Software Engineer Level 3 or 4 (AHT)

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes

CLEARANCE TYPE: Top Secret

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 Space Sector is seeking multiple Software Engineers to support an innovative program in their development, integration, deployment, and sustainment of satellite ground software.

This position can be located onsite at our Aurora, CO or Morrisville, NC campus.

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. 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. 

This position requires interfaces between systems analysts/programmers and users located in a specialized area to ensure that information technology designs meet the needs of the end users within an organization. Documents product/service requirements and develop test procedures to ensure user requests are carried out. The Software Engineer will interact with Program Management, and/or government customers. Therefore, excellent verbal, written and interpersonal skills are required. A solid experience in bash scripting, Python, or other OOP languages, in a Linux environment is required. 

About our organization: Our Aurora Software & Digital Engineering department comprises 200+ engineers, DevOps specialists, system administrators, DBAs, and network engineers—from entry‑level talent to chief architects. Engineers often serve as informal subject‑matter experts and may assume formal technical‑leadership roles. Career progression into higher‑level technical or leadership positions is strongly supported.

What You’ll Have an Opportunity to Do:

• Full stack development at the OS, platform, and mission unique software layer

• Applications will span languages and toolsets including GO, Python, Postgres, Kubernetes/Docker, AWS cloud infrastructure provisioning, PKI, and static code analysis execution and finding remediation.

• Developer will be expected to be a self-starter capable of making decisions with overall project budget and schedule in mind.

• Develop software which provides command and control functionality of a hardware system (sending commands, receiving acknowledgements, working on and integrating across interfaces)

• Develop software which enables activity planning and constraint checking to achieve mission outcomes.

• Develop software which enables the visualization of a complex and dynamic environment in both two and 3 dimensions, complete with decisions tools, intelligent context, and user-centric interface design.

This position may be filled as a Principal Software Engineer (level 3) or Sr. Principal Software Engineer (level 4).

Basic Qualifications:

Principal Engineer Level 3:

• Bachelor’s Degree with 5 years of development experience (3 years with a Master’s Degree, 1 years with a PhD). 4 additional years of experience may be considered in lieu of degree.

• Must have active Top Secret clearance with SCI eligibility at time of application.

• 2 Years Experience with Agile programs

• 2 Years Experience with the design, build, and deployment of software products

• 2 Years Experience in producing software architecture documentation

• Full-stack software engineering experience

• Strong experience with Java 1.8+ (object-oriented design and implementation)

• Experience developing microservice-based applications

• Experience working in automated CI/CD pipelines, including: Unit testing, integration testing and Automation test frameworks such as Robot or Cucumber

• Experience with version control systems

Sr. Principal Engineer Level 4:

• Bachelor’s Degree with 8 years of development experience (6 years with a Master’s Degree, 4 years with a PhD). 4 additional years of experience may be considered in lieu of degree.

• Active Top Secret clearance with SCI eligibility at time of application.

• 4 years with Agile programs

• 4 years of experience with the design, build, and deployment of software products

• 4 years of experience in producing software architecture documentation

• Full-stack software engineering experience

• Strong experience with Java 1.8+ (object-oriented design and implementation)

• Experience developing microservice-based applications

• Experience working in automated CI/CD pipelines, including: Unit testing, integration testing and Automation test frameworks such as Robot or Cucumber

• Experience with version control systems

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience developing on Red Hat Linux 8 or similar Linux environments

• Experience deploying applications into cloud environments (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP)

• Ground systems domain knowledge

• Experience working under high security requirements and secure development practices

• Experience with RESTful APIs and JMS (event-driven and message-based architectures)

• Experience with build and deployment tooling such as Git, Maven, Helm, Harbor

• Strong front-end development experience with JavaScript frameworks (e.g., React, Angular, Vue)

• Familiarity with Agile, Scrum, and DevOps principles and workflows

• Strong technical documentation and communication skills

• Experience with API schemas, deployment standards, and Helm-based deployment patterns

• System troubleshooting, performance analysis, and recovery of production services

• Operations and Maintenance (O&M) experience and/or demonstrated bug resolution and incident response

Primary Level Salary Range: $114,000.00 - $171,000.00Secondary 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.