Sr Principal Systems Engineer (DTS) (26-373)

0090 CORP-Corporate Office; United States; On-site; USD 129,000 - 194,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Plan

Savings Plan

Paid Time Off

Education Assistance

Training and Development

Flexible Work Arrangements

Job summary

Northrop Grumman is seeking a Systems Engineer for the C2BMC program. You will provide technical leadership for the Distributed Test System (DTS) development, ensuring robust sim/stim capabilities and alignment with mission requirements.

Ideal candidates have 3–5 years of full life-cycle systems engineering on defense programs, with strong IT infrastructure, virtualization, and network experience. Secret clearance is required to start.

Qualifications

• Excellent written and oral communication skills; able to produce technical reports and briefings.
• Bachelor’s Degree in a STEM field with 8 years of experience, or Master’s with 6 years, or PhD with 4 years.
• Current active in-scope government-issued Secret security clearance required.
• Experience in designing, integrating, and validating IT-centric solutions (servers, storage, networks, virtualization).

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership for DTS development activities and serve as a primary systems engineering point of contact.
• Identify technical issues and risks across the C2BMC enterprise and coordinate resolution.
• Coordinate with contractors responsible for sim/stim equipment, ensuring interfaces and performance meet objectives.
• Oversee DTS integration and test activities with the test and integration team.
• Report status at program and technical meetings with clear progress and mitigation plans.
• Engage with government customers to understand requirements and address questions.

Skills

Communication

Security clearance

Systems engineering

IT infrastructure

Education

Bachelor's Degree in STEM

Master's Degree in STEM (preferred)

PhD in related field (optional)

Tools

Virtualization

Containers

Job description

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: No relocation assistance available. CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes. CLEARANCE TYPE: Secret. TRAVEL: Yes, 10% of the Time.

Position Overview

The Command and Control, Battle Management, and Communications (C2BMC) program is a key component of the Missile Defense System (MDS). It is a vital operational system that enables the U.S. President, the Secretary of Defense, and combatant commanders at strategic, regional, and operational levels to plan ballistic missile defense operations systematically, collectively monitor the battle, and dynamically control networked sensors and weapon systems to achieve global and regional mission goals. C2BMC supports layered missile defense capabilities that enable an optimized response to threats across all ranges and flight phases. It serves as a force multiplier by networking, integrating, and synchronizing autonomous sensor and weapon systems and operations—both globally and regionally—to improve performance. C2BMC is essential for all ground and flight tests that verify and demonstrate the current and future capabilities of missile defense systems. Within this context, the DTS Systems Engineer will provide technical leadership for the system’s Distributed Test System (DTS) development, ensuring that simulation and stimulation (sim/stim) capabilities are robust, integrated, and aligned with mission and training needs.

Essential Functions

• Provide technical leadership for DTS development activities, serving as a primary systems engineering point of contact for DTS architecture, design, integration, and verification
• Identify technical issues and risks across the C2BMC enterprise and coordinate resolution with internal teams, associate contractors, and stakeholders
• Coordinate closely with associate contractors responsible for developing sim/stim equipment, ensuring interfaces, performance, and mission objectives are met
• Work hand-in-hand with the test and integration team to provide oversight, technical direction, and systems engineering rigor throughout DTS integration and test activities
• Report status at program and technical meetings, providing clear, concise updates on DTS progress, risk posture, and mitigation plans
• Collaborate with Task Order management to address work scope questions, identify potential improvements, and support planning for follow-on task orders and future DTS increments
• Engage directly with Government customers to understand requirements, address questions and concerns, and ensure DTS capabilities align with operational and training needs
• Support requirements definition, allocation, and traceability for DTS-related capabilities, ensuring a coherent, testable system baseline
• Contribute to continuous improvement of DTS processes, tools, and documentation to enhance system reliability, maintainability, and scalability

Basic Qualifications

Please list your current security clearance and IAT or relevant certifications on your resume, if applicable. A Bachelor’s Degree in a STEM field in Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or a related field from an accredited university, along with 8 years of experience; or a Master’s degree (preferred) in a STEM field with 6 years of relevant work experience; or a PhD in a related discipline with 4 years of relevant work experience. Applicants must have a current, active in-scope Government-issued Secret security clearance at the time of application, which is required to start.

Systems Engineering Experience

3–5 years of full life-cycle systems engineering on complex defense programs, with a strong emphasis on designing, integrating, and validating IT-centric solutions (servers, networks, storage, virtualization).

Customer Deliverable Background

Direct experience supporting a DoD or government program that delivers operational software or training systems to an external customer, with a proven record of meeting schedule, cost, and performance targets.

Communication Proficiency

Excellent written and oral communication skills; comfortable producing technical reports, requirements documents, and briefings for senior leadership and non-technical stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

Master's Degree in Systems Engineering is highly preferred.

Certification

Certification: INCOSE Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP) Certification Certification: Object Management Group Certified Systems Modeling Professional - Model Builder Fundamental (OCSMP - MBF)

IT Infrastructure Expertise

Demonstrated capability to architect, deploy, and manage robust, secure, and scalable compute, storage, and network platforms—leveraging virtualization and container technologies—to support high‑performance missile defense simulation environments.

Technical Interface Development

Systems-engineered design and validation of the interfaces that connect simulation components (e.g., physics engines, command-and-control systems, visual displays) into a cohesive, high‑performance environment.

Domain Knowledge – IAMD

Familiarity with ballistic missile defense and Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) concepts (e.g., C2BMC, GMD, THAAD) to understand dataflow, timing requirements, and operational context of the simulation environment.

Requirement Translation & Management

Skilled at converting high‑level operational needs into a coherent, traceable set of IT infrastructure and system requirements that drive design, procurement, integration, and fielding.

Training System Integration

Experience integrating IT infrastructure with training system components (scenario loaders, real‑time data feeds, instructor‑of‑record consoles) used in missile defense exercises and live‑fire events.

Communication Excellence

Ability to produce clear, concise documentation and to present technical approaches and findings to senior leadership, customers, and interdisciplinary audiences.

What We Can Offer You

Your benefits will include the following:

• Health Plan
• Savings Plan
• Paid Time Off
• Education Assistance
• Training and Development
• Flexible Work Arrangements

https://benefits.northropgrumman.com/us/en2/BenefitsOverview/Pages/default.aspx

Primary Level Salary Range

Salary Range: $129,300.00 - $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.

Application Period

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.

Equal Opportunity Employer

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 Requirement

U.S. Citizenship is required for all positions with a government clearance and certain other restricted positions.

Company Culture

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.