Principal / Sr Principal Aeronautical Engineer

Northrop Grumman Corp. (AU); San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 114,000 - 213,400; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance may be available

Travel up to 25% with on-site work

Job summary

Northrop Grumman Corp. (AU) in San Diego, CA, seeks a Principal/Senior Principal Aeronautical Engineer to lead complex HW/SW systems development on-site. The role requires active Top Secret clearance and the ability to obtain SAP clearance, with travel up to 25% and no telework.

You will work in an integrated team across systems, software, and specialty engineers, applying engineering principles, performing analyses, and preparing critical technical documentation for management and stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Active Top Secret clearance or enrollment in Continuous Evaluation.
• Ability to obtain and maintain SAP clearance within business needs.
• Experience in DOORS.
• Experience with systems development life cycle across teams.
• Knowledge areas: technical planning, requirements derivation, analytical trade studies, risk analysis.
• Experience developing system engineering artifacts and interface docs.
• Ability to decompose requirements from higher to lower levels.
• Willingness to travel up to 25% and work on-site.

Responsibilities

• Apply engineering principles to design, test, and evaluate systems.
• Conduct trade studies and prepare technical documents.
• Participate in Agile development activities and sprint planning.
• Collaborate with systems, software, and specialty engineers on solutions.
• Prepare technical presentations for management and stakeholders.
• Review test plans for requirements verification and integration testing.
• Address interface problems between software and hardware.
• Develop subsystem requirements and MBSE architecture.
• Create and review interface documents, VCRM, and system architecture.
• Support on-site work with no remote or telework.

Skills

Agile development

MBSE

System thinking

Technical communication

Education

Bachelor of Science in STEM

Master’s degree in STEM

Ph.D. in STEM

Tools

DOORS

ClearQuest

JIRA

Git

Confluence

VMware

OpenShift

Kubernetes

Job description

Principal Aeronautical Engineer / Senior Principal Aeronautical Engineer

Location: San Diego (Rancho Bernardo), CA.

Relocation assistance may be available.

Clearance: Top Secret clearance required. Must have active U.S. Government Top Secret clearance (background investigation within the past 6 years or enrolled in Continuous Evaluation). Must obtain and maintain Special Access Program (SAP) clearance.

Travel: Yes, up to 25% of the time may be required. No remote, hybrid, or telework available.

Key Responsibilities

• Apply engineering principles to investigate, analyze, plan, design, test, and evaluate systems.
• Perform trade studies, engineering and technical analyses, reports, change proposals, and other technical documentation.
• Actively participate in Agile development activities, including release planning, sprint planning, scrum, and retrospectives.
• Work in an integrated team environment with systems, software (SW), and specialty engineers to develop solutions.
• Prepare technical presentations for management and stakeholders and communicate clearly and effectively the technical approaches and findings.
• Review test plans and procedures for requirements verification and support system integration and test of complex systems. This includes evaluating integration and test anomalies and assisting disposition and correction of issues.
• Address interface and functionality problems between SW components and/or hardware (HW).
• Work with SW and infrastructure teams to correct or improve capabilities.
• Develop requirements for the subsystem and SRS/HRS specifications through use of MBSE tools & DOORS.
• Develop architecture and designs of complex HW and SW systems, including requirements traceability and implementation assessment.
• Contribute to an implementation that includes the ability to analyze high‑level needs and define a structured and logical approach to refine the capability into an integrated set of requirements that lead to a fielded product.
• Support the development and review of interface documents (ICDs), requirements, Verification Cross Reference Matrix (VCRM), architectural documentation, system engineering estimates, and author and perform formal and informal engineering reviews.
• Work full‑time on‑site at the facility; no remote, hybrid, or telework available.
• Travel up to 25% of the time may be required.

Basic Qualifications – Level 3

• Must have a Bachelor of Science degree in a STEM discipline AND 5 years of related professional/military experience, OR a Master’s degree AND 3 years of related professional/military experience, OR a Ph.D. AND 1 year of related professional/military experience.

Basic Qualifications – Level 4

• Must have a Bachelor of Science degree in a STEM discipline AND 8 years of related professional/military experience, OR a Master’s degree AND 6 years of related professional/military experience, OR a Ph.D. AND 4 years of related professional/military experience.

Basic Qualifications – Both Levels

• Must have an active U.S. Government Top Secret clearance (background investigation within the past 6 years or enrolling in Continuous Evaluation).
• Must have the ability to obtain and maintain Special Access Program (SAP) clearance, within a reasonable period of time as determined by business needs.
• Experience in DOORS.
• Experience working with systems and specialty engineers to develop solutions that include a background in all systems development life cycle aspects.
• Experience in one or more of the following system engineering knowledge areas: technical planning, requirements derivation, functional analysis, timeline analysis, trade studies, cost and risk analysis, interface definition, system design, system integration, verification and validation, supportability, and effectiveness analyses for total systems.
• Experience developing system engineering artifacts (e.g., specifications, Interface Control Documents, Use Cases, System Architecture Descriptions, Trade Studies, Design Packages, etc.).
• Experience with requirements development: decomposing requirements from parent‑level to lower system/subsystem‑level requirements (e.g., system/SW architecture, HW/SW design), reviewing/developing, HW/SW verification and validation.

Preferred Qualifications

• Current applicable Special Access Program (SAP) clearance.
• Security+ certification.
• Experience with Ansible Engine.
• Experience with IBM Rational tool suite (DOORS and ClearQuest).
• Experience with Atlassian tool suite (JIRA, Git, Confluence).
• Experience using SW test automation tools/frameworks.
• Experience with Java, C++, or Python.
• Experience working within an Agile development environment.
• Experience with MBSE, architecture development, system design and analysis, and development of metrics.
• Experience as a Product Owner.
• Experience with SW products running in a virtual environment (e.g., VMware, Openshift, Kubernetes).

Compensation and Benefits

• Primary salary range: $114,000.00 – $171,000.00 per year.
• Secondary salary range: $142,200.00 – $213,400.00 per year.
• Potential eligibility for overtime, shift differential, discretionary bonus, performance bonus, and long‑term incentives.
• Health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, savings plan, company‑paid holidays, and paid time off (vacation and/or personal business).
• U.S. Citizenship required for all positions with a government clearance and certain other restricted positions.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Northrop Grumman is an Equal Opportunity Employer, making decisions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class. For our complete EEO and pay transparency statement, please visit http://www.northropgrumman.com/EEO. U.S. Citizenship is required for all positions with a government clearance and certain other restricted positions.