Sr. Principal System Engineer - USAF IFC Manager

Northrop Grumman • San Diego, CA

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About The Position

Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems is hiring a Senior Principal Systems Engineer in Rancho Bernardo, California, to serve as the Integrated Functional Capability (IFC) Lead for the USAF Business Area. The role leads a diverse engineering team in developing technical solutions and is responsible for defining, controlling, and certifying system interfaces. It ensures interface baselines are technically sound, documented, and integrated to support new capability insertion. The IFC Lead works with Systems Engineering, Software, Hardware, Integration & Test, Safety, and Cyber to reduce integration risk and support predictable program execution.

The position spans the Systems Engineering V-Model, including requirements and use-case development, capability development, integration planning, lab integration, test planning, formal test, and verification. It serves as the program’s technical authority for IFC, owns interface baselines across allocated subsystems and external stakeholders, and leads IFC certification, technical risk management, investigations, and program-level communication. The role includes 10% travel. Active Secret or higher clearance is required at the start; relocation assistance is not available.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline and typically 9 or more years of related experience; or a master’s degree and 7 or more years; or a PhD and 4 or more years.
• Demonstrated Systems Engineering experience focused on interface control and integration.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including the ability to understand complex system interactions and define valid solution sets.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills, including creating technical documentation and presenting to technical and program leadership.
• Active U.S. Government Secret or higher clearance, with a background investigation completed within the last 6 years or current enrollment in Continuous Evaluation.

Nice To Haves

• Prior experience as an IFC Lead, Integration Lead, or senior systems engineer on complex aerospace or defense systems.
• Experience with IFC certification processes, accelerated release paths such as AIR, and configuration control boards.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor and develop engineers and influence cross-functional teams without direct authority.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the program’s technical authority for IFC and own the interface baseline across allocated subsystems and external stakeholders.
• Define and execute the IFC certification process for software and hardware builds, including planning, verification, and formal approval.
• Lead or chair IFC-related meetings, including IFC Daily Execution and IFC Certification Reviews.
• Assess Engineering Change Proposals, change requests, and new capability insertions for IFC impacts, and provide recommendations to program leadership and configuration control boards.
• Develop a strategic IFC roadmap aligned with planned capability increments.
• Lead root-cause investigations of IFC-related anomalies in lab and field environments, and drive corrective actions and verification of fixes.
• Prepare and deliver IFC certification packages with technical rationale, test evidence, risks, limitations, and formal recommendations.
• Identify IFC-related technical risks and opportunities, and maintain and communicate mitigation plans.
• Mentor junior and mid-level systems engineers in IFC management, integration, and interface analysis.
• Provide IFC insights into staffing, schedule, and technical risk to influence program strategy and planning.
• Coordinate with Program Management, Chief Engineers, SE IPT leads, Software, Hardware, and Operations to integrate IFC work with broader program objectives.
• Represent IFC topics at program reviews, including SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, and demonstrations, as well as customer meetings.

Benefits

• Health insurance coverage
• Life and disability insurance
• Savings plan
• Company-paid holidays
• Paid time off for vacation and/or personal business
• Potential eligibility for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus, depending on the position

What This Job Offers

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