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Principal or Sr Principal Engineer Systems

Northrop Grumman
CASDRB02, United States, United Statesfull_timeVerifiedPosted 24 Feb 2026
💰 $213,400/yr($114,000/yr$213,400/yr)

About the role

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 for well qualified Sr. Principal Systems Engineer to join our team of qualified, diverse individuals within our Systems Engineering organization. This position is located in San Diego, CA. Selected candidate must be from a commutable distance from San Diego/ Rancho Bernardo CA.

The selected candidate will be responsible for coordination and collaboration with diverse engineering design teams to provide imaginative, technical solutions to a wide range of difficult problems in establishing and managing the technical baseline in support of programmatic milestones. The selected candidate will assume an Integration role as part of the Systems Engineering Integration (SEI) team on the RQ-4 Enterprise. As part of day-to-day operations, the selected candidate will interface with various engineering functions and suppliers both internal and external to Northrop Grumman.

The position requires system thinking and extensive knowledge of development life-cycle processes.  Candidate must exhibit strong communication skills (written and oral) and support coordination cross-IPT toward the goal of an operationally validated integrated system.

Essential Functions:

  • Lead investigations to find root cause with regards to issues found in the field

  • Evaluate anomalies, and assist with the disposition and correction of issues as found

  • Evaluate software/logic-related findings in the field though the utilization of the lab environment

  • Present technical recommendations to internal and external technical leadership

  • Direct interaction with the customer with understanding their mission needs and flowing that information back to the engineering and leadership team.

  • Perform requirements traceability for defects

  • Develop, de-bug and execute Regression Verification Tests

  • Perform hands-on Integration within Test environment

  • Performs functional analysis, timeline analysis, detailed trade studies, requirements allocation and interface definition studies to translate customer requirements into hardware and software specifications.

Basic Qualifications Principal Systems Engineer (Level 3):

  • BS degree in a STEM discipline with 5 years engineering experience; MS degree in STEM discipline with 3 years engineering experience; PhD degree in a STEM Degree with 1 year engineering experience

  • Interim DoD Secret Clearance for consideration

  • Experience in integrating hardware and software

  • Experience with briefing the customer and senior leadership

  • Experience with root cause investigations

  • Must have ability to obtain and maintain Program Access (PAR) within a reasonable period of time, as determined by the company to meet its business needs

Basic Qualifications Sr Principal System Engineer (Level 4):

  • BS degree in a STEM discipline with 8 years engineering experience; MS degree in STEM discipline with 6 years engineering experience; PhD degree in a STEM discipline with 4 years of engineering experience

  • Interim Secret DoD Secret Clearance for consideration

  • Experience in integrating hardware and software

  • Experience with briefing the customer and senior leadership

  • Experience with root cause investigations

  • Must have ability to obtain and mainta

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Company

Northrop Grumman

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