Lead Compliance Auditor

About This Role

Looking for an opportunity to make an impact? At Leidos, we deliver innovative solutions through the efforts of our diverse and talented people who are dedicated to our customers’ success. We empower our teams, contribute to our communities, and operate sustainably. Everything we do is built on a commitment to do the right thing for our customers, our people, and our community. Our Mission, Vision, and Values guide the way we do business. Your greatest work is ahead! Leidos’ Defense Sector Mission Assurance is seeking a Lead Compliance Auditor to join our team and serve as the senior technical authority for audit execution across our manufacturing and production operations. The Lead Compliance Auditor plans, leads, and reports internal quality and compliance audits, owns the Layered Process Audit (LPA) program on the production floor, and verifies conformance to customer, contractual, governmental, and industry standards including ISO 9001, AS9100, CMMC, DFARS, ITAR, FAR, and applicable Department of Defense (DoD) requirements. This position reports to the Compliance Manager, Defense Sector Mission Assurance, and provides technical direction to compliance auditors and audit team members without direct supervisory authority. The Lead Compliance Auditor develops risk-based audit plans and checklists, leads audit teams through system, process, product, and layered process audits, mentors and calibrates auditors on technique, and drives root cause analysis and corrective action to verified closure. If this sounds like the kind of environment where you can thrive, keep reading! Leidos Defense Sector provides a diverse portfolio of systems, solutions, and services covering land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace for customers worldwide. Solutions for Defense include enterprise and mission IT, large-scale intelligence systems, command and control, geospatial and data analytics, cybersecurity, logistics, training, and intelligence analysis and operations support. Our team is solving the world’s toughest security challenges for customers with “can’t fail” missions. To explore and learn more, click here! Are you ready to make an impact? Share your resume with us today! Primary Responsibilities. Audit Program Leadership & Planning • Develop the risk-based annual audit schedule with the Compliance Manager, weighting coverage by process criticality, nonconformance history, customer escapes, and contractual risk. • Serve as lead auditor for assigned audits: build the audit plan, assign team roles, set scope and criteria, and manage the audit timeline to closure. • Develop audit checklists traced to the specific clause, contract requirement, or procedure being verified, rather than generic question sets. • Lead opening and closing meetings with process owners, program leadership, and site management. • Consolidate team findings, adjudicate severity classification, and issue the final audit report. • Maintain auditor independence and impartiality by assigning auditors outside their own areas of responsibility. • Report audit program health, coverage, and escalating risk to the Compliance Manager on a defined cadence. Layered Process Auditing – Manufacturing & Production • Own the Layered Process Audit program across manufacturing and production areas, including question set design, layer assignment, frequency, and escalation rules. • Build LPA question sets around high-risk and critical-to-quality process steps rather than finished-product attributes, verifying that the process is being run as designed. • Establish tiered audit frequency by layer — team lead and supervisor at high frequency, value stream and department management at moderate frequency, and site leadership at defined intervals. • Verify shop floor process adherence including standardized work, setup and first-piece verification, work instruction revision in use, tooling and gage calibration status, error-proofing and poka-yoke function checks, and workmanship standards. • Audit production controls common to defense manufacturing environments, including traceability and serialization, lot and serial segregation, FOD prevention, ESD controls, material handling and shelf-life control, and nonconforming material segregation. • Verify control of special and outsourced processes, first article inspection records, and key characteristic conformance where applicable to the product line. • Require and verify on-the-spot correction of red findings at the point of use, and escalate repeat or unresolved findings to the next management layer. • Train and qualify layered auditors across all levels of the organization so audits are performed consistently regardless of who is auditing. • Track LPA completion rate by layer, pass/fail rate, and finding closure, and correlate results against scrap, rework, internal defect, and customer escape data. • Refresh and rotate LPA questions based on emerging defect trends, corrective actions, and customer feedback so the audit stays relevant to current risk. Internal Audit Execution & Techniques • Apply the process approach to auditing consistent with ISO 19011 guidance, evaluating inputs, outputs, resources, controls, and performance measures for each process audited. • Use turtle diagrams and SIPOC mapping to define process boundaries and expose unverified interfaces between functions. • Perform vertical trace audits by following a serial number, lot, or work order forward from order release to shipment and backward from shipment to incoming material. • Perform horizontal audits of a single process or requirement across multiple programs and product lines to identify systemic weakness. • Apply defensible sampling methods and document sample rationale, sample size, and population so conclusions are reproducible. • Use structured interviewing technique — open-ended and funnel questioning, active listening, and evidence confirmation — to establish facts without leading the auditee. • Write findings in a requirement, evidence, and nonconformance statement structure that cites the specific clause or contract paragraph and the objective evidence observed. • Classify findings consistently as major nonconformance, minor nonconformance, or opportunity for improvement, and calibrate classification across the audit team. • Lead and support external audits from customers, registrars, and government agencies, including evidence retrieval, auditor escort, and response coordination. • Conduct audit readiness assessments and mock audits ahead of registrar and customer visits. Compliance, Documentation & Records Oversight • Audit and verify organizational conformance with: • ISO 9001 • AS9100 • DFARS • ITAR/EAR • FAR requirements • Customer contractual requirements • Internal quality management systems • Verify that contractual and regulatory requirements are correctly flowed down into procedures, work instructions, travelers, and inspection records. • Verify that procedures, work instructions, specifications, drawings, and records in use on the floor are at the current released revision. • Audit traceability and revision history against configuration management release guidelines. • Confirm that records retention, storage, and archival practices meet defense industry and contractual requirements. • Maintain audit-ready evidence packages and compliance artifacts within the designated repositories. • Monitor changes in regulatory, industry, and contractual requirements and recommend audit program updates to the Compliance Manager. • Handle controlled and export-restricted information in accordance with company policy and applicable handling requirements. Corrective Action, Root Cause & Continuous Improvement • Issue corrective and preventive action requests for audit findings and manage them to closure within the CAD database. • Facilitate root cause analysis using 5-Why, Ishikawa, is/is-not, and 8D methods, and reject containment actions presented as root cause. • Verify implementation

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Requisition: R-00189641 Work type: Full time Posted: 2026-08-14