Sr Principal Lead Software Engineer (full-stack)
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Oct 19, 2026. First seen by Alion on Aug 12, 2026. Northrop Grumman scores A on the Alion truth index.
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.Come join Northrop Grumman - Xetron, part of the Mission Systems sector, where we develop new capabilities for our military and intelligence customers around the globe. At Xetron we design systems that only science fiction writers could imagine, because they’re that cool!
Xetron is an operating unit of the Northrop Grumman Corporation, located in Cincinnati, Ohio where employees have the chance to know everyone on site while working on cutting-edge technologies and high-impact products. You’ll tackle the next generation of challenging problems, share expertise, and learn from world-class teammates. Remember when you were excited about the challenge of the problem, the importance of the solution, and the fun you had with your team? You’ll experience that at Xetron! See why we receive comments on our YouTube Videos like “This company is insanely advanced” and “Wow. This is mind blowing.”
The Neptune Phoenix program provides sustainment for our existing system portfolio while driving development, production, and operational support for the next generation of technical collection capabilities. The team designs and integrates ground- and platform-based collection systems built on model-based systems engineering (MBSE), open architectures, and open standards
This position is for a Lead Cyber Software Engineer position on Neptune Phoenix to lead a team of software engineers implementing cloud-based, full-stack software applications that incorporate advanced algorithms, decision support processing, and data fusion. The Lead Software Engineer serves as the authority for software architecture and design, and owns responsibility to create, evolve, and maintain the architecture of the software to meet operational needs across the full stack (front-end, back-end, data, and cloud infrastructure).
The cloud-native solution will include:
- Decision support system processing and orchestration
- Algorithm development and integration (e.g., optimization, analytics, and automated reasoning)
- Producing knowledge from disparate data sources and sensors via scalable data services and APIs
- Implementation of user-facing components and services that expose these capabilities to operators and analytic users
The position requires strong full-stack software engineering skills and solid understanding of modern cloud architectures. Desired knowledge includes computer networking and optimization, modern software development environments, cloud integration, and virtualized/containerized computing environments such as Docker or VMware. Experience developing solutions using SysML/UML is a plus.
What You’ll Get to Do
- Lead a team building cloud-based, full-stack mission applications that directly impact national security
- Own the architecture and design of advanced decision support systems and analytic services
- Build and integrate microservices, APIs, and data pipelines that turn disparate data into actionable insight
- Work with modern tech (cloud services, containers, CI/CD) in a real-world, operational environment
Essential function of the role is leading a team conducting:
- Full-stack Software Engineering, to include design, development, integration, testing, deployment, and operations of cloud-based mission applications and services
- Design and implementation of cloud-hosted microservices, APIs, and data pipelines to support decision support and analytic workflows
- Evaluation of commercial solutions as part of make/buy analyses, including cloud services and COTS/GOTS components
- Development of custom algorithms and analytic services for decision making and situational awareness
- Integration of custom analytic tools and decision support capabilities into an overall system and enterprise architecture
- Development of data products and knowledge services for automated and manual consumers of generated data (dashboards, UIs, external systems, and APIs)
Basic Qualifications for Sr. Principal Cyber Software Engineer Level:
- B.S. degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering or related field and 8 years of programming experience; or M.S. degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering or related field and 6 years of programming experience or Ph.D and 4 years of relevant work experience.
- Demonstrated experience developing software solutions using Python, C, or C++
- Demonstrated experience integrating commercial software products as part of a custom software solution
- Proven experience leading teams of 2-8 software engineers
- Proven experience with the full lifecycle of software engineering including the operations and maintenance of fielded systems
- Active Top-Secret clearance is required
- US Citizenship is required
Preferred Qualifications:
- Active SCI security clearance
- Advanced degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related field
- Experience developing software solutions for US government classified environments
- Hands-on experience developing full-stack software solutions hosted in cloud environments such as AWS or Azure (e.g., microservices, serverless, containerized workloads, managed data services)
- Experience integrating COTS/GOTS software tools into a deliverable software product
- Experience with Agile methodology
- Experience with software development utilizing UML or SysML within Cameo
This position offers the option of a 9/80 work schedule. The 9/80 schedule allows employees who work a nine-hour day Monday through Thursday to take every other Friday off.
Primary Level Salary Range: $142,200.00 - $213,200.00The 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.