Ground Software Lead Architect – Top Secret

Northrop Grumman; United States; On-site; USD 167,000 - 289,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Paid time off (PTO)

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Northrop Grumman Ground Software Lead Engineer/Architect (Level 6) within the Space Sector seeks a seasoned software leader to guide architecture, planning, and execution for mission-critical systems across multiple sites. The role emphasizes capability roadmapping, reuse, and metrics-driven management from proposal to deployment.

You will own software framework concepts, contribute to BPEs, and ensure scalable, high-quality software across programs, with travel up to 10% and collaboration with

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline with 12+ years of software engineering experience; Master’s degree in a STEM discipline with 10+ years of stated experience; Ph.D. in a STEM discipline with 8+ years of stated experience.
• Active U.S. Government Top Secret clearance at time of application, with the ability and willingness to obtain Special Program Access.
• Demonstrated front-end planning experience: developing capability roadmaps, decomposing capabilities into features, and defining measurable feature success criteria.
• Experience with software architecture and design for complex, mission-critical systems.
• Experience working within Agile software development lifecycles, including backlog refinement and iterative delivery.
• Experience integrating and/or leveraging third-party software frameworks.
• Proficiency with Jira for software implementation planning, tracking, and metrics reporting.
• Experience with CAMEO (or similar model-based systems engineering tools).

Responsibilities

• Lead software reuse strategies and product trade studies to maximize efficiency, commonality, and maintainability.
• Allocate system requirements into software capabilities and features; develop and maintain the software buildup plan and capability roadmap (including inputs needed for BPE).
• Review element- and component-level features to ensure alignment with higher-level capabilities; define, track, and report clear feature success criteria.
• Contribute to the development and refinement of the software framework concept, ensuring scalability and adaptability across programs.
• Support Basis of Proposal Estimates (BPE), including development and refinement of ground software cost estimates.
• Own software metrics reporting and management; configure and maintain dashboards and reports in Jira to support execution, visibility, and data-driven decision making.

Skills

Front-end planning

Capability roadmaps

Feature decomposition

Agile lifecycle

Jira planning

Software architecture

Proposal cost estimates

Product backlog ownership

CAM experience

Education

Bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline

Master’s degree in a STEM discipline

Ph.D. in a STEM discipline

Tools

Jira

CAMEO

Job description

Northrop Grumman Ground Software Lead Engineer/Architect (Level 6) within the Space Sector seeks a seasoned software leader to guide architecture, planning, and execution for mission-critical systems across multiple sites. The role emphasizes capability roadmapping, reuse, and metrics-driven management from proposal to deployment.

You will own software framework concepts, contribute to BPEs, and ensure scalable, high-quality software across programs, with travel up to 10% and collaboration with