Software Engineering Center of Technical Excellence - Director 1

Northrop Grumman; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 167,000 - 306,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Life insurance

Disability insurance

Savings plan

Company paid holidays

Paid time off

Job summary

Northrop Grumman is seeking a Software Engineering (CoTE) Director at one of several core sites, including San Diego, CA. This role unites programs and engineers under shared tools and practices to ensure a cohesive, scalable software approach across the Aeronautics Systems sector.

The ideal leader combines deep technical expertise with a passion for training, collaboration, and continuous improvement, and can obtain/maintain a Secret clearance with potential Top Secret/PAR access as required.

Qualifications

• Requires a STEM degree and 7–9 years of related aerospace/defense experience in leadership roles.
• Minimum 6 years in software leadership/management with Agile teams.
• Experience across the full software lifecycle and standards/tools at scale.
• Ability to obtain and maintain government security clearance (Secret/Top Secret).

Responsibilities

• Provide leadership and define strategic vision for software priorities within the discipline.
• Develop and deploy software frameworks for flight-critical systems and training platforms.
• Establish an Everything-as-code ecosystem and standards across programs.
• Lead tools, processes, and training to improve sector-wide engineering capabilities.

Skills

Software leadership

Agile development

Program management

Strategic thinking

Education

Bachelor’s degree in STEM

Master’s degree in STEM

Job description

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE

Relocation assistance may be available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START

No

CLEARANCE TYPE

Secret

TRAVEL

Yes, 25% of the Time

Description

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.

Northrop Grumman’s Aeronautics Systems Sector is seeking a Software Engineering (CoTE) Director to support Software-related efforts. This leadership opportunity reports to the Software Center of Technical Excellence Director, and will be located at one of our core sites (Melbourne, FL; Oklahoma City, OK; Palmdale, CA; San Diego, CA; or El Segundo, CA). Candidates must be willing and able to travel up to 25% of the time.

The Director will unite programs, engineers, and technical experts under a shared set of tools, processes, and practices to ensure a consistent, cohesive, and collaborative approach across all AS sector programs.

The ideal Director is an influential connector and trusted steward of their discipline — combining deep technical expertise with a passion for technical training and development, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Responsibilities Will Include, But Are Not Limited To

• Provide leadership and define strategic vision for technical priorities within Software discipline, aligned to long-term sector strategy.
• Develop the strategy, plan, execute and deploy software frameworks that assist with software development in flight critical software, mission software, full-stack software applications on ground stations, full stack software on training platforms
• Stand-up technical standards into an Everything-as-code ecosystem
• Regularly interface with EI&E discipline leads to identify program needs and close gaps in engineering tools, processes, digital solutions, and technical training.
• Lead the development, deployment, and sustainment of sector-wide engineering tools, standardized processes, digital solutions, and technical training— ensuring they are relevant, scalable, and interoperable across programs.
• Oversee and allocate the discipline’s NCTA and indirect budgets to strengthen technical excellence; advance tools, processes, and workforce capabilities; and generate measurable impact on program performance and future competitiveness.
• Represent the discipline in sector-wide and enterprise-wide technical development efforts related to technical development, technical career pathing, technical training, and critical skills investment.
• Participate in sector-level talent reviews and succession planning to maintain discipline-wide visibility into talent strengths, gaps, and growth opportunities.
• Provide leadership, alignment, and support to NG Fellows within the discipline to advance sector-and enterprise-wide emerging technologies and future workforce capabilities.
• Contribute technical expertise and process leadership in major proposal reviews, program reviews, independent technical reviews, program stand-up reviews, NCTA and indirect activities, and other sector-wide improvement efforts.
• Act as a trusted advisor to help resolve technical performance shortfalls through root cause analysis, corrective action planning, long-term verification of improvement.
• Capture, share, and embed lessons learned and best practices across programs to continuously raise the bar for technical performance.

Our Leaders at Northrop Grumman live our values daily and encourage our teams to do the same.

We do the right thing: upholding the highest ethical standards and facilitating a safe and respectful environment that attracts, retains, and inspires a diverse and engaged team.We do what we promise: holding yourself and others accountable to meet predictable and balanced results.We commit to shared success: operating as OneNG and removing barriers for our teams.We pioneer: setting a vision that shapes the future and inspires others.

Basic Qualifications

• Must have a Bachelor’s of Science degree in a Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) discipline AND 9 years of related professional/military experience within the Aerospace and Defense industry that includes a background in leadership positions, OR a Master’s of Science degree in a STEM discipline and 7 years of related professional/military experience within the Aerospace and Defense industry that includes a background in leadership positions
• Minimum 6 years of Software leadership/management experience in an integrated product team environment leading agile development teams
• Experience working across the total software program lifecycle
• Expertise in establishing engineering standards, tools, and processes at scale.
• Experience with or exposure to digital design initiatives and solutions
• Experience with commercial Software licensing models and managing commercial software tool portfolios
• Knowledge of modern industry practices for developing software defined systems.
• Experience in Avionics, Vehicle, Systems Engineering, Global Supply Chain, and Test processes and tools where they overlap and/or are adjacent to Software processes and tools. (e.g. Software defined LRUs, Software Configuration Management, Software Integration and Test, Software procurement, auto-generated GNC Software.)
• Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a government issued Secret clearance that is in scope or currently enrolled in continuous evaluation, with the ability to obtain and maintain a Top Secret/SCI clearance as determined by business needs
• Must be able to attain and maintain Special Program Access (PAR) within a reasonable amount of time as determined by business needs.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading the design, implementation and deployment of an “everything as code” ecosystem, including infrastructure, configuration, policies, pipelines, environments and application/platform components.
• Experience leading teams that develop reusable software frameworks, platforms and developer tooling that are used and adopted across multiple projects, teams or products.
• Experience in defining and developing software processes and defining tools in alignment with the DOD Dev*Ops Reference architecture
• Experience with transitioning teams into an Artificial Intelligence (AI) assisted environment, using Large Language Models (LLM) and agentic services
• Active U.S. Government in-scope Secret security clearance.
• Current Special Program Access (PAR).
• MS or MBA degree
• Program management experience
• Continuous improvement mindset with experience leading process optimization.
• Strategic, systems-level thinker who can build alignment across functional and program boundaries.

Primary Level Salary Range: $166,800.00 - $305,900.00

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.