Senior Chief Engineer, Mission Software Architecture

Northrop Grumman; United States; On-site; USD 161,000 - 241,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Life and disability insurance

Savings plan

PTO and holidays

Job summary

Northrop Grumman is seeking a Staff Chief Engineer – Mission Software to design, develop, and oversee software architecture for multi-sensor mission systems. You will lead the technical baseline, guide architecture decisions, and drive critical reviews across programs and partners.

You will coordinate with program management and customers, oversee testing strategies, and shape evolution of the software architecture to meet performance, cyber, schedule, and cost objectives.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline with 12+ years of professional/military experience; OR STEM Master’s with 10+ years; OR STEM PhD with 8+ years.
• Working knowledge of systems engineering principles and processes, including requirements development and verification.
• Experience with mission software systems and multi‑sensor data ingestion, fusion, or TCPED workflows.
• Experience with cloud-based/virtualized architectures and containerized microservices (Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift).
• Strong communication skills and ability to present to leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead the mission software architecture, interfaces, and CONOPS for common capabilities.
• Own and maintain the technical baseline and roadmap, aligned to mission and program objectives.
• Lead development, allocation, and verification of system and segment‑level requirements; ensure traceability to customer needs and mission threads.
• Coordinate with program management and engineering teams to ensure architecture and implementation meet requirements.
• Lead major technical reviews (e.g., SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, ORR, FRR).
• Guide integration and test strategy with simulation/emulation and automated testing for end-to-end mission threads.
• Identify and evaluate new technologies to enhance mission capabilities.
• Build relationships with customer counterparts and communicate status to leadership.
• Support capture and proposal efforts with solution architecture and technical content.

Skills

Systems engineering

Python

Golang

Typescript

SQL

Technical leadership

Education

Bachelor’s degree in STEM

Master’s degree in STEM

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

OpenShift

DOORS

JIRA

Confluence

Job description

Northrop Grumman is seeking a Staff Chief Engineer – Mission Software to design, develop, and oversee software architecture for multi-sensor mission systems. You will lead the technical baseline, guide architecture decisions, and drive critical reviews across programs and partners.

You will coordinate with program management and customers, oversee testing strategies, and shape evolution of the software architecture to meet performance, cyber, schedule, and cost objectives.