Senior Staff Product Line Engineering Architect

Northrop Grumman•San Diego, CA

4d•$184,100 - $289,200•Hybrid

About The Position

Northrop Grumman Mission Systems is looking for a Senior Staff Product Line Engineering Architect to join the PLA (Product Line Architectures) team within the Engineering and Science (E&S) Sector Engineering organization. Product Line Engineering (PLE) is a methodology for efficiently engineering a family of related products by leveraging their similarities while managing their differences. The PLA team's mission is to promote the adoption of product lines across the Mission Systems organization through coaching, training, guidance, best practices, tools, and metrics. This position will support the Navigation, Intelligence & Connectivity (NIC) division and will play a key role in supporting teams that are already implementing Product Line organizational change, as well as those new to the process, to ensure successful product line implementation. This highly visible role involves building relationships with senior technical and business leaders to guide them on their role in the PLA adoption process and ensure a smooth transition to PLE. The architect will adapt Systems and Product or Software Architecture Experience to enhance Product Line efficiency and adoption across Development, Production, and Sustainment phases. A key aspect of this role is driving organizational change to increase Product Line Adoption across Mission Systems. The architect will leverage existing knowledge of software architecture and Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE) tools to help define and shape the PL adoption strategy at both the PL team and division levels across the NGMS sector. This includes providing coaching on PL principles, practices, and the adoption process, and collaborating with product line teams and division leadership to tailor the process to specific organizational needs. The role also involves creating new coaching materials such as tools, templates, techniques, and processes, and assisting teams in creating and modifying their product lines using MBSE tools like Cameo, IBM Rhapsody Architect, and Pure::Variants for tracking product line variation. Additionally, the architect will schedule and conduct PLE-focused education and awareness sessions, surveys, technology demonstrations, and other training events, ensuring the product line engineering strategy aligns with Northrop Grumman's digital transformation strategy. Documentation of status and new processes will be managed using Confluence.

Requirements

Bachelor's Degree in a STEM discipline (Science, Technology, Engineering or Math) and a minimum of 14 years of related experience; or Master's Degree in a STEM discipline and 12 years of related experience; or PhD in a STEM discipline and 10 years of related experience.
Experience leading technical teams, demonstrating technical leadership skills, decisiveness, and ability to make sound technical judgments with limited information.
Experience with the technical development and direction for all aspects of engineering on a program, including design, development, implementation, testing, and delivery of product to a customer.
Systems Engineering experience including requirements management, systems architecture development, and model-based engineering/systems engineering (MBE/MBSE) using tools such as, IBM Rhapsody and Cameo.
Exposure to traceability across the systems engineering lifecycle, engineering processes and governance, family of systems/products, model-based architectures, and strategic reuse or variant management.
U.S. Citizenship and current/active U.S. Government Secret Clearance required. Must have the ability to obtain/maintain U.S. Government Top Secret Clearance and Special Program Access (SAP).

Nice To Haves

Active U.S. Government Top Secret Clearance or higher.
Experience working with Systems Architecture, Software architecture, Product Architecture or Chief Engineering roles
Software development tools, methods, and best practices
Experience with Sensor System Development, including RF and/or Electro-optical and Infrared
Product line engineering experience internal or external to Northrop Grumman
Systems, and/or software or hardware architecture derivation and development experience
Active in the PLE Community of Practice (CoP) or presented PLE content at relevant industry conferences or NG Symposiums
Leading organizational change, in partnership with executive management and technical leadership
Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification
Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP)

Responsibilities

Build relationships with senior technical and business leaders at the division level across Missions Systems to provide guidance on their role in the PLA adoption process and ensure successful transition to PLE for their teams.
Adapt Systems and Product or Software Architecture Experience to Increase Product Line efficiency and adoption from Development and Production through the Sustainment.
Be persistent in organizational change to Increase Product Line Adoption across Mission Systems.
Use existing knowledge of software architecture and Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE) tools to help define and shape the PL adoption strategy for PL teams and at the division level across the NGMS sector.
Provide coaching on PL principles, practices, and the adoption process and work with the product line team and division leadership to identify where the process needs to be tailored to meet individual organization requirements.
Create new coaching materials including tools, templates, techniques, and processes.
Help teams create and modify their product lines using MBSE tools like Cameo, IBM Rhapsody Architect and Pure::Variants to track product line variation.
Schedule and conduct PLE focused education and awareness sessions, surveys, technology demonstrations, and other training events.
Ensure our product line engineering strategy is aligned with NG digital transformation strategy.
Use Confluence to document status and new processes.