Northrop Grumman Defense Systems is looking for an Engineer Guidance Navigation Control Level 2 or 3 to support Advance Weapons in Northridge, CA and will be 100% on-site. Our success is grounded in our ability to embrace change, move quickly and continuously drive innovation. The successful candidate will be collaborative, open, transparent, and team-oriented with a focus on team empowerment and shared responsibility, flexibility, continuous learning, and a culture of automation. Relocation may be available but is not guaranteed.
Our work influences the investment decisions of our senior leadership and customer program offices. The GN&C discipline itself is a mesh of many other fields (e.g., Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Software Engineering, etc.) and frequently collaborates across functional disciplines, offering a unique opportunity to obtain a broad understanding of many areas or to focus on developing a deep expertise more narrowly in any one of the relevant fields. This drives the development of clean-sheet requirements, refine existing program system requirements, and influence the pursuit of future technologies and capabilities.
You will work with air vehicle and subsystem engineers, as well as with program and customer leadership, to recommend candidate designs, and to develop Concepts of Operation (CONOPs) and Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs) at the system, mission, and campaign levels. The selected candidate will be responsible for developing new and / or integrate existing system simulation frameworks, performance models and algorithms, threat models and command and control models.
What you’ll get to do:
- You will be driving the full cycle of mission trajectories, from taking requirements from customers, design reviews, simulation, and analysis of the mission, to running operations.
- Perform trajectory design, optimization, and dispersion analysis for Air-to-Ground and Air-to-Air missile missions for all phases of flight.
- Develop flight constants and guidance parameters, verified via analysis to meet mission requirements subject to mission and vehicle constraints.
- Develop software automation tools for mission design, analysis, test, and reporting.
- Perform trade studies to improve weapon performance and reliability.
- Implement new software or algorithms to support mission unique capabilities.
- Support full mission lifecycle, starting with sales and concluding with mission execution.
- Interact with customers to execute current missions and develop future business.
Basic Qualifications:
Engineer Guidance Navigation Control Level 2:
Requires a minimum of 2 years with a Bachelor of Science degree in related field OR a Master’s degree with 0 years’ experience in a related field and required experience listed below.
Engineer Guidance Navigation Control Level 3:
Requires a minimum of 5 years with a Bachelor of Science degree in related field OR a Master’s degree with 3 years’ experience in a related field and required experience listed below.
- Experience with Design Guidance algorithm: Guidance Law, Trajectory Optimization, Flight Vehicle Autonomy
- Experience with Design Navigation algorithm: Initial Alignment, Strapdown Propagation, INS filter
- Experience with Flight Control algorithm: Trim Point Selection, LTI Trim and Maneuver Analysis, Non-linear Dynamic Analysis
- Experience with Tracking algorithm: Angle Only Tracking, Maneuvering Target Tracking, Multi-Target Tracking, Multi-Sensor Data Fusion, Track File Manager
- Experience architecting high-fidelity multiple degree-of-freedom flight/orbital mechanics and vehicle dynamics simulation
- Experience with Modeling of navigation sensors in the Monte Carlo simulation
- Experience architecting the modeling of targeting sensors in the Monte Carlo simulation. Evaluate simulation output versus actual targeting sensors' output.
- Experience architecting flight vehicle system conceptual designs and modeling & simulation for trade studies, initial requirements definition, and contribute to proposal efforts.
- Experience architecting propulsion systems including electric, rocket, air-breathing, and attitude control thruster. Evaluate simulation output versus actual test data.
- Experience architecting modeling of actuation systems as well as design of test equipment to demonstrate actuation system performance meet requirement.
- A current/active DoD Secret clearance level and the ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Top Secret clearance level and/or program special access clearance is required.
Preferred Qualifications
- Proposal development, writing or execution
- Master’s Degree in a STEM discipline from an accredited university
- Familiarity with AGILE, MBSE, and / or system architecture frameworks
- Effective project management skills and good communication techniques
- Experience with version control tools (Bitbucket, GitHub, or Gitlab, etc.)
- Strong interpersonal and leadership skills
- Excellent communications skills, including the ability to present and brief technical data to all levels of leadership within the organization and U.S. Government
- Analysis of Survivability, Lethality, Vulnerability, Engagement at the mission level
- Experience integrating plug-ins to AFSIM
- Knowledge of RF Threat Modeling
- Knowledge of guided missile design
Skills Required
- Bachelor of Science in a related field (Level 2: minimum 2 years experience; Level 3: minimum 5 years experience) or Master's with equivalent experience
- Experience with guidance algorithms (guidance law, trajectory optimization, flight vehicle autonomy)
- Experience with navigation algorithms (initial alignment, strapdown propagation, INS filter)
- Experience with flight control algorithms (trim point selection, LTI trim and maneuver analysis, nonlinear dynamic analysis)
- Experience with tracking algorithms (angle-only tracking, maneuvering target tracking, multi-target tracking, multi-sensor data fusion)
- Experience architecting high-fidelity multi-degree-of-freedom flight/orbital mechanics and vehicle dynamics simulations
- Experience modeling navigation and targeting sensors in Monte Carlo simulations and evaluating simulation versus test data
- Experience architecting propulsion systems (electric, rocket, air-breathing, attitude control thruster) and evaluating versus test data
- Experience modeling actuation systems and designing test equipment to demonstrate performance
- Current/active DoD Secret clearance and ability to obtain and maintain DoD Top Secret and/or program special access clearance
- Willingness to work 100% on-site in Northridge, CA and travel up to ~10%
- Experience with proposal development, writing, or execution
- Master's degree in a STEM discipline
- Familiarity with AGILE, MBSE, and system architecture frameworks
- Experience with version control tools (Bitbucket, GitHub, GitLab)
- Experience integrating plug-ins to AFSIM
- Knowledge of RF threat modeling and guided missile design
- Strong communication, leadership, and project management skills
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.








