Principal Cyber Systems Engineer

Northrop Grumman•Huntsville, AL

1d•$96,300 - $179,400•Onsite

About The Position

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. The Northrop Grumman CIDO Classified Solutions team is seeking a Classified Cyber Systems Engineer – Kubernetes or Principal Classified Cyber Systems Engineer – Kubernetes to support the deployment, administration, and sustainment of containerized platforms in classified environments. The selected candidate will be required to work on-site, full-time at our Huntsville, AL location.

Requirements

Master’s degree with 3 years of experience; OR a Bachelor's degree with 5 years of relevant experience; OR an Associates degree with 7 years of relevant experience; OR a High School Diploma/GED with 9 years of relevant experience is required
Meet all the Basic Qualifications for a Cyber Systems Engineer – Kubernetes and have the additional skills below:
Proficiency with kubectl and Helm for application deployment, configuration, and troubleshooting
Strong understanding of Kubernetes core constructs and networking concepts, including Pods, Services, Ingress, Egress, and CNI concepts
Advanced Knowledge of container runtimes such as Containerd, Docker, or Podman
Thorough understanding of Linux systems in production environments
Ability to diagnose and resolve platform and workload issues related to performance, resource allocation, scheduling, and configuration
Understanding of Kubernetes security concepts, including RBAC, Pod Security Standards, and secure configuration practices
Working knowledge of cluster provisioning, automation, or configuration management tools such as Terraform, Ansible, Helm, Bash, or Python
Candidates must meet the U.S. Government 8140 requirements for IAT Level II (i.e., Security+ CE)
Candidates must be able to obtain a U.S. Government Secret security clearance (at a minimum).

Nice To Haves

Current Secret Clearance or Top Secret, SAP/SAR access, SCI access, and/or a Polygraph
Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) certification
Technical understanding of CI/CD pipelines that deploy to Kubernetes environments, such as Jenkins or GitLab CI
Familiarity with Rancher and Kubernetes distributions such as RKE2 or K3s
Hands-on experience administering Kubernetes clusters in production environments
Advanced Proficiency with kubectl and Helm for deployment, configuration, and troubleshooting
Working knowledge of cluster provisioning and automation tools such as Terraform, Ansible, Bash, or Python
Familiarity with monitoring and logging tools such as Prometheus and Grafana
Understanding of Kubernetes security concepts, including RBAC and Pod Security Standards
Exposure to persistent storage and stateful workloads in Kubernetes environments, including Longhorn, PostgreSQL, or similar technologies

Responsibilities

Deploy, configure, and maintain Kubernetes clusters and supporting platform components within classified computing environments.
Administer and troubleshoot container runtimes such as Containerd, Docker, or Podman to support secure and reliable containerized workloads.
Support cluster networking operations, including Services, Pods, Ingress, Egress, and core CNI concepts, to ensure reliable application connectivity and communication.
Monitor cluster health, performance, and resource utilization, and diagnose issues related to CPU, memory, limits, requests, and workload scheduling.
Support and improve CI/CD pipelines that deploy to Kubernetes environments using tools such as Jenkins and GitLab CI.
Support persistent storage and stateful workloads in Kubernetes, including storage management, data protection, and disaster recovery capabilities.
Implement and maintain monitoring and logging capabilities using platform tools such as Prometheus and Grafana to improve system observability and operational awareness.
Troubleshoot platform, application, and infrastructure issues across Linux-based environments and coordinate resolution with engineering and mission partners.
Document platform architecture, standard operating procedures, troubleshooting steps, and implementation activities, and share knowledge across teams to support long-term sustainment.
Participate in system hardening, patching, and lifecycle maintenance activities to maintain platform stability, compliance, and operational readiness in classified environments.