Sr. Staff Systems Engineer (RF Communications)
About The Position
Northrop Grumman Cincinnati (Xetron), within the Mission Systems sector, is seeking a cleared Sr. Staff Systems Engineer to contribute technical leadership to RF Communications projects supporting military and intelligence customers. The role focuses on producing deployable RF hardware products and systems for national defense applications across land, sea, air, and space domains. The work may involve solving problems for which established solutions do not exist, requiring ingenuity and independent problem-solving. The engineer has overall technical responsibility for electrical design, development, integration, and testing for development projects, and serves as a primary point of contact between the external customer and internal engineering team. The role translates customer mission objectives into traceable requirements and system architectures, leads skilled multidisciplinary teams, and connects technical execution with project business goals. Teams are typically 5–10 people, and the position includes direct interaction with customers and product operators to obtain feedback during design. The role is contingent upon funding, customer approval, and holding final clearances before the start date. Travel is 10% of the time; no relocation assistance is available.
Requirements
- Bachelor of Science in Engineering or another STEM degree and at least 14 years of progressive experience; or a Master of Science degree and at least 12 years; or a Ph.D. and at least 9 years.
- Recent design experience and a track record of successful RF product designs.
- Experience leading engineering teams across disciplines on a recent technical development project.
- Experience assessing project status in terms of technical, cost, and schedule execution.
- U.S. citizenship.
- Active Top Secret clearance.
- Ability to independently develop innovative solutions to difficult problems and lead teams of highly skilled engineers.
- Substantial breadth and depth of engineering knowledge, focused on deployable RF sensors and collection systems.
- Engineering team leadership and direct technical contribution to RF hardware communication and collection design projects.
- Experience deriving requirements and generating system architectures from mission-level concepts of operations (ConOps).
- Previous direct customer contact in creating and developing project technical reviews and documentation.
Nice To Haves
- Experience as an IPT lead, functional lead, or military leader.
- Experience with model-based systems engineering concepts and platforms such as Cameo.
- Experience with ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288, MIL-STD-499, and/or INCOSE systems engineering lifecycle processes.
- Experience integrating antennas, RF subsystems, and processing hardware and software into a complete system.
- RF modeling, simulation, and analysis, including link budgets.
- MATLAB knowledge or experience.
- Demonstrated ability to quickly learn and apply varied technologies.
- Ability to collaborate in a team environment.
- Experience with design improvements and requirements management, particularly related to reliability, maintainability, and supportability.
Responsibilities
- Lead design efforts to develop new hardware products supporting national defense partners.
- Provide overall technical responsibility for electrical design, development, integration, and testing for development projects.
- Serve as a primary point of contact for external customers and the internal development engineering team.
- Translate mission-level customer objectives and goals into traceable requirements and system architectures.
- Lead multidisciplinary engineering teams in executing technical solutions and contribute directly to RF hardware communication and collection design projects.
- Assess project status in terms of technical, cost, and schedule execution.
- Collaborate across engineering teams to resolve and integrate technical requirements and verify their incorporation into the product.
- Support customer technical reviews and project documentation.
- Act as a liaison to customers for engineering efforts.
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 a discretionary bonus, depending on the position
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
