Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems has an opening for a Principal Research and Advanced Design Test Engineer (Level 3) / Senior Principal Research and Advanced Design Test Engineer (Level 4) to join our team of qualified, diverse individuals within our Test & Evaluation organization in Melbourne, FL.
We are seeking a highly skilled, adaptable, and innovative thinkers who are interested in supporting the application of cutting-edge commercial technologies to operational military use cases. These technologies include advanced RF communications, machine learning, and future wireless technologies in support of advanced battle management capabilities.
In this exciting role, your mission will be to support the Battlespace Architecture Systems Technology (BAST) Research and Advanced Design (RAD) portfolio Program Director and technical leadership on all activities across the business area. The BAST portfolio teams are primarily in Melbourne, FL and Space Park, CA, and some travel between locations can be expected. Travel is expected to be 25% or less.
Key Responsibilities may include, but are not limited to:
- Developing comprehensive test plans
- Creating CONOPs (Concept of Operations) documents
- Overseeing instrumentation setup and management
- Providing support for demonstrations and field exercise tests
- Collection of metrics and result analysis
- System deployment and configuration
- Cloud system configuration and testing
- RF system testing
Basic Qualifications:
This requisition may be filled at a Principal Research and Advanced Design Test Engineer (Level 3) OR Senior Principal Research and Advanced Design Test Engineer (Level 4) level based on the qualifications below.
Principal Research and Advanced Design Test Engineer (Level 3)
Must have a Bachelor’s Degree in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math) discipline and 5 years of related professional/military experience; OR a Master’s Degree in a STEM discipline and 3 years of related professional/military experience; OR a Ph.D. in a STEM discipline and 1 year of related professional/military experience.
Must have an active DoD Secret or higher clearance, with a background investigation completed within the last 6 years or currently enrolled into Continuous Evaluation
Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Top Secret Clearance and Special Access Program (SAP) clearance, within a reasonable amount of time as determined by the company to meet its business need.
Experience with RF Testing (e.g. developing test plans, test execution, lab testing, customer testing, formal qual, etc.)
Ability and willingness to travel up to 25% of the time, based on business requirements.
Senior Principal Research and Advanced Design Test Engineer (Level 4)
Must have a Bachelor’s Degree in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math) discipline and 8 years of related professional/military experience; OR a Master’s Degree in a STEM discipline and 6 years of related professional/military experience; OR a Ph.D. in a STEM discipline and 4 year of related professional/military experience.
Must have an active DoD Secret or higher clearance, with a background investigation completed within the last 6 years or currently enrolled into Continuous Evaluation
Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Top Secret Clearance and Special Access Program (SAP) clearance, within a reasonable amount of time as determined by the company to meet its business need.
Experience with RF Testing (e.g. developing test plans, test execution, lab testing, customer testing, formal qual, etc.)
Ability and willingness to travel up to 25% of the time, based on business requirements.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Demonstrated experience with generating technical documents and working with various software/data processing tools such as MS Word, MS Excel, PowerPoint, and various programming languages
- Experience with developing test cases in dynamic efforts
- Experience with cloud and virtualized environments
- Experience with RF testing equipment setup
- Familiarity with cellular networks
- Master’s Degree in a STEM discipline
- An active DoD Top Secret Clearance
- Experience in creating Basis of Estimates (BOEs)
- Experience with testing systems across different domains (On-prem, Cloud)
- Experience in device management and configuration
- Experience with RF deployments
Skills Required
- Degree and experience combination: Bachelor's in STEM +5 years, OR Master's in STEM +3 years, OR Ph.D. in STEM +1 year (Principal level); Senior Principal requires Bachelor's +8 years, OR Master's +6 years, OR Ph.D. +4 years
- Active DoD Secret (or higher) clearance with background investigation within last 6 years or enrollment in Continuous Evaluation
- Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Top Secret clearance and Special Access Program (SAP) clearance
- Experience with RF testing (test plan development, execution, lab/customer testing, formal qualification)
- Ability and willingness to travel up to 25% of the time
- Experience generating technical documents and using MS Word, MS Excel, and PowerPoint
- Experience with programming languages and data processing tools
- Experience developing test cases in dynamic efforts
- Experience with cloud and virtualized environments and cloud system configuration/testing
- Experience with RF testing equipment setup and RF deployments
- Familiarity with cellular networks
- Master's Degree in a STEM discipline
- Active DoD Top Secret clearance
- Experience creating Basis of Estimates (BOEs)
- Experience testing systems across on-prem and cloud domains
- Experience in device management and configuration
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.








