Senior Principal Software Engineer

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes

CLEARANCE TYPE: SCI

TRAVEL: Yes, 10% of the TimeDescription

At Northrop Grumman, our employees have incredible opportunities to work on revolutionary systems that impact people's lives around the world today, and for generations to come. Our pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled us to be at the forefront of many technological advancements in our nation's history - from the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, to stealth bombers, to landing on the moon. We look for people who have bold new ideas, courage and a pioneering spirit to join forces to invent the future, and have fun along the way. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity and bringing your whole self to work — and we have an insatiable drive to do what others think is impossible. Our employees are not only part of history, they're making history.

Northrop Grumman Mission Systems delivers mission-critical solutions for global security. Our Engineering and Sciences organization advances engineering and scientific capabilities to design, produce, and sustain optimized product lines that give the warfighter a decisive edge.

We seek bold, innovative engineers who embrace change, value cognitive diversity, and bring their full selves to work. Our employees don’t just witness history—they make it.

Northrop Grumman Mission Systems is hiring a Senior Principal Software Engineer in McClellan, CA to help deliver next-generation national defense capabilities in a fast-paced, innovation-driven environment.

What You’ll Get to Do:

• The new team member will design, develop, document, test and debug software applications and systems that contain logical and mathematical solutions.

• Conduct multidisciplinary research and collaborates with equipment designers and/or hardware engineers in the planning, design, development, and utilization of software solutions.

• Determine computer user needs; analyzes system capabilities to resolve problems on program intent, output requirements, input data acquisition, programming techniques and controls; prepares operating instructions; designs and develops compilers and assemblers, utility programs, and operating systems.

• Implement solutions in multiple components of the system, including storage, OS, network, application, database, and many more.

• Provide system analysis as an actual user, including onsite visits, and contribute to the next iteration of the system through feedback and development.

• Ensure software standards are met.

Responsibilities: 

• Build and enhance software, leveraging feedback as an end user and field rep

• Use container engines and container tools to develop OCI-compliant container images for existing software applications (e.g. Docker images)

• Design, develop, document, test and debug applications software and systems that contain logical and mathematical solutions

• Follow software development standards for configuration management, software reuse, and Dev*Ops processes

• Contribute to/consume from product line software

Basic Qualifications for a Senior Principal Software Engineer:

• Bachelor’s degree in STEM plus 8 years of relevant experience; Master’s degree in STEM plus 6 years of relevant experience; PhD in STEM with 4 years of relevant experience.

• Strong object-oriented development in C++ and/or C# and/or Java

• Proficiency in scripting and web: Python, JavaScript, HTML, CSS

• Experience designing and consuming REST APIs and pub/sub (topics) architectures

• Data and storage: SQL/relational databases; basic experience with NetApp

• Virtualization: basic VM provisioning and management

• Solid Linux experience: filesystems/mounts, cron, bash scripting, services, permissions, users/groups

• DevOps: GitLab (repos, runners, pipelines), integration with artifact/binary storage, use of monitoring tools (e.g., Grafana)

• Networking: practical troubleshooting with tools like ss, nc, netstat, tcpdump, ip addr; understanding of core protocols and debugging strategies

• Understanding of containers, containerized development, and deployment

• End-to-end software development lifecycle experience

• US Citizenship is required

• A current/active U.S. Government TS/SCI clearance

Preferred Qualifications for Senior Principal Software Engineer:

• Hands-on design, deployment, and dynamic management of containerized systems

• Experience with Kubernetes (K8s, k3s) and cloud-native OS environments

• Experience with modern software factories and DevOps/DevSecOps practices

• Familiarity with Atlassian and CI/CD tools: Bitbucket, JIRA, Jenkins, Confluence

• Advanced scripting in Python, Bash, and related languages

• Deep Linux/UNIX experience in production environments

• Practical experience working in Agile and DevOps teams

• Strong background in object-oriented software design and implementation

Primary Level Salary Range: $142,200.00 - $213,400.00

The above salary range represents a general guideline; however, Northrop Grumman considers a number of factors when determining base salary offers such as the scope and responsibilities of the position and the candidate's experience, education, skills and current market conditions.

Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay. Annual bonuses are designed to reward individual contributions as well as allow employees to share in company results. Employees in Vice President or Director positions may be eligible for Long Term Incentives. In addition, Northrop Grumman provides a variety of benefits including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, savings plan, Company paid holidays and paid time off (PTO) for vacation and/or personal business.

The application period for the job is estimated to be 20 days from the job posting date. However, this timeline may be shortened or extended depending on business needs and the availability of qualified candidates.

Northrop Grumman is an Equal Opportunity Employer, making decisions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class. For our complete EEO and pay transparency statement, please visit http://www.northropgrumman.com/EEO. U.S. Citizenship is required for all positions with a government clearance and certain other restricted positions.