Senior Principal AI Software Engineer - Onsite, Top Secret

Northrop Grumman; Palmdale (CA); On-site; USD 142,200 - 213,400; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Life insurance

Disability insurance

Savings plan

Paid holidays

Paid time off

Job summary

Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems is seeking a Senior Principal Software Engineer – AI Software to join our onsite team in San Diego, El Segundo or Palmdale, California. The role leads the strategy, architecture, and hands-on implementation of secure AI systems while coordinating with product, platform, data, security, and compliance teams.

The ideal candidate will bring 8+ years of related engineering experience, production AI/ML delivery experience, and a Top Secret clearance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in a STEM discipline with 8 years of related engineering experience; OR a Master’s degree with 6 years; OR a PhD with 4 years of related engineering experience.
• Professional software engineering experience building and delivering production software (e.g., Python, Java, C++, or similar).
• Applied AI/ML engineering experience delivering models to production (classical ML and/or deep learning, including LLM-enabled solutions).
• Experience integrating AI/ML capabilities into enterprise software systems (APIs/services, data pipelines, and production deployment patterns).
• Experience working in regulated environments with strong emphasis on security, data handling, and governance expectations for AI use.
• Demonstrated technical leadership (leading designs, mentoring engineers, driving cross-team technical alignment).
• Active U.S. Government Top Secret clearance (with a background investigation within the past 5 years or enrolled into Continuous Evaluation).
• Ability to obtain and maintain initial Special Program Access (SAP/PAR). This SAP/PAR must be obtained within a reasonable amount of time as determined by the company to meet its business needs.

Responsibilities

• Provide collaborative technical leadership that drives the maturation of Artificial Intelligence solutions across a portfolio of contracts and operating units.
• Partner with product, platform, data, security, and compliance to establish responsible AI practices, model governance, and enterprise-grade MLOps.
• Act as the Subject Matter Expert for all aspects of the enterprise Artificial Intelligence roadmap and execution.
• Provide senior technical leadership thorough design reviews, prototyping, code contributions, and mentoring while aligning roadmaps across teams.

Skills

Software engineering

AI/ML engineering

Production deployment

Security governance

Technical leadership

Top Secret clearance

SAP/PAR

Education

Bachelor’s degree in STEM

Master’s degree in STEM

PhD in STEM

Tools

Python

Java

C++

CI/CD

Containerization

Job description

Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems is seeking a Senior Principal Software Engineer – AI Software to join our onsite team in San Diego, El Segundo or Palmdale, California. The role leads the strategy, architecture, and hands-on implementation of secure AI systems while coordinating with product, platform, data, security, and compliance teams.

The ideal candidate will bring 8+ years of related engineering experience, production AI/ML delivery experience, and a Top Secret clearance.