Ground Software Lead Engineer/Architect

Northrop Grumman • Morrisville, CA

1d • Onsite

About The Position

Northrop Grumman’s Space Sector is seeking a Level 6 Ground Software Lead Engineer/Architect to join the Western Region Software Engineering Directorate. The role provides technical leadership for software planning, architecture, and execution, with an emphasis on capability roadmapping, reuse, and metrics-driven lifecycle management. The position is onsite in Gilbert, Arizona; Redondo Beach, California; Morrisville, North Carolina; or Dulles, Virginia. Relocation assistance may be available. The position requires an active U.S. Government Top Secret clearance at application, and the ability and willingness to obtain Special Program Access. Travel is 10% of the time.

The successful candidate will guide software reuse and product trade studies, translate system requirements into software capabilities and features, maintain software buildup plans and capability roadmaps, and ensure feature-level work aligns to higher-level capabilities with measurable success criteria. The role also contributes to software framework concepts, supports ground software cost estimates and proposal activities, and manages software metrics and Jira dashboards and reports to enable execution visibility and data-driven decisions.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline and 12 or more years of software engineering experience, or a Master’s degree in a STEM discipline and 10 or more years of experience, or a Ph.D. in a STEM discipline and 8 or more years of experience.
• Active U.S. Government Top Secret clearance at time of application, with the ability and willingness to obtain Special Program Access.
• Demonstrated front-end planning experience, including developing capability roadmaps, decomposing capabilities into features, and defining measurable feature success criteria.
• Experience with software architecture and design for complex, mission-critical systems.
• Experience working within Agile software development lifecycles, including backlog refinement and iterative delivery.
• Experience integrating and/or leveraging third-party software frameworks.
• Proficiency with Jira for software implementation planning, tracking, and metrics reporting.
• Experience with CAMEO or similar model-based systems engineering tools.
• U.S. citizenship is required for positions requiring a government clearance.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with software cost estimation and supporting proposal activities.
• Experience as a Product Owner or in a similar role managing software backlogs, priorities, and stakeholder expectations.
• Control Account Manager (CAM) experience, including cost/schedule management, variance analysis, and reporting.

Responsibilities

• Lead software reuse strategies and product trade studies to maximize efficiency, commonality, and maintainability.
• Allocate system requirements into software capabilities and features.
• Develop and maintain the software buildup plan and capability roadmap, including inputs needed for BPE.
• Review element- and component-level features for alignment with higher-level capabilities.
• Define, track, and report clear feature success criteria.
• Contribute to development and refinement of the software framework concept, supporting scalability and adaptability across programs.
• Support Basis of Proposal Estimates (BPE), including development and refinement of ground software cost estimates.
• Own software metrics reporting and management.
• Configure and maintain Jira dashboards and reports to support execution, visibility, and data-driven decision making.

Benefits

• Health insurance coverage.
• Life and disability insurance.
• Savings plan.
• Company-paid holidays.
• Paid time off (PTO) for vacation and/or personal business.
• Employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay.
• Employees in Vice President or Director positions may be eligible for Long Term Incentives.
• Relocation assistance may be available.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior