Azure Cloud Platform / Landing Zone Engineer

Northrop Grumman; Rolling Meadows (IL); On-site; USD 140,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Northrop Grumman is seeking a Sr. Principal Computer Systems Analyst - Cloud Platform / Landing Zone Engineer (Azure) to lead the design and automation of secure Azure Landing Zones for a DoD-approved AISR environment. This role requires hands-on expertise in IaC, Azure governance, and security compliance.

On-site at Rolling Meadows, IL (with potential for other locations) and up to 10% travel. Must be able to work with senior leadership and mentor junior staff in a fast-paced government

Qualifications

• Expert in designing and implementing Azure Landing Zones for isolated environments.
• Strong understanding of security controls and ATO processes for DoD-classified systems.
• Experience mentoring junior staff and leading cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead Sr. Principal CSA for Azure Landing Zone projects on DoD contracts.
• Coordinate with security, network, and OT teams to ensure compliant architectures.
• Develop and maintain IaC pipelines and blueprints for rapid provisioning of enclaves.

Skills

Azure

Cloud security

IaC

Leadership

Tools

Bicep

Terraform

PowerShell

Job description

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: No relocation assistance available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: No

CLEARANCE TYPE: Secret

TRAVEL: Yes, 10% of the Time

Description

At Northrop Grumman, our employees have incredible opportunities to work on revolutionary systems that impact people's lives around the world today, and for generations to come. Our pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled us to be at the forefront of many technological advancements in our nation's history - from the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, to stealth bombers, to landing on the moon. We look for people who have bold new ideas, courage and a pioneering spirit to join forces to invent the future, and have fun along the way. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity and bringing your whole self to work - and we have an insatiable drive to do what others think is impossible. Our employees are not only part of history, they're making history.

At the heart of Defining Possible is our commitment to missions. In rapidly changing global security environments, Northrop Grumman brings informed insights and secure technological solutions to enable strategic objectives. We're looking for innovators who can help us keep building on our wide portfolio of secure, affordable, integrated, and multi-domain systems and technologies that fuel those missions. By joining in our shared mission, we will support yours by expanding your personal network and developing skills, whether you are new to the field or an industry thought leader. At Northrop Grumman, you will have the resources, support, and team to do some of the best work of your career.

Northrop Grumman's Corporate Sector's Chief Information & Digital Office (CIDO) is seeking a Sr. Principal Computer Systems Analyst - Cloud Platform / Landing Zone Engineer (Azure) to support its IT Infrastructure & Operations organization's Classified Solutions team. The selected candidate will serve as the leading technical authority for our DoD-approved Azure Isolated Secret Region (AISR) IL 6 multi-account cloud environment. This technical leader applies extensive technical expertise to design, implement, and automate secure, scalable Azure Landing Zones, subscription structures, and virtual enclaves. You will lead the transition from legacy on-premises operational habits to automated, highly resilient, cloud-native architectures.

You will ensure that major programs receive high-velocity, modern capabilities without compromising our multi-tenant Authorization to Operate (ATO). Additionally, you will serve as a key technical contact and mentor for junior systems administrators, network engineers, and tier-1 triage teams across the enterprise. The selected candidate will be required to work on-site, full-time at our Redondo Beach, CA, or Rolling Meadows, IL, or Melbourne, FL location.

General Responsibilities

• Perform as a lead Sr. Principal Computer Systems Analyst - Cloud Platform / Landing Zone Engineer (Azure) in support of classified government contracts.
• Communicate effectively with all organizational levels, internal/external customers, vendors, and senior leadership, both verbally and in writing.
• Oversee operations and administration of multi-user computer systems and multiple networks, coordinating with IT teams, project managers, and end users.
• Analyze requirements, recommend, and implement hardware/software solutions; interact with vendors to evaluate and troubleshoot products and services.
• Define, implement, and maintain enterprise-wide system enhancements, including installation, upgrades/patches, monitoring, configuration management, and problem resolution.
• Lead testing, validation, and change management for major product releases across platforms.
• Develop, publish, and continuously improve technical standards and SOPs.
• Ensure compliance with Information Systems security guidelines; prepare and maintain security documentation, audit logs, and Assessment & Authorization (A&A) submissions; serve as senior liaison to the ISSM.
• Report on strategic initiatives and project status to executive stakeholders; act as a key technical advisor impacting enterprise-wide, mission-critical systems.
• Acts as a key technical advisor to senior leadership; impacts multiple programs and mission-critical systems across the enterprise.
• Provide senior-level technical expertise by mentoring junior and experienced team members, fostering their professional growth and enhancing team capabilities.
• Lifts and moves equipment up to 50 pounds.
• Work after hours, and weekends, as needed.

Environment Automation & IaC

• Automate the Azure Landing Zone (ALZ): Develop declarative Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Microsoft Bicep, ARM templates, and Terraform/OpenTofu to programmatically deploy and maintain the ALZ conceptual architecture, management groups, and resource configurations.
• Engineer Subscription Vending Patterns: Design and orchestrate automated subscription vending machines and blueprint templates to rapidly and uniformly provision pre-configured virtual enclaves for mission application teams.
• Build Air-Gapped CI/CD Pipelines: Build and maintain localized, offline CI/CD pipelines (utilizing Azure DevOps Server or GitLab CI) engineered to execute compilation, validation, and deployment in code-isolated environments lacking internet dependency.
• Maintain Custom Image Pipelines: Build and run automated pipelines via localized Ansible and PowerShell scripts to populate a private Azure Compute Gallery. This ensures manual STIG hardening and SCAP compliance validation for Windows Server, Windows 11, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL 8/9) images, mitigating the lack of "stock" cloud images in the isolated region.
• Orchestrate Resource Optimization: Design and implement automated, event-driven resource optimization scripts (such as VM and Azure Virtual Desktop "server parking" schedules) and consumption-monitoring dashboards to manage billing and reduce sector overhead costs.

Governance, Security, & Guardrails

• Author Enterprise Guardrails: Author, test, and enforce strict Azure Policies and policy initiatives at the management group level to prevent unauthorized resource deployment, block