Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems has an opening for a Aeronautical Engineer or Principal Aeronautical Engineer to join the team of qualified individuals. Position is located in Palmdale, CA.
The candidate should be a self-starter with familiarity working in an Integrated Product Team construct.
Key Responsibilities:
- Apply engineering principles to investigate, analyze, plan, design, test, and evaluate systems
- Perform trade studies, engineering and technical analyses, reports, change proposals, and other technical documentation
- Actively participate in the efforts associated with Agile development, including release planning, sprint planning, scrum and retrospective.
- Work in an integrated team environment with other systems, software (SW), and specialty engineers to develop solutions.
- Prepare technical presentations for management and stakeholders and communicate clearly and effectively the technical approaches and findings
- Review Test Plans and Procedures for requirements verification and support system integration and test of complex systems. This includes evaluating integration and test anomalies and assisting disposition and correction of issues
- Address interface and functionality problems between SW components and/or hardware (HW)
- Work with the SW and infrastructure teams to correct or improve capabilities
- Develop requirements for the subsystem and SRS/HRS specifications through use of MBSE tools & DOORS
- Develop architecture and designs of complex HW and SW systems, including requirements traceability and implementation assessment
- Contribute to an implementation that includes the ability to analyze high-level needs and define a structured and logical approach to refine the capability into an integrated set of requirements that led to a fielded product.
- Support the development and review of interface documents (ICDs), requirements, Verification Cross Reference Matrix (VCRM), architectural documentation, system engineering estimates, and author and perform formal and informal engineering reviews.
- The selected candidate will be required to work full-time, on-site at our facility. There is no remote / hybrid / telework available for this position. Travel up to 25% may be required.
We offer flexible work arrangements, 4/10 work schedule with every Friday off, phenomenal learning opportunities, exposure to a wide variety of projects and customers, and a very friendly team environment. We are looking for self-motivated, proactive, and goal-oriented people to help us grow our services and become even better at what we do.
Basic Qualifications for a Level 2:
- Must have a Bachelor of Science degree in a STEM discipline AND 2 years of related professional/military experience, OR a Master's degree AND 0 years of related professional/military experience.
Basic Qualifications for a Level 3:
- Must have a Bachelor of Science degree in a STEM discipline AND 5 years of related professional/military experience, OR a Master's degree AND 3 years of related professional/military experience, OR a Ph.D. AND 1 year of related professional/military experience.
Basic Qualifications for a Both Levels:
- Must have an active US Government Secret clearance (with a background investigation within the past 6 years or enrolled into Continuous Evaluation).
- Must have the ability to obtain and maintain Special Access Program (SAP) clearance, within a reasonable amount of time as determined by business needs.
- Note: SAP/PAR will be upgraded once selected candidate is in role. Therefore, candidate must also be able to obtain and maintain upgraded SAP/PAR.)
- Experience in DOORS
- Experience working with Systems and Specialty engineers to develop solutions that include a background in all systems development life cycle aspects.
- Experience in one or more of the following system engineering knowledge areas: technical planning, requirements derivation, functional analysis, timeline analysis, trade studies, cost and risk analysis, interface definition, system design, system integration, verification and validation, supportability, and effectiveness analyses for total systems.
- Experience developing system engineering artifacts (e.g., specifications, Interface Control Documents, Use Cases, System Architecture Descriptions, Trade Studies, Design Packages, etc.).
- Experience with requirements development: decomposing requirements from parent-level to lower system/subsystem-level requirements (e.g. system/SW architecture, HW/SW design), reviewing/developing, HW/SW verification and validation
Preferred Qualifications
- Active DoD Top Secret clearance SCI
- Current applicable Special Access Program (SAP) clearance.
- Security+ certification
- Experience with Ansible Engine
- Experience with IBM Rational tool suite (DOORS and ClearQuest)
- Experience with Atlassian tool suite (JIRA, Git, Confluence)
- Experience using SW test automation tools/frameworks
- Experience with Java, C++, or Python
- Experience working within an Agile development environment
- Experience with MBSE, Architecture development, system design and analysis, and development of metrics
- Experience as a Product Owner
- Experience with SW products running in a virtual environment (e.g. VMware, Openshift, Kubernetes)
Skills Required
- Bachelor of Science in a STEM discipline and 2 years related experience, OR Master's degree and 0 years (Level 2)
- Bachelor of Science in a STEM discipline and 5 years related experience, OR Master's and 3 years, OR Ph.D. and 1 year (Level 3)
- Active US Government clearance (background investigation within past 6 years or enrolled in Continuous Evaluation)
- Ability to obtain and maintain Special Access Program (SAP) clearance (SAP/PAR upgrade as needed)
- Experience with DOORS
- Experience working with systems and specialty engineers across the systems development lifecycle
- Experience in one or more system engineering knowledge areas (requirements derivation, functional analysis, trade studies, integration, V&V, supportability, cost/risk analysis, interface definition)
- Experience developing system engineering artifacts (specifications, ICDs, use cases, system architecture descriptions, trade studies, design packages)
- Experience with requirements development and decomposing parent-level requirements to subsystem/SW/HW levels and verification/validation
- U.S. Citizenship (required for positions with government clearance)
- Ability to work full-time on-site at Palmdale, CA (no remote/hybrid)
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.





