Principal Engineer Data

Northrop Grumman•El Segundo, CA

1d•$114,000 - $171,000•Onsite

About The Position

Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems is seeking a Principal Data Engineer with AI Experience to join our onsite team in El Segundo, California. A hybrid work arrangement may be considered for this position. We are looking for a passionate Principal Data Engineer to design and develop an ecosystem of interconnected business systems, virtualized data pipelines, data catalogs, and end-user consumable data products. We are seeking self-motivated individuals who have a thirst for knowledge, a relentless drive to solve complex problems, and proven experience collaborating in cross functional teams.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree in a Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) field with at least 5 years of experience OR Master’s Degree in a Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) field with at least 3 years of experience OR PhD Degree in a Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) field with at least 1 years of experience
Experience with Python, GIT, Command Line, SQL Servers, DataBricks, Oracle databases, Dagster, Tableau, Microsoft Excel, Visual Studio, FastAPI, Azure, SQL Alchemy, pytorch, scikit-learn, pillow, OpenCV and torchvision
Experience with data architecture, data models, physical database designs, data integration strategy and design for operational systems, systems integration, and analytical systems
Experience with SQL Server and proficiency in data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, etc.)
Active US Government secret clearance and with the ability to obtain special program access

Nice To Haves

Experience with modern data orchestration tools (e.g. Airflow)
Proficiency in leading data visualization tools (e.g. Tableau, PowerBI)
Expert in Python, SQL, and data visualization tools.
Experience in ERP, MRP, and Quality systems (e.g. SAP, MES, Solumina, TIPQA, etc.)
Experience with data platform technologies (e.g., Palantir, Databricks, etc.).
Experience leading AI technical strategy/roadmaps for a program or product; influencing stakeholders across software, systems, and program leadership.
Deep experience with LLM solutions, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), evaluation/guardrails, and enterprise-ready integration.
Familiarity with enterprise AI governance and responsible-use expectations, including alignment to company AI governance procedures.

Responsibilities

Demonstrated technical leadership (leading designs, mentoring engineers, driving cross-team technical alignment).
Design, develop, and maintain scalable data pipelines and ETL(Extract, Transform, Load) processes across multiple data sources.
Build and optimize data models for analytics and reporting
Implement robust data quality, validation, and monitoring frameworks to ensure reliability of downstream insights.
Collaborate with data scientists, product managers, and business stakeholders to translate analytical requirements into technical specifications.
Create reusable, documented analytics code libraries to accelerate self‑service analytics.
Evaluate emerging data technologies and recommend improvements to the analytics stack.
Ensure compliance with data governance, security, and privacy policies.
Develop and maintain Tableau dashboards, , and ad‑hoc querying tools for customers and stakeholders.
Provide technical leadership through design reviews, prototyping, code contributions, and mentoring while aligning roadmaps across teams.
Partner with product, platform, data, security, and compliance to establish responsible AI practices, model governance and predictive modeling
Applied AI/ML engineering experience delivering models to production (classical ML and/or deep learning, including LLM-enabled solutions).
Experience integrating AI/ML capabilities into enterprise software systems (APIs/services, data pipelines, and production deployment patterns).
Experience working in regulated environments with strong emphasis on security, data handling, and governance expectations for AI use.