Sr Staff Engineer Signal Processing

0090 CORP-Corporate Office; United States; On-site; USD 212,100 - 318,100; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Plan

Savings Plan

Paid Time Off

Education Assistance

Training and Development

9/80 Work Schedule

Job summary

Northrop Grumman is seeking a Senior Staff System Engineer with a Signal Processing background to join their team in Sacramento, California. This role involves developing transformative solutions to address complex Signals Intelligence challenges and contribute to national security initiatives.

Candidates must possess a relevant degree and significant experience in RF communications, with preferred qualifications including hardware acceleration and Agile methodologies. Comprehensive benefits are provided.

Qualifications

• BS, MS, or PhD in a STEM field with relevant experience in signal processing.
• Ability to convert operational needs into technical system requirements.
• Expertise in RF communication signal analysis.

Responsibilities

• Develop signal processing solutions for Signals Intelligence.
• Design and test detection and characterization algorithms.
• Support product deployment on various platforms.

Skills

Signal Processing

Tactical SIGINT operations

Detection and estimation theory

Education

BS degree in a STEM field

MS degree in a STEM field

PhD in a STEM field

Tools

MATLAB/Simulink

Software Defined Radios (SDR)

GNU Radio

Job description

Relocation Assistance

Relocation assistance may be available.

Clearance Requirements

No clearance required to start. Ability and willingness to obtain Top Secret with SCI clearance is required for continued long‑term employment.

Overview

Northrop Grumman Mission Systems is seeking a Senior Staff System Engineer with a Signal Processing background to work in Sacramento, California. The role focuses on developing transformative signal processing solutions to solve complex challenges in Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) and contribute to real‑world national security initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Perform architecture trades, design analysis, and performance modeling.
• Provide engineering support for hardware development efforts.
• Design detection and characterization algorithms for RF communication signals.
• Implement detection and characterization algorithms.
• Test signal processing algorithms and receivers in a lab environment.
• Design, test, and produce detection, characterization, and geolocation algorithms.
• Support the deployment of core products on new platforms (e.g., manned aircraft, drones, ships).

Basic Qualifications (Level 6)

• BS degree in a STEM field with at least 14 years relevant experience, or MS degree with at least 12 years relevant experience, or PhD with at least 10 years relevant experience.
• Ability to convert complex operational needs into technical system requirements.
• Command of tactical SIGINT operations, military capabilities, and geolocation concepts.
• Expertise in modulation/demodulation, FFT/spectral analysis, filtering (FIR/IIR), resampling, channelization, and detection/estimation theory.
• Experience with Software Defined Radios (SDR), RF front‑ends, IQ data, geolocation techniques (DF/beamforming), and signal characterization.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hardware acceleration experience with CUDA/GPU programming.
• Agile/DevOps experience and containerization tools such as Docker or Kubernetes.
• Familiarity with X‑MIDAS, MATLAB/Simulink, and Linux‑based toolchains.
• Experience with the Atlassian tool suite (Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket).
• Programming experience in C++, Rust, or Python.
• Experience simulating and processing RF communications in GNU Radio.

Benefits

Health Plan, Savings Plan, Paid Time Off, Education Assistance, Training and Development, 9/80 Work Schedule (where available), and additional benefits.

Salary

Primary Level Salary Range: $212,100.00 - $318,100.00. Salary is based on scope, responsibilities, experience, education, and market conditions.

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.

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