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Salary
$125k – $188k per year
Location
In office (San Diego)
Seniority
Principal · 5+ years exp
Employment
Full-Time

Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Oct 28, 2026. First seen by Alion on Aug 7, 2026. Northrop Grumman scores B on the Alion truth index.

Overview
Company
Impact
Profile match
Northrop Grumman is an American defence contractor whose oldest predecessor was founded in 1939, and which took its present form through the 1994 combination of Northrop and Grumman. It builds strategic systems including the B-21 Raider bomber and the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile programme, military and civil space systems, radars and electronic warfare equipment, autonomous aircraft, and mission systems and software for the United States armed forces and allied governments. Headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia and listed on the New York Stock Exchange, it earns the large majority of its revenue from the American government and employs close to one hundred thousand people.
RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be availableCLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: NoCLEARANCE TYPE: SecretTRAVEL: 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 Mission Systems is a trusted provider of mission-enabling solutions for global security. Our organization 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.

We are looking for you to join our team as a Principal Network Engineer based out of San Diego, CA. As a Principal Network Engineer at Northrop Grumman, you will have a challenging and rewarding opportunity to be a part of our Enterprise-wide digital transformation. Through the use of Model-based Engineering, DevSecOps and Agile practices we continue to evolve how we deliver critical national defense products and capabilities for the warfighter. Our success is grounded in our ability to embrace change, move quickly and continuously drive innovation. The successful candidate will be collaborative, open, transparent, and team-oriented with a focus on team empowerment & shared responsibility, flexibility, continuous learning, and a culture of automation.

What You’ll get to Do:

Roles and Responsibilities:

  • Perform as a consultant in highly specialized, leading edge information technologies and methodologies
  • Perform hardware and software installation, configuration, and maintenance
  • Comply with cyber requirements, which may include routine system checks for antivirus, logging, and network system services
  • Recommend and implement approved system enhancements that will improve the performance and reliability of the system including installing, upgrading/patching, monitoring, problem resolution, and configuration management
  • Solve complex problems across disciplines in an Agile, Networking, and Software environment
  • Opportunity to travel for system installations, test support, and customer demos

Qualifications:

Basic Qualifications for Principal Network Engineer:

  • Bachelors degree in science, engineering, or related discipline with 5 years of experience; OR 3 years of relevant experience with a Masters degree; OR 1 year of experience with STEM PhD degree
    • An additional 4 years of relevant experience can be considered in lieu of a Bachelor degree.
  • Ability to apply Zero Trust principles including microsegmentation and identity-based policy enforcement.
  • Familiarity with SASE concepts and the convergence of SD-WAN with cloud-delivered security services.
  • Experience with designing and operating networking constructs across at least two of AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
  • Working knowledge of Kubernetes networking including CNI choice, ingress, and NetworkPolicy.
  • Experience with Use Terraform to declare and manage cloud and on-prem network infrastructure as code.
  • Knowledge of how to operate intent-based and AIOps platforms for predictive network operations.
  • Experience managing network infrastructure as code using Terraform with state management and CI/CD integration.
  • Must be a US Citizen
  • Clearance: The ability to obtain and maintain a U.S Government Secret clearance is required.

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Knowledge of HAIPE deployment and integration with classified network underlays.
  • Experience applying DISA STIGs to network operating systems and Linux platforms with documented remediation.
  • Experience planning and executing traffic generation campaigns using Spirent, Ixia, or PacketStorm.
  • Ability to automate network configuration, state collection, and traffic engineering in Python.
  • Experience diagnosing and resolving SSH and crypto negotiation issues across modern Linux and legacy network OS.

This position is contingent upon clearance, customer approval, and funding.

Primary Level Salary Range: $125,300.00 - $187,900.00The 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.
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