Senior Staff Systems Engineer - Enterprise IFC Lead

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes

CLEARANCE TYPE: SAP

TRAVEL: Yes, 25% 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 Aeronautics Systems has an opening for a Sr Staff Systems Engineer – Enterprise IFC Lead of qualified, diverse individuals within our Systems Engineering organization. This role can be located in Rancho Bernardo, Palmdale, or El Segundo, CA.

In this role, you should consider yourself a self-starter with familiarity working in an Integrated Product Team (IPT) construct. You will serve as the Enterprise Integrated Functional Capability (IFC) Lead, coordinating the execution of multiple contracts with interdependent development baselines. This role requires broad technical expertise in many different disciplines across the enterprise. This role is responsible for creating the long-range development strategy that meets contractual obligations while minimizing impacts between the Operating Units (OUs). The Enterprise IFC Lead routinely coordinates with Senior Director OU leadership when there are conflicts and presents to executive leadership and senior customer leadership quarterly.

Roles and Responsibilities will include:

• Serve as the Enterprise IFC Lead and technical authority for integrated capability delivery across multiple contracts and interdependent baselines.
• Develop, own, and maintain the long range IFC strategy and multi year roadmap that meets contractual obligations while minimizing OU impacts.
• Implement a consolidated baseline development pipeline, automated configuration management, and modern integration, test and release practices and integrate these with legacy customer processes.
• Coordinate cross OU sequencing, handoffs, and integration to prevent schedule, cost, or performance conflicts and preserve baseline integrity.
• Lead technical integration across disciplines (software, integration & test, CM, specialty engineering, operations, sustainment).
• Negotiate and align priorities with OU Senior Directors, CE office, and customer representatives to resolve conflicts and establish enterprise level decisions.
• Present IFC status, risks, mitigation options, and recommended paths forward to executive leadership and senior customer leadership (quarterly and as required).
• Own IFC governance, change control, and acceptance criteria; convene decision forums and enforce compliance with regulatory, security, and customer process requirements.
• Drive continuous improvement: capture lessons learned, institutionalize best practices, and remediate enterprise risks that could affect cost, schedule, or award fee outcomes.

Additionally, in this role we expect you will have:

• Demonstrated expertise in systems engineering across the full lifecycle, including requirements management, system architecture, integration & test, and sustainment.
• Strong technical leadership, stakeholder management, and negotiation skills with a track record of aligning cross organization priorities and resolving interdependent schedule/cost/performance conflicts.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including experience presenting technical status, risks, and tradeoffs to senior executive and customer leadership; able to translate complex technical detail into business impacts.

You will be required to work full-time, on-site at our facility. There is no remote / hybrid / telework available for this position. Travel up to 25% may be required.

Basic Qualifications:

• Must have a Bachelor’s Degree in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics) discipline and at least 14 years of related engineering experience; OR a Master’s degree in a STEM discipline and at least 12 years of related experience; OR a PhD in a STEM discipline and at least 10 years of related experience.
• Must have an active US Government Top Secret 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 Special Access Program (SAP) clearance within a reasonable amount of time as determined by business needs.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Current applicable Special Access Program (SAP) clearance.
• Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in Systems Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline.
• Experience leading large-scale, cross-functional engineering initiatives in a highly regulated environment.
• Proven experience implementing Scaled Agile Framework on large programs and understands hardware agnostic design patterns to implement backwards compatibility
• Understands Program Increment planning for release trains, and how to segregate different subsystems based on areas of concern like safety critical threads.

Primary Level Salary Range: $192,800.00 - $289,200.00

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.