Northrop Grumman Space Systems, Multi-Domain Operations, and Missile Defense Integration Business Unit (BU) has an exciting career opportunity for a Principal DevOps Engineer - Level 3 to join our team of qualified, diverse individuals. Our domain provides rewarding work that contributes to the latest advancements being made in the industry. This position supports the Modeling and Simulation Vistas – Threat and Advanced Simulations Development (MSV‑TASD) program and will split time between a Northrop Grumman facility in Colorado Springs and Schriever Space Force Base, CO.
This role requires candidates to be onsite daily, with very limited remote/hybrid work available.
Position Overview:
As a DevOps Engineer - Level 3, you will work in a collaborative environment to understand system requirements and design, implement, and maintain DevOps solutions using tools such as Jenkins, GitLab Runner, Bamboo, Docker, Podman, SonarQube, Gherkin, Cucumber, and others to enable efficient, secure, and repeatable software development and delivery. You will leverage containerization technologies and secure credential and identity management solutions to support our distributed modeling and simulation environments.
Essential Functions:
- Design, implement, and maintain CI/CD pipelines to support frequent, reliable software delivery
- Automate infrastructure deployment, scaling, and management using configuration management and scripting tools
- Implement and manage containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Podman), including rootless vs. rootful configurations where appropriate
- Collaborate closely with development and test teams to improve build, integration, and deployment processes
- Integrate automated testing and quality/security tools (e.g., static analysis, code quality, coverage) into CI/CD pipelines
- Monitor system and pipeline performance and implement improvements to ensure reliability and availability
- Ensure security, compliance, and configuration baselines are implemented and maintained across environments
- Work with identity and credential management tools (e.g., credential managers, service accounts) to support secure automation and access control
Basic Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics) discipline from an accredited institution and 5 years of related experience; OR a Master’s degree in a STEM discipline and 3 years of related experience; OR a PhD in a STEM discipline and 1 year of related experience.
- Current, active, in-scope U.S. Government issued Secret security clearance at the time of application (required to start)
- Ability and willingness to travel up to 10% to support business needs
- Experience with containerization and container runtime technologies (Docker, Podman, or similar)
- Experience with automated testing and software development pipelines/factories (e.g., unit, integration, or acceptance tests in CI/CD)
- Experience deploying applications in containerized environments
- Experience with CI/CD and related tools such as the Atlassian tool suite, Jira, GitHub, GitLab, SonarQube, Checkmarx, Coverity, or Jenkins
- Hands-on experience with Unix/Linux operating systems
Preferred Qualifications:
- Strong experience with Linux administration, shell scripting, and operations in production-like environments
- Experience implementing and maintaining automated software testing and analysis within CI/CD pipelines
- Familiarity with hypervisors, virtualized medium- and high-trust environments (e.g., experience working with hypervisors on medium trust environments)
- Experience working with credential and identity management solutions (e.g., credential managers, service accounts, Keycloak or similar technologies) to securely manage non-interactive access
- Exposure to Kubernetes or infrastructure-as-code tools (e.g., Terraform, Ansible) is a plus
- Experience developing software in a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) environment
- Experience with Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) and tools such as Gherkin and Cucumber for automated acceptance testing
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in a STEM discipline and 5 years related experience OR Master's degree in a STEM discipline and 3 years related experience OR PhD in a STEM discipline and 1 year related experience
- Current, active, in-scope U.S. Government issued Secret security clearance at time of application (required to start)
- Ability and willingness to travel up to 10%
- Experience with containerization and container runtime technologies (Docker, Podman, or similar)
- Experience with automated testing and software development pipelines/factories (unit, integration, or acceptance tests in CI/CD)
- Experience deploying applications in containerized environments
- Experience with CI/CD and related tools (Atlassian tool suite, Jira, GitHub, GitLab, SonarQube, Checkmarx, Coverity, Jenkins)
- Hands-on experience with Unix/Linux operating systems
- Strong experience with Linux administration, shell scripting, and production-like operations environments
- Familiarity with hypervisors and virtualized medium- and high-trust environments
- Experience with credential and identity management solutions (credential managers, service accounts, Keycloak or similar)
- Exposure to Kubernetes and infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform, Ansible)
- Experience developing software in a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) environment
- Experience with Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) and tools such as Gherkin and Cucumber
Northrop Grumman Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Northrop Grumman and has not been reviewed or approved by Northrop Grumman.
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Retirement Support — 401(k) matching is considered strong, with additional defined-benefit coverage for certain cohorts and options like catch-up contributions. Retirement programs are repeatedly highlighted as a core strength of the total rewards.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — PTO, company-paid holidays, and compressed work schedules (such as 9/80) provide meaningful time away and flexibility. These scheduling options are cited as a major quality-of-life benefit across many locations.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave alongside caregiver leave, adoption assistance, and back-up care supports a range of family needs. These programs have been expanded recently, signaling continued investment in family support.
Northrop Grumman Insights
What We Do
We are a close-knit community of big thinkers collaborating to keep the world safe. Our passion, creativity and expertise bring next-level technology solutions to life in autonomous systems, cyber, C4ISR, strike, space, and logistics and modernization for our customers around the globe. On the Northrop Grumman team, you’ll join our pursuit of excellence immersed in a dynamic culture of innovation and respect. Your unique perspective will help achieve our shared vision for the future of global security. Every step of the way, you'll be supported by world-class training, employee resource groups and a comprehensive benefits package that enables greater health and happiness for you and your family. Worldwide and across disciplines, we’re challenging what’s possible for technology to protect people and places from undersea to outer space and into cyberspace. And we see the impact of our performance every day. We are Northrop Grumman, and we work on what matters—now, you too can make a difference. Explore opportunities in engineering, IT, manufacturing, business management, cybersecurity and more with us. Northrop Grumman is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.








