Sr Principal Cyber Systems Engineer – X-Lab Platform Engr (26-375)

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: No relocation assistance available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes

CLEARANCE TYPE: 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.

Northrop Grumman Space Systems—Missile Defense Integration offers an excellent opportunity for a Sr Principal Cyber Systems Engineer – X-Lab Platform Engineer (26-375) to join our team of skilled and diverse professionals. Based at Schriever Space Force Base, CO, this role is essential to supporting the U.S. President, the Secretary of Defense, and combatant commanders at the strategic, regional, and operational levels.

This position does not provide relocation assistance and requires on-site work with no remote options.

Position Overview:

The Command and Control, Battle Management, and Communications (C2BMC) program is a key component of the Missile Defense System. It is a vital operational system that enables the U.S. president, the Secretary of Defense, and combatant commanders at strategic, regional, and operational levels to plan ballistic missile defense operations systematically, collectively monitor the battle, and dynamically control networked sensors and weapon systems to achieve global and regional mission goals. C2BMC supports layered missile defense capabilities that enable an optimized response to threats across all ranges and flight phases. It serves as a force multiplier by networking, integrating, and synchronizing autonomous sensor and weapon systems and operations, both globally and regionally, to improve performance. C2BMC is essential for all ground and flight tests that verify and demonstrate the current and future capabilities of missile defense systems.

Senior individual contributor with technical leadership responsibility for the virtualization, container, automation, and end-user compute platforms supporting X-Lab prototype development. The role spans physical infrastructure and hypervisor through Kubernetes, CI/CD, virtual desktop delivery, and platform monitoring. Beyond hands-on engineering, the individual sets technical direction, reviews designs, mentors less-experienced engineers, and coordinates platform work that spans networks and cyber scope.

Essential Functions:

• Containers and Kubernetes: Act as the primary administrator for the container platforms, covering cluster build, upgrade, workload onboarding, and decommissioning

• Any task performed manually more than twice is a candidate for automation

• Maintain infrastructure as code in version control, with peer review required before merging

• Observability, Recovery, and Compliance

• Develop and sustain platform monitoring and alerting systems, setting thresholds based on actual operational impact and actively reducing alert noise

• The current setup includes Prometheus, Grafana, and Mattermost for alerting; similar monitoring and alerting tools are also applicable

• Own backup and recovery for virtual machine and container workloads

• Verify restores on a scheduled basis instead of assuming backup success, and keep documented recovery procedures with specified RTO and RPO

• Apply STIGs and security baselines, and remediate findings within program service levels

• Support RMF and ATO activities, including artifact generation, scan review, and POA&M remediation

• Serve as technical lead for a group of platform engineers, setting technical direction and reviewing designs before implementation begins

• Decompose complex initiatives into actionable work, provide effort estimates with stated assumptions, and support sprint and iteration planning

• Coordinate with networks, cyber, and program stakeholders on cross-team dependencies

• Coordination requests are raised early and explicitly rather than assuming ownership of another team's scope

• Own assigned initiatives from cradle to grave, including requirements, implementation plan, execution, and closeout documentation

• Provide escalation support for complex incidents and drive root-cause corrective actions to closure

• Administer the on-premises hypervisor platform across multiple clusters and remote sites, including cluster lifecycle management, upgrades, and patch currency aligned with vendor-recommended baselines

• Maintain multi-tenant separation using projects, categories, and role-based access control so that a user group accesses only its assigned assets

• Handle persistent storage, ingress, certificates, image registry, and cluster networking, including namespace quotas and network policies to ensure tenant separation

• Automation and CI/CD

• Create and sustain configuration management content to support provisioning, patching, and compliance remediation

• Own the CI/CD pipelines used for platform delivery, including runners, pipeline stages, artifact and image handling, and deployment automation

Basic Qualifications:

 

Please list your current security clearance and IAT or relevant certifications on your resume, if applicable.

 

• A Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, Cybersecurity Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or a related field from an accredited university, along with 8 years of experience; or a Master’s degree in a related field with 6 years of relevant work experience; or 12 years of relevant work experience may be considered as an alternative to a degree

• Applicants must have a current, active Government-Issued 8140 certification at IAT Level II or higher (such as Security+ CE, CCNA-Security, CySA+, CND, etc.) at the time of application, which is required to start. The candidate is responsible for maintaining their 8140 certifications throughout the entire contract period

• Applicants must have a current, active in-scope Government-issued Secret security clearance at the time of application, which is required to start

• Willingness to travel 10% of the time for business needs

• Previous experience in Virtualization and Private Cloud

• Experience with VMware vSphere, Red Hat Virtualization, or OpenStack

• Experience with any production Kubernetes distribution such as Nutanix Kubernetes Platform or Red Hat OpenShift

• Experience with tools such as Ansible; Puppet, Chef, or Salt

• Experience Scripting in Python, Bash, or PowerShell

Preferred Qualifications:

• Deep experience with an on-premises private cloud platform and multi-tenant RBAC for least privilege

• Experience maximizing infrastructure uptime while maintaining a compliant, patched hypervisor platform

• Kubernetes or OpenShift administration

• Certifications such as RHCSA, RHCE, or CKA are a plus

• CI/CD pipeline development and implementation of a monitoring stack at team or enterprise scale

• Nutanix AHV and Prism Central experience

What We Can Offer You:

Northrop Grumman provides a comprehensive benefits package and a supportive work environment that encourages your growth, benefiting both employees and the company. The benefits are flexible and customizable, enabling you to choose options that suit your individual and family needs. Your benefits will include the following:

• Health Plan

• Savings Plan

• Paid Time Off

• Education Assistance

• Training and Development

• Flexible Work Arrangements

https://benefits.northropgrumman.com/us/en2/BenefitsOverview/Pages/default.aspx

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Primary Level Salary Range: $142,200.00 - $213,200.00

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.

Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and 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 an Equal Opportunity 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 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.