Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems Sector has an opening for a Principal Engineer Software or Senior Principal Engineer Software (Tracking) to join Global Surveillance Division supporting a team of qualified, diverse individuals. This position will be located in Melbourne, Florida.
Responsibilities will include deploying, automating, maintaining, troubleshooting, and improving the systems and software infrastructure running smoothly. The role requires you to have hands on technical experience and a can-do approach towards environment automation and management along with continuous improvements. You will be a team member working in agile development process. You will be responsible for the design and implementation of application builds, releases, deployment along with configuration activities. Your responsibilities will include working with internal business partners to gather requirements, prototyping, and architecting complex solutions supporting the building and test plan execution, performing quality reviews, and triaging and fixing operational issues. The candidate will assist with the integration, troubleshooting and testing of implemented software changes. The ideal candidate will have the ability to take ownership of an ambiguous hard problems and drive to a solution, while working in a team environment. It is critical that you understand the software development life cycle and have an in-depth knowledge of automated testing to facilitate and analyze large data sets. The Software Engineer will develop, modify, and maintain customized or standardized applications using software engineering best practices and standards, and participate in the full life cycle of software development, to include requirements development, modeling and design, application development, unit to CSCI testing, integration, formal system testing, release, installation, and maintenance.
The ideal candidate will have the ability to take ownership of hard problems and drive to a solution, while working in a team environment and provide leadership for its implementation. It is critical that you understand the software development life cycle and have an in-depth knowledge of automated testing to facilitate and analyze large data sets. The Software Engineer will participate in the full life cycle of software development, to include requirements development, modeling and design, application development, unit to CSCI testing, integration, formal system testing, release, installation, and maintenance. The Software Engineer will apply technical expertise in solving complex integrations problems. The Software Engineer will interact with Program Management, external suppliers and/or government customers. Therefore, excellent verbal, written and interpersonal skills are required. A solid experience in bash scripting, C/C++, or other OOP languages, in a Linux environment is required. Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD secret security clearance and Special Program Access is a required.
Roles & Responsibilities: This position is primarily engaged in the development and fielding of target tracking and sensor fusion systems for advanced multi-function RF and EOIR subsystems. Key features of operation include analyzing, shaping, and relating data from a wide variety of modes, such as long-range search and track Radar waveforms, electronic surveillance measure returns, and Electro-Optic/Infrared video inputs. You will have the opportunity to become the subject matter expert for the target tracking (TRK) CSCI and contribute to the overall design of the software.
The ideal candidate will have the ability to take ownership of hard problems and drive to a solution, while working in a team environment and provide leadership for its implementation. It is critical that you understand the software development life cycle and have an in-depth knowledge of automated testing to facilitate and analyze large data sets. The Target Tracking Software Engineer will
(1) participate in the full life cycle of software development, to include requirements development, modeling and design, application development, unit to CSCI testing, integration, formal system testing, release, installation, and maintenance. (2) apply technical expertise in solving complex integrations problems. (3) interact with Program Management, external suppliers and/or government customers.
This role requires excellent verbal, written and interpersonal skills. Solid experience in C/C++, Ada or other OOP, HOL, and in Linux environment is required.
Essential Functions:
Full lifecycle design, implementation, and unit testing of software
Work with various team members to integrate functionality with other software components.
Supporting the gathering and reporting software metrics.
Support software working groups with the customer
Follow program software best practices and ensure software best practices are followed
Ability to lead a team and /or provide leadership to drive solutions of complex problems
Develop software products within all phases of the software lifecycle.
Develop and support systems to receive, store, process, display, correlate, fuse and forward surface data [GMTI, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Maritime Moving Target Indicator (MMTI), Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR), High Range Resolution (HRR) and Electronic Protection (EP)] from multiple sources.
Ability to analyze the system as a whole and determine potential impacts of integrating new technologies.
Developing software products implemented from algorithms.
In-depth working knowledge from tracker fundaments through fusion, parametric and correlating trackers.
Ability to debug complex tracking problems, often working with Systems Engineering
Basic Qualifications:
(Principal) Bachelor’s degree and 5-years of experience in software engineering OR a Master’s degree and 3-years of experience OR a PhD degree and 0-years of experience.
(Senior Principal) Bachelor’s degree and 8+ years of experience in software engineering OR a Master’s degree and 6+ years of experience OR a PhD degree and 2+ years of experience.
Higher proficiency understanding and developing multi-target trackers, adaptive processing, or sensor fusion algorithms.
Demonstrated programming experience/expertise in C/C++ or other OO language.
Demonstrated knowledge/experience of Linear Algebra, Probability, and Kalman Filters
Experience developing software to receive, store, process, display, correlate, fuse and forward surface data, Synthetic Aperture Radar, Maritime Moving Target Indicator, Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar, High Range Resolution, EO/IR, and Electronic Protection from multiple sources.
Demonstrated experience with tracker SW and its components (i.e. association, correlation, time propagation, measurement conditioning, and track maintenance)
Familiarity with the Agile software development process
Ability to communicate effectively with customers, senior leadership, and other engineering disciplines.
Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Secret security clearance “Required to Start”.
Able to obtain and maintain a program special access program clearance.
US Citizenship required.
Preferred Qualifications:
Master's Degree or PhD in a STEM discipline including electives in radar techniques and signal processing.
Experience with MATLAB
Experience developing software on both Windows and Linux platforms
Familiarity with the Atlassian tool suite with add-ons like Git and Confluence
Experience with formal software or systems test
Experience with DOORS
Experience modeling Software in Cameo
Proficient in Ada, C++
High level experience and proficiency in signal processing or RF applications.
Proficiency with optimal estimation algorithms (Kalman Filtering), digital beamforming, or adaptive processing.
Experience integrating and testing modes/algorithms on RADAR, SIGINT, EOIR, or EW systems.
Active In-scope DoD Top Secret Clearance.
Has been previously approved for special access programs.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree with 5+ years (Principal) or 8+ years (Senior Principal) in software engineering (alternative: Master's/PhD with reduced years)
- Proven experience developing multi-target trackers, adaptive processing, or sensor fusion algorithms
- Demonstrated programming expertise in C/C++ or other object-oriented languages
- Solid experience with bash scripting in a Linux environment
- Knowledge of Linear Algebra, Probability, and Kalman Filters
- Experience processing and integrating data from SAR, MMTI, ISAR, HRR, EO/IR, and Electronic Protection sources
- Experience with tracker software components (association, correlation, time propagation, measurement conditioning, track maintenance)
- Familiarity with Agile software development practices
- Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Secret security clearance and program special access; US Citizenship required
- Strong verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills; ability to interact with customers and senior leadership
- Ability to lead teams and drive solutions for complex integration problems
- Experience performing integration, troubleshooting, testing, and formal systems test
- Experience developing software across full lifecycle: requirements, design, implementation, unit/CSCI testing, integration, release, maintenance
- Higher proficiency in multi-target trackers, adaptive processing, or sensor fusion (advanced algorithmic understanding)
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
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