AI Systems Engineer (Principal or Sr. Principal Level)

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes

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 Aeronautics Systems is looking to add a Principal / Sr Principal Systems Engineer - Operations Analysis AI  to join our team in El Segundo, CA. The candidate should be a self-starter with familiarity working in an Integrated Product Team (IPT) construct.

The selected candidate will perform operational‑analysis studies with a focus on mission data‑flow aggregation, dissemination, and architecture. This individual will be a subject‑matter expert (SME) in mission‑relevant data, its implementation across the enterprise, or the development of AI/ML solutions that accelerate data‑driven decision making in multi‑domain simulation environments.

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Model operational environments and conduct trade‑studies via computer simulation.
• Perform operational and effectiveness analysis to quantify capability gaps.
• Create and apply knowledge of Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) to support blue/red kill‑chains across multiple security environments, programs, architectures, and platforms.
• Provide blue/red tactics and CONOPS modeling, simulation, and analysis in mission‑level models to help achieve long‑term program objectives.
• Conduct mission‑engineering activities that ensure operational capabilities match delivered system performance through the Systems‑Engineering “V”.
• Develop, train, and validate AI/ML models (e.g., supervised, unsupervised, reinforcement‑learning, Bayesian) that:
• Analyze large‑scale data streams for pattern detection, anomaly identification, and predictive insight.
• Perform data‑compression (e.g., autoencoders, sparse coding, learned codecs) to reduce bandwidth/storage while preserving decision‑critical information.
• Supply real‑time decision‑support scores for complex, multi‑domain simulations.
• Automate and accelerate time‑intensive data‑workflow steps such as feature extraction, data‑fusion, and report generation.
• Design and implement MLOps pipelines (e.g., MLflow, Kubeflow, DVC) that integrate training, validation, versioning, and deployment into existing simulation and analysis toolchains.
• Leverage high‑performance computing (HPC) and GPU acceleration (CUDA, cuDNN, ROCm) to scale model training and inference for massive data sets.
• Synthesize stakeholder input, visualize results, and communicate findings to leadership at all levels.

There is no remote / hybrid / telework available for this position.  Travel up to 25% may be required.

Basic Qualifications:

• Principal Systems Engineer: Must have a Bachelor of Science degree in a STEM field and 5 years of relevant military / professional experience, OR a Master of Science degree in a STEM field 3 years of relevant military / professional experience, OR a PhD and 1 year of relevant military / professional experience
• Senior Principal Systems Engineer: Must have a Bachelor of