Full-Stack Software Developer on a Ground Program 3/4

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available

CLEARANCE TYPE: Top Secret

TRAVEL: Yes, 10% of the Time

Description

At Northrop Grumman, our employees have incredible opportunities to work on revolutionary systems that impact people's lives around the world today, and for generations to come. Our pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled us to be at the forefront of many technological advancements in our nation's history - from the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, to stealth bombers, to landing on the moon. We look for people who have bold new ideas, courage and a pioneering spirit to join forces to invent the future, and have fun along the way. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity and bringing your whole self to work — and we have an insatiable drive to do what others think is impossible. Our employees are not only part of history, they're making history.

The Payload and Ground Systems organization within the Northrop Grumman Space Systems pushes the boundaries of innovation, redefines engineering capabilities, and drives advances in various sciences. Our team is chartered with providing the skills, innovative technologies to develop, design, produce and sustain optimized product lines across the sector while providing a decisive advantage to the warfighter. Come be a part of our mission.

About our local organization:  You'll be joining our Aurora Software and Controls Department which has 200+ Software Engineers, DevOps Engineers, Systems Administrators, Database Administrators, and Network Engineers from entry-level to the most senior chief engineers and architects. This engineering organization supports numerous programs within the Payload and Ground Systems organization. We have plenty of opportunity for career advancement into higher level technical roles, leadership positions, or changing programs over time. We are part of a larger local engineering organization that includes Systems Engineering and Hardware Engineering staff. This overall local engineering organization influences cross-program collaboration, professional development and training, as well as engagement and inclusion activities such as lunch-n-learns, campus events, and leadership mixers.

About this Program and Job: As a Software Engineer, you will join a large multi-site distributed ground system development program specifically onto its “Application Management” (AM) Team. As a full-stack software engineer or developer, you will design, develop, document, test, and debug applications software through maturity and milestones to achieve the mission. The program has multiple Software Engineering positions across the larger Ground program, on contract to deliver the Ground Segment for a restricted space program. The program spans command and control, mission planning and scheduling, and system infrastructure. The program has anticipated future growth to deliver additional ground capabilities beyond the current contract.

Application Management is currently a small team of two expanding in 2025 to approximately 4 full-time staff consisting of a Product Owner/Lead/SE/Tester and 3 Software Developers. The AM Team is currently based at Northrop Grumman’s east coast sites with one person supporting in Mooresville, NC and another in Fairfax, VA. The program is geographically dispersed from west to east coast with large contingents in CA, CO, NC, and MD.

This AM Team software developer role is for one experienced full-stack software developer who has prior experience developing with AWS Cloud solutions with a preference and more experience in the back-end. Strong Python experience in a RedHat Linux environment is a must.  Development is done within the Agile paradigm using the Atlassian tool suite.  This specific AM team role is offering an optional, flexible schedule (Work-from-home) opportunity in the short term. Yet beyond no later than ~16 months (or if the person changes roles or programs) one must be able to work in the office 100% of the time in our secure facility. All current AM development is on an unclassified company development environment. In-office (and in secure facility) work is required for integrating and testing in the customer environment. Over time as the development cycle matures into integration and test the ability to work from home will diminish. All developers must support integration, test, and deployment in the secure environment part of the time which ensures you see and understand the full software lifecycle and full program mission.

The successful candidate will have Software development experience, with the ability to digest changes and synthesize them into working designs, generate efficient code according to the feature epics and stories, and adapt to changes as necessary that are driven by bugs or specification updates or the customer.  The candidate is expected to operate independently with little oversight in a dynamic environment, and to be highly self-motivated, reporting information to leads and the customer. The individual is expected to handle diverse assignments with efficiency, finding unique solutions and working in a very collaborative and fast-paced environment that continues to grow. Software engineers at our Principal (T03) and Senior Principal (T04) levels are expected to quickly gain mission and system domain knowledge coupling that with prior experience to mentor and influence others as well as contribute to advancing the program forward. The program appreciates engineers that identify and propose improvement ideas in technology, process, architecture, or tooling and are fast-learners on existing code bases. If you thrive in this kind of environment, then please apply so we can consider you.

Basic Qualifications:

• Level 3: Bachelor’s degree in Science with 5+ years of software development experience; 3+ years with a Master's; or 4 additional years of experience in lieu of a degree.
• Level 4: Bachelor’s degree in Science with 8+ years of software development experience; 6+ years with a Master's; or 4 additional years of experience in lieu of a degree.
• Active TS clearance required at time of application and ability to obtain SCI prior to start
• Ability to pass a Counterintelligence Polygraph (CI-Poly) (not required to start)
• At least 3 years of experience as a Full-Stack software developer
• At least 3 years of experience developing applications in Python
• Experience developing software with Agile principles, processes, and tools
• Experience developing software on Linux/Unix operating systems
• Experience developing in a Cloud Environment and with AWS Services

Preferred Qualifications:

• Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or similar
• Current and active Top Secret/SCI clearance
• Prior completed Counterintelligence Polygraph (CI-Poly)
• At least 5 years of experience as a Full-Stack software developer
• At least 5 years of experience developing applications in Python
• At least 3 years of experience developing applications in Java
• Experience using Docker or Podman
• Experience deploying with Kubernetes
• Experience developing within a microservice architecture
• Experience with any Python-based automated testing framework (prefer PyTest or Behave, yet others are just as good)
• Experience developing using Vue.js
• Familiarity with JavaScript
• Prior engineering or development experience with the Space Industry
• Ability to effectively communicate and present to program management and customers
• Ability to effectively write technical documentation
• Experience sharing knowledge, mentoring, and working in a collaborative environment
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, testing, and troubleshooting skills

Salary Range: $110,300.00 - $165,500.00Salary Range 2: $137,400.00 - $206,000.00

The above salary range represents a general guideline; however, Northrop Grumman considers a number of factors when determining base salary offers such as the scope and responsibilities of the position and the candidate's experience, education, skills and current market conditions.

Employees may be eligible for a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay. Annual bonuses are designed to reward individual contributions as well as allow employees to share in company results. Employees in Vice President or Director positions may be eligible for Long Term Incentives. In addition, Northrop Grumman provides a variety of benefits including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, savings plan, Company paid holidays and paid time off (PTO) for vacation and/or personal business.

The application period for the job is estimated to be 20 days from the job posting date. However, this timeline may be shortened or extended depending on business needs and the availability of qualified candidates.

Northrop Grumman is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer, making decisions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class. For our complete EEO/AA and Pay Transparency statement, please visit http://www.northropgrumman.com/EEO. U.S. Citizenship is required for all positions with a government clearance and certain other restricted positions.