across most major engineering and manufacturing sites, plus functional leadership development programs in engineering, manufacturing, and finance that rotate early-career hires through multiple business units over 18 to 36 months. University recruiting focuses heavily on Virginia Tech, Penn State, Purdue, Georgia Tech, University of Central Florida, University of Massachusetts, Worcester Polytechnic, University of Texas at Dallas, University of Wisconsin, and the Naval Postgraduate School, but strong applicants from other ABET-accredited programs regularly make the cut. Internship offers concentrate from late fall through early spring, and intern-to-full-time conversion is a primary hiring pipeline; interns who demonstrate security discipline, strong technical fundamentals, and fit with the relevant business unit are frequently offered return offers before the end of their summer. Citizenship and clearance eligibility still apply at the intern level for most technical roles.

Open Positions

Leonardo DRS currently has 151 open positions.

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