Program Analyst Sr. Principal - FDA

General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) is seeking candidates for a Program Analyst Sr. Principal position on a new contract supporting the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and its critical mission needs.

The FDA protects public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, the nation’s food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation. The FDA also advances public health by accelerating innovation, improving access to effective and affordable medicines and foods, and enabling the public to make informed, science‑based decisions about their health.

As a Program Analyst Sr. Principal, you will be responsible for overseeing application stability, reliability, and testing excellence while directing O&M support personnel. You will guide teams through the full operational lifecycle, ensuring smooth daily operations, timely issue resolution, and continuous system improvement. This role combines senior‑level leadership, technical oversight, team lead responsibilities, and direct engagement with customers to support high‑quality delivery across O&M functions.

This role requires 3 days in office at the FDA White Oak campus.

Responsibilities

• Manage daily O&M activities, including incident triage, service requests, user support, defect tracking, and system performance monitoring.
• Serve as the primary O&M point of contact for FDA stakeholders, building strong customer relationships, facilitating regular status meetings, communicating operational performance and risks, and ensuring customer needs and priorities are effectively addressed.
• Establish and enforce standard operating procedures related to production support, incident management, escalation handling, and root‑cause analysis.
• Ensure timely resolution of issues logged through support channels and maintain compliance with SLAs and operational KPIs.
• Oversee maintenance releases, minor enhancements, patching cycles, and environment stability across development, test, and production environments.
• Ensure operational readiness for system deployments by reviewing release plans, validating testing outcomes, and coordinating stakeholder communications.
• Identify opportunities for process automation, operational efficiency, and service improvements to enhance system reliability and reduce manual effort.

Required Qualifications and Experience:

• BS and 10+ years of relevant experience (or equivalent combination of education and experience in lieu of degree)
• 3+ years' experience with Atlassian software such as JIRA and Confluence
• Must have FDA experience
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust which requires 3 out of the 5 years of US residency

Desired Qualifications and Experience:

• Agile / Scrum (workflow Rally or JIRA)
• Strong verbal and written communication skills