Sr Principal Agile Product Owner - Morrisville (TS/SCI)

Northrop Grumman • Morrisville, NC

9d

About The Position

Northrop Grumman Space Systems is seeking a Chief Product Owner (CPO) to lead and enable multiple software development feature teams implementing high-level business goals across a Ground System product line supporting multiple constellations. The CPO represents Product Management and serves as the voice of customers on the Agile development team. In collaboration with multiple Feature Team Product Owners, the CPO defines work so the integrated team can manage priorities, cross-team dependencies, and blockers and deliver capabilities within a defined period.

The CPO owns and maintains the integrated capability roadmap, working with Project Leads to prioritize features and capabilities and with the Chief Engineer to align capability and technical roadmaps. The role ensures priorities reflect customer needs and program strategy, coordinates with customer-facing stakeholders, and partners with Feature Team Product Owners, architects, and Project Leads to break capabilities into executable features. The CPO is accountable for the completeness of features and capabilities, ensuring stories cover the work required for Definition of Done and acceptance criteria are adequately defined, understood, and testable. The role also ensures Product Owners comply with and effectively communicate the roadmap, maintains consistency in their work, and presents Joint Release contents at Gate Reviews alongside the I&T Lead. The CPO attends weekly customer tag-ups, Joint Working Group meetings, and Product Line customer-facing meetings, though is not expected to be the voice of the product line.

The position requires an active U.S. Government DoD Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) clearance and U.S. citizenship for roles requiring government clearance. Travel is approximately 10%. Relocation assistance may be available. The stated primary salary range is $135,800 to $203,600. Eligible employees may also receive overtime, shift differential, discretionary bonuses, and a comprehensive benefits package.

Requirements

• Active U.S. Government DoD Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) security clearance.
• Completed bachelor's degree and at least 8 years of relevant experience; alternatively, at least 6 years with a master's degree or 4 years with a PhD. Relevant fields include systems engineering, software engineering, business leadership, or product development.
• Experience managing big-picture priorities within a product line or managing different customer priorities in one baseline.
• Experience translating high-level business goals into roadmaps, Gantt charts, and/or integrated roadmaps.
• Mastery of Agile frameworks such as SAFe, LeSS, or Scrum@Scale.
• Proficiency with the Atlassian tool suite, especially JIRA.
• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Good interpersonal skills and leadership experience.
• U.S. citizenship is required for positions with a government clearance.

Nice To Haves

• Strong technical background in software development or systems engineering within an Agile software development program.
• Industry-recognized credentials such as Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager (PO/PM), or CPrO-C (Chief Product Officer – Certified).
• Strong data analysis and visualization skills.
• Proven track record of managing, mentoring, and scaling cross-functional product and engineering teams.
• Ability to analyze feature-team performance metrics, identify trends, and course-correct or implement process changes as needed.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain the integrated capability roadmap.
• Work with Project Leads to prioritize features and capabilities.
• Coordinate with the Chief Engineer to align capability and technical roadmaps.
• Ensure priorities align with customer needs and program strategy.
• Communicate with Project Leads to support customer satisfaction and priority alignment.
• Work with Feature Team Product Owners, architects, and Project Leads to break capabilities into executable features.
• Partner with SEIT, Product Owners, architects, and Project Leads to ensure features and capabilities are complete.
• Ensure features contain stories covering all work required for Definition of Done.
• Ensure acceptance criteria defined by Project Leads are adequately defined, understood, and testable.
• Ensure Product Owners comply with the roadmap and that it is effectively communicated to them.
• Ensure consistency and compliance in Product Owners’ feature, story, acceptance-criteria, and feature-acceptance work.
• Present Joint Release contents at Gate Reviews, providing context and purpose for each item in collaboration with the I&T Lead.
• Attend weekly customer tag-ups, Joint Working Group meetings, and Product Line customer-facing meetings.

Benefits

• Health insurance coverage.
• Life insurance.
• Disability insurance.
• Savings plan.
• Company-paid holidays.
• Paid time off (PTO) for vacation and/or personal business.
• Potential eligibility for overtime, shift differential, and discretionary bonus.
• Relocation assistance may be available.

What This Job Offers

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