Staff Engineer Systems

Northrop Grumman; Elkton (MD); On-site; USD 161,000 - 241,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Northrop Grumman is seeking a Staff Systems Engineer – Level 5 in Elkton, MD (hybrid with other facility options) to develop propulsion system architectures and MBSE-based artifacts for weapons, space, and propulsion programs. The role involves cross‑disciplinary leadership, requirements decomposition, and milestones across lifecycle stages.

You will own system baselines, coordinate with propulsion and engineering teams, and mentor junior SEs while ensuring rigorous verification planning and

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering or a STEM‑related discipline with at least 12 years of relevant experience, or master’s degree with at least 10 years, or PhD with at least 8 years.
• Experience leading technical reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR) or equivalent design/requirements reviews.
• Experience with MBSE (SysML preferred) and model-based integration.
• Experience establishing full requirements traceability across stakeholder needs, system requirements, interfaces, and verification.
• Demonstrated ability to work across multi-disciplinary engineering teams to resolve issues.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership and coordination between engineering disciplines, program management, and external stakeholders.
• Own the system technical baseline and ensure alignment across requirements, architecture, interfaces, verification, and program execution.
• Plan and own systems engineering tasks for project planning and execution, communicate milestones to program leads.
• Produce and maintain systems engineering artifacts (requirements, ICDs, V&V matrices, architecture, verification reports) in a model-based environment.
• Define and plan testing activities including propulsion tests at Elkton, Ronkonkoma, or external ranges.
• Lead requirements and architecture reviews (PDR/CDR) to ensure completeness and testability.
• Lead risk and opportunity meetings for the team and mentor colleagues in Systems Engineering initiatives.

Skills

Technical leadership

MBSE

Requirements management

System integration

Verifications & validation

Cross-disciplinary collaboration

Written communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering or STEM

Master’s or PhD in engineering (advanced)

Tools

Cameo/MagicDraw

Rhapsody

DOORS

Job description

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: No

CLEARANCE TYPE: Secret

TRAVEL: Yes, 10% 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 is currently seeking a Staff Systems Engineer – Level 5 to join our team at our Palm Beach Gardens, Florida or Elkton, Maryland locations to support the Propulsion Systems and Controls (PS&C) business unit. In this role you will be working to support our Propulsion Systems & Controls Business Unit in developing the systems architecture to develop propulsion hardware such as valves, solid rocket motors, scramjets, ramjets, and thrusters for launch vehicles, missile systems, and space missions. Our programs offer a unique experience to Systems Engineers, as you will get to experience the full Lifecyle development process from preliminary design to final test and delivery. We work with many customers from the Navy to the Air Force, as well as multiple private industry partners. The job will require the blending of Systems Engineering Principles and their application to hardware development programs at the subsystem level.

Job Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership and coordination between engineering disciplines, program management, and external stakeholders to ensure an integrated solution.
• Own the system technical baseline and ensure alignment across requirements, architecture, interfaces, verification, and program execution.
• Plan and own systems engineering tasks required for project planning and execution, communicate milestones and need dates to program leads.
• Produce and maintain key systems engineering artifacts (Requirements specifications, ICDs, V&V matrices, logical/physical/functional architecture, and verification technical reports) in a model-based systems engineering environment (CAMEO).
• Define and plan, testing activities in conjunction with propulsion engineering, including propulsion tests at the Elkton campus, Ronkonkoma campus, or external ranges.
• Define and maintain a requirements decomposition strategy across subsystems and disciplines.
• Lead requirements and architecture reviews (PDR, CDR-level artifacts) to ensure completeness, consistency, feasibility, and testability.
• Lead Risk and Opportunity meetings on behalf of technical and programmatic team.
• Provide mentorship in Systems Engineering initiatives to other SE’s and Propulsion Engineers.
• Demonstrate excellent written and verbal communication skills, strong social skills, and ability to build consensus among peers while building solid relationships with team members.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering or a STEM‑related discipline with at least 12 years of relevant experience, or master’s degree in engineering with at least 10 years of experience, or PhD in engineering with at least 8 years of experience.
• Demonstrated technical leadership (technical lead, IPT lead, SEIT Lead, deputy chief engineer, Lead Systems Engineer, or equivalent) on complex aerospace or weapon system programs.
• Experience with requirements development and management, including writing clear, testable requirements and maintaining a requirements baseline.
• Experience establishing and maintaining full requirements traceability (e.g., between stakeholder needs, system requirements, functional/physical architecture, lower-level requirements, and verification).
• Familiarity working in and directing scope in an MBSE environment (SysML preferred) using tools such as Cameo/MagicDraw, Rhapsody, or similar, and integrating models with requirements (e.g., DOORS).
• Experience leading technical reviews (e.g., SRR, PDR, CDR) or equivalent design/requirements reviews.
• Experience developing verification and validation (V&V) plans, including mapping requirements to verification methods (test, analysis, inspection, demonstration).
• Experience leading system integration and formal product qualification.
• Demonstrated ability to work across multi-disciplinary engineering teams to resolve requirements and design issues.
• Experience with at least one requirements management tool (e.g., DOORS, Jama, JIRA, or similar).
• Demonstrated problem-solving and analytical skills, including ability to identify risks/issues and propose mitigations.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to clearly document technical information and present to stakeholders.
• Must be able to obtain a secret clearance, US citizenship is a pre-requisite

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with mechanical design of propulsion components or fluid or electrical systems (Solid rocket motors, valves, manifolds, ducts, thermal management hardware).
• Experience acting as a Control Account Manager (CAM) for scope assigned, delivering all team deliverables on time and within cost, while meeting contractual programmatic and technical requirements and stakeholder expectations, and measure and report Earned Value (EV) performance.
• Experience with hands‑on manufacturing (Elkton Only) .
• 4 + years of experience developing MBSE models (preferably with SysML).
• Direct experience interacting with DoD or International customers.
• Experience developing and executing subsystem-level verification and validation plans, including test requirements, test procedures, data review, and FMEAs.
• Active secret or higher clearance

Primary Level Salary Range: $161,000.00 - $241,400.00

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.