*Please be aware that this position is contingent upon capturing program award(s) and obtaining and maintaining associated business and/or customer funding. Furthermore, this position is contingent upon the candidate obtaining final clearances and program access(es) within a reasonable period of time as determined by the company. Continued employment thereafter will be subject to maintenance at the level of clearance and program access required for the position in the future.
Northrop Grumman’s Space Sector is seeking a Staff Software I&T Engineer – System Test Lead (Level 5) to join our team of highly qualified, diverse professionals within the Western Region Software Engineering directorate. This position is located onsite in Redondo Beach, CA.
Job responsibilities of the Staff Software I&T Engineer – System Test Lead (Level 5) include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Ability to define test plans, test cases, and establish traceability back to requirements and design.
- Verify reliability, ordering, and error handling in asynchronous workflows.·
- Collaborate with systems engineers to understand mission planning requirements and translate them into robust software solutions.·
- Implement and maintain cloud-deployed services, including monitoring, logging, and alerting.·
- Participate in code reviews, test automation efforts, and continuous improvement of development and integration practices.·
- Troubleshoot and resolve issues across application, container, and cloud layers.
- Demonstrate excellent written and verbal communication skills, and work effectively with developers, DevOps, and systems engineers.
*Please be aware that this position is contingent upon capturing program award(s) and obtaining and maintaining associated business and/or customer funding. Furthermore, this position is contingent upon the candidate obtaining final clearances and program access(es) within a reasonable period of time as determined by the company. Continued employment thereafter will be subject to maintenance at the level of clearance and program access required for the position in the future.
Basic Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline with 12+ years of software engineering experience, or a Master’s degree in a STEM discipline with 10+ years of experience
- Must have an active U.S. Government Top Secret clearance at the time of application, with the ability to obtain Special Program Access within a reasonable period of time as determined by the company
- Hands on experience testing containerized applications (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift)
- Experience testing systems that use Kafka (or similar message bus) for asynchronous communication
- Experience using a test automation tool ( TestComplete, Junit, Mockito, pytest, Catch2, etc )
- Experience building and maintaining automated tests in a CI/CD pipeline including:
- Integrating automated tests into tools such as Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or Azure DevOps
- Configuring tests to run as part of build, deployment, and regression gates - Strong skills in test automation scripting (e.g., Python, JavaScript, or other relevant language)
- Solid understanding of test design techniques (e.g., boundary analysis, equivalence classes, negative testing, performance and load considerations).
- Proficiency with source control and work tracking (e.g., Git, GitLab/GitHub, Azure DevOps, Jira)
Preferred Qualifications:
- Active U.S. Government Top Secret clearance.
- Experience testing systems deployed to cloud environments (e.g., AWS, Azure, or similar), including basic understanding of cloud networking, storage, and security groups.
- Experience with multi-level / multi-domain security environments or systems deployed at multiple classification levels.
- Practical experience with TestComplete and TestExecute, including:
- Designing and implementing automated integration test suites
- Maintaining and extending existing TestComplete/TestExecute test frameworks
- Experience validating message flows, topics, partitions, and consumer groups
- Experience working with REST APIs, microservices, and distributed architectures from a testing perspective.
- Strong background in integration and system-level testing for Space Mission Planning systems.
- Familiarity with container orchestration in secure environments (e.g., Kubernetes/OpenShift in classified or isolated networks).
- Experience testing systems subject to DoD, government, or regulated security requirements (e.g., STIGs, RMF).
- Experience with performance, scalability, and reliability testing of Kafka-based or other event-driven systems.
- Experience with infrastructure-as-code (e.g., Terraform, Helm, Ansible) and testing infrastructure changes.
- Knowledge of observability tooling (logs, metrics, traces) and using them to validate system behavior under test.
- Familiarity with virtualization, networking, and secure cross-domain solutions is a plus.
- Experience testing scheduling algorithms.
Curious about all the exciting developments with the Northrop Grumman Space Sector? Click the link below:
https://www.northropgrumman.com/space.
Working at Northrop Grumman is more than just a paycheck. We offer a comprehensive Total Rewards and benefits package designed to help you thrive at work and in life. For more information on our Total Rewards package, please visit our Total Rewards site: Northrop Grumman Total Rewards.
As a full-time employee of Northrop Grumman, you are eligible for:
-Medical, Dental & Vision coverage
-401k
-Educational Assistance
-Life Insurance
-Employee Assistance Programs & Work/Life Solutions
-Paid Time Off
-Health & Wellness Resources
-Employee Discounts
-Flexible Schedules: for example, the ability to work a 9/80 work schedule, which allows an employee to work a nine-hour day Monday through Thursday and take every other Friday off of work.
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Primary Level Salary Range: $177,000.00 - $265,600.00The 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.Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in a STEM discipline with 12+ years of software engineering experience, or Master's degree in a STEM discipline with 10+ years of experience
- Active U.S. Government Top Secret clearance at time of application with ability to obtain Special Program Access
- Hands-on experience testing containerized applications (Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift)
- Experience testing systems that use Kafka or similar message bus for asynchronous communication
- Experience using test automation tools (TestComplete, JUnit, Mockito, pytest, Catch2, etc.)
- Experience building and maintaining automated tests in CI/CD pipelines and integrating tests into Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or Azure DevOps
- Strong test automation scripting skills (Python, JavaScript, or other relevant language)
- Solid understanding of test design techniques (boundary analysis, equivalence classes, negative testing, performance/load considerations)
- Proficiency with source control and work tracking tools (Git, GitLab/GitHub, Azure DevOps, Jira)
- Experience testing systems deployed to cloud environments (AWS, Azure) including cloud networking, storage, and security groups
- Experience with multi-level / multi-domain security environments or systems deployed at multiple classification levels
- Practical experience designing and maintaining TestComplete/TestExecute automated integration test suites and frameworks
- Experience validating message flows, topics, partitions, and consumer groups in Kafka
- Experience testing REST APIs, microservices, and distributed architectures from a testing perspective
- Strong background in integration and system-level testing for Space Mission Planning systems
- Familiarity with container orchestration in secure/classified environments (Kubernetes/OpenShift)
- Experience with DoD/government/regulatory security requirements (STIGs, RMF)
- Experience with performance, scalability, and reliability testing of Kafka or other event-driven systems
- Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform, Helm, Ansible) and testing infrastructure changes
- Knowledge of observability tooling (logs, metrics, traces) to validate system behavior under test
- Familiarity with virtualization, networking, and secure cross-domain solutions
- Experience testing scheduling algorithms
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.








