Lead Automation Test Engineer - Level 4

Northrop Grumman • Colorado Springs, CO

2d • $117,500 - $176,300 • Onsite

About The Position

Northrop Grumman Space Systems’ Multi-Domain Operations and Missile Defense Integration Business Unit is hiring a Sr. Principal Test Engineer Lead – Test Automation (Level 4) to support the Modeling and Simulation Vistas – Threat and Advanced Simulations Development (MSV-TASD) program. The position is based between Schriever Space Force Base and Northrop Grumman’s Colorado Springs facility. Daily onsite work is required, with very limited remote or hybrid work available.

As part of the TASD Systems Team, the role leads test engineering with a focus on standardizing and strengthening testing processes. The successful candidate will guide the transition of software projects and application suites from ad hoc manual execution toward rigorous processes supported by documentation, test evidence, and automation. The work spans environments with differing cybersecurity constraints and supports software products across the TASD portfolio, including TMSS, ROSE, MDASim, TGx, and MDST.

The role involves designing, testing, analyzing, benchmarking, validating, verifying, documenting, automating, and integrating products. The selected candidate will lead test engineers, establish test automation strategy and roadmaps, and work with agile software teams to embed automation and quality controls into development and delivery practices. The position requires collaboration with customers and stakeholders, technical briefings, and the use of quality metrics for continuous improvement. Limited travel of less than 10% is required.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline and 8 years of related experience; or a STEM master’s degree and 6 years of related experience; or a PhD and 4 years of related experience. The posting describes the bachelor’s degree as preferred.
• Active, in-scope U.S. Government-issued Secret security clearance at the time of application; clearance is required to start.
• Hands-on experience designing, developing, and maintaining test automation.
• Experience successfully leading a team of test engineers, including setting priorities, assigning work, and providing technical direction.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Strong written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills for collaboration with technical teams and customer personnel.
• Familiarity with Agile software development practices.
• Solid understanding of the software development lifecycle and how testing and automation integrate into it.
• Ability to travel on a limited basis, less than 10% of the time, for program meetings.

Nice To Haves

• Experience training or coaching others in test automation, such as mentoring manual testers or developers in automation practices and tools.
• Experience with C++, C#, Java, Python, or other modern development languages, including reading and reviewing production code and contributing to test code.
• Experience with unit test frameworks such as JUnit, TestNG, NUnit, xUnit, pytest, or similar.
• Experience with API test frameworks or tools such as REST Assured, Postman/Newman, Karate, or similar.
• Experience with UI or client automation tools such as Selenium WebDriver, Playwright, Cypress, or platform-specific desktop UI automation tools.
• Experience with Agile methodologies including Scrum, Kanban, and Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe).
• Experience engineering modeling and simulation systems using an optimistic and/or conservative discrete-event simulation platform.
• Knowledge or experience in missile defense, command and control, and modeling and simulation development.
• Experience designing or operating CI/CD pipelines, such as Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Azure DevOps, with automated tests and quality gates.
• Experience with Atlassian tools such as Jira, Confluence, and Git, or equivalent work-tracking, documentation, and configuration-management tools.
• Experience defining and tracking test or quality metrics and using them to influence design, prioritization, and risk management.

Responsibilities

• Lead test engineers in developing standard processes, test plans, test-result documentation and recording practices, and best practices for software quality.
• Define and implement a test automation strategy and roadmap to improve automated test suites across multiple TASD software products.
• Lead the design and implementation of manual and automated regression, integration, and end-to-end test suites for client, client-server, and cloud-based simulation systems.
• Create or use test tools and harnesses for manual and automated testing, including scripting, test-data setup, and environment orchestration, and train other test engineers in their use.
• Support agile software teams within the larger program by embedding automation into CI/CD pipelines and enforcing quality gates.
• Lead efforts to improve product quality through testing, analysis, automation, and peer review, including identifying and reducing unreliable or inefficient tests.
• Interface with TASD customers and stakeholders and prepare and present technical briefings on test strategies, plans, status, and results.
• Define and track test and quality metrics, such as automation coverage, defect trends, and test stability, and use them to drive continuous improvement.
• Support development and verification of TASD software products, including designing, testing, analyzing, benchmarking, validating, verifying, documenting, automating, and integrating products.

Benefits

• Health insurance coverage
• Life insurance
• Disability insurance
• Savings plan
• Company-paid holidays
• Paid time off for vacation and/or personal business
• Employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus, depending on the position.

What This Job Offers

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