Principal/Sr. Principal Dedicated Cloud Engineer

0090 CORP-Corporate Office; United States; On-site; USD 98,000 - 194,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) and retirement plan

Paid time off

Job summary

Northrop Grumman is seeking a senior-level engineer to support cloud-hosted platforms and Kubernetes‑centric environments in a security‑sensitive setting.

You will deploy, automate, and manage infrastructure with GitOps and CI/CD, interfacing with mission partners to ensure reliable, scalable, and secure services across cloud platforms.

Qualifications

• Senior Engineer/Principal Engineer level with 5–12+ years of relevant experience and TS/SCI clearance.
• Active Top Secret clearance with Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI).
• Ability to obtain DoD 8570.01 IAT Level II certification within 60 days of start date.
• Experience with cloud-based technologies (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud).
• Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, OpenShift, and microservice orchestration.

Responsibilities

• Enable and deploy cloud-hosted applications and services with mission partners.
• Design, implement, and support Kubernetes-centric cloud environments.
• Automate deployment, configuration, and monitoring with GitOps and CI/CD pipelines.
• Integrate networking, storage, Linux/Windows hosts, and security controls.
• Contribute to platform engineering to improve reliability, scalability, and security.

Skills

Kubernetes

GitOps

CI/CD

Linux

Cloud platforms

Python

Terraform

Ansible

Networking

Bash

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

Tools

Kustomize

Helm

Terraform

Job description

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE

Relocation assistance may be available CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes CLEARANCE TYPE: Top Secret TRAVEL: Yes, 10% of the Time

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. Help define how the Air Force delivers mission capability in the cloud.

What You’ll Do

• Work side‑by‑side with mission partners to enable and deploy cloud‑hosted applications and services.
• Design, implement, and support solutions in Kubernetes‑centric, cloud environments.
• Automate deployment, configuration, and monitoring using GitOps and CI/CD pipelines.
• Integrate and manage infrastructure components including networking, storage, Linux/Windows hosts, and security controls.
• Contribute to platform engineering efforts to improve reliability, scalability, and security across the DAF CLOUDworks environment.
• Diagnose complex issues across applications, networks, containers, and cloud platforms, and drive them to resolution.

This position description does not represent a current opening but may be used to identify candidates with skills and experience for positions within Northrop Grumman that frequently become available. Candidates who express an interest may be considered for future positions at Northrop Grumman.

Basic Qualifications

• Principal Engineer (Level 3): High school diploma with 9+ years of relevant experience OR bachelor’s degree with 5+ years of relevant experience OR master’s degree with 3+ years of relevant experience
• Sr. Principal Engineer (Level 4): High school diploma with 12+ years of relevant experience OR bachelor’s degree with 8+ years of relevant experience OR master’s degree with 6+ years of relevant experience
• Active Top Secret clearance with Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI)
• Ability to obtain IAT Level II certification per DoD 8570.01 (such as CASP+ or Security+) within 60 days of start date
• Technical knowledge of infrastructure components, including: Network Storage Linux/Windows IT security concepts
• Working knowledge and/or familiarity with cloud‑based technologies, such as: AWS Platform Azure Platform Google Cloud Platform
• Experience with Kustomize and Helm
• Experience with Linux
• Experience with GitOps and CI/CD, with an emphasis on GitLab
• Experience in application deployment and release management
• Experience with containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift)
• Experience with CI/CD tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, CircleCI, ArgoCD)
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform, Ansible, or similar tools
• Experience with monitoring and logging tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack)
• Proficiency in at least one scripting language (Python, Bash)
• Strong understanding of application deployment strategies (e.g., blue/green, canary)

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with microservice orchestration, with a strong focus on Kubernetes
• Fundamental cloud certifications such as: AWS Cloud Practitioner (or higher) Azure Fundamentals (or higher)
• Experience with advanced application and network troubleshooting, database administration, and PKI management
• Experience with cloud providers, with an emphasis on AWS services
• Experience with Agile methodologies
• Experience with various forms of automation, including: Batch scripting Pipeline automation Kubernetes operators Infrastructure‑as‑code (e.g., Terraform, Ansible)
• Experience with cloud‑native application architectures
• Experience with service mesh technologies (e.g., Istio, Linkerd)
• Experience with security scanning and vulnerability management tools
• Experience with platform engineering concepts

Primary Level Salary Range: $98,400.00 - $155,400.00 Secondary Level Salary Range: $122,800.00 - $193,900.00 The above salary range represents a general guideline; however, Northrop Grumman considers a number of factors when determining base salary offers such as the scope and responsibilities of the position and the candidate's experience, education, skills and current market conditions. Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay. Annual bonuses are designed to reward individual contributions as well as allow employees to share in company results. Employees in Vice President or Director positions may be eligible for Long Term Incentives.

In addition, Northrop Grumman provides a variety of benefits including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, savings plan, Company paid holidays and paid time off (PTO) for vacation and/or personal business.

The application period for the job is estimated to be 20 days from the job posting date. However, this timeline may be shortened or extended depending on business needs and the availability of qualified candidates.

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.

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We are a pioneering company. With careers across all areas: air, cyber, land, sea and space – our 90,000 employees work as one to defend and define the future. Northrop Grumman careers and internships are as varied as your interests, with a lifetime of potential that will give you every opportunity to do your best work.

Working together with people from many backgrounds, personal passions and disciplines, we share a drive to push the boundaries of science, technology and engineering to meet the ever evolving needs of our customers worldwide.