Northrop Grumman’s Space Sector is seeking a Sr Principal DevOps Engineer to join our team in Aurora, CO to support on-premises mission systems by operating, maintaining, and incrementally enhancing existing DevOps and platform solutions. The engineer will work within established architectures and standards rather than designing new solutions, focusing on reliability, security, and continuous improvement of current environments.
In this job, you will:
Operate and maintain existing GitLab CI/CD infrastructure including patching and permissions. Advise on updates to jobs, runners, variables, and approvals to improve stability and throughput.
Administer Nexus artifact repositories including patching, backups, access management, repository configuration, cleanup/retention policies, and routine health checks.
Support installation and day-to-day operations of Kubernetes on-prem clusters, including patching, storage management, deployments, rollouts/rollbacks, configuration updates, and resource adjustments.
Implement incremental improvements to existing DevOps tooling and workflows (e.g., adding tests, improving pipeline stages, automating manual steps) consistent with established designs and security baselines.
Apply existing security and compliance controls across the DevOps toolchain: secrets management, access controls, certificate and credential rotation, image scanning, and log retention in accordance with program requirements.
Follow formal change management processes, including documenting changes, participating in reviews, and updating runbooks, SOPs, and technical documentation.
Collaborate with senior engineers, system administrators, and developers to implement improvements and operational changes defined by leads and architects.
Other duties as assigned
Basic Qualifications:
Bachelor’s in STEM degree with 8 years of professional experience; Master’s in STEM degree with 6 years of professional experience; PhD with 3 years of experience. 4 or more years of experience in lieu of degree.
United States Citizenship is required.
Must have an active U.S. Government Top Secret security clearance at time of application, current and within scope, with the ability to obtain and maintain SCI approval/access.
Must have the willingness and ability to obtain and maintain U.S. Government Full Scope Polygraph.
Experience with Java, Elasticsearch, Maven, Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes, and GitLab are all required.
Preferred Qualifications:
Active U.S. Government Full Scope Polygraph, current and within scope.
Experience with Java Springboot, Agile, and Nexus
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in STEM and 8 years of professional experience, or Master's degree in STEM and 6 years of experience, or PhD and 3 years of experience; 4 additional years of experience may substitute for the degree.
- United States citizenship.
- Active U.S. Government Top Secret security clearance at application, current and within scope.
- Ability to obtain and maintain SCI approval/access.
- Willingness and ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government Full Scope Polygraph.
- Experience with Java, Elasticsearch, Maven, Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes, and GitLab.
- Active U.S. Government Full Scope Polygraph, current and within scope.
- Experience with Java Spring Boot, Agile, and Nexus.
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.





