Staff Engineer Software (Flight Management System Software Architect)

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be 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 Aerospace Systems has an opening for a Staff Software Engineer to join our Global Surveillance Division team of qualified, diverse individuals. This position will be located in Melbourne, Florida.

The Staff Engineer Software (Flight Management System Software Architect) position will be focused on software. Your responsibilities will include working with internal business partners to gather requirements, prototyping, and architecting complex solutions supporting the development and implementation of an existing display and its functionality into a modern software development framework. Key responsibilities include working with internal business partners to gather requirements as well as reviewing and updating legacy requirements, prototyping, and architecting complex solutions supporting the display. In addition, this role will also be supporting the development of automated testing solutions for the display.  This will include deploying, automating, maintaining, troubleshooting, and improving the systems and software infrastructure running smoothly related to flight management functionality.  This role requires you to have hands-on technical experience and a can-do approach towards environmental automation and management along with continuous improvements. You will be a team member working in agile development process, responsible for the design and implementation of application builds, releases, and deployment along with configuration activities.

You will serve as an organization spokesperson on advanced projects and/or programs. Acts as advisor to management and customers on advanced technical research studies and applications. Apply advanced technical principles, theories, and concepts. Contributes to the development of new principles and concepts. Work on unusually complex technical problems and provide solutions which are highly innovative and ingenious. Works under consultative direction toward predetermined long-range goals and objectives. Assignments are often self-initiated. Determine and pursue courses of action necessary to obtain desired results. Work checked through consultation and agreement with others rather than by formal review of superior. Develops advanced technological ideas and guides their development into a final product. Erroneous decisions or recommendations would typically result in failure to achieve critical organizational objectives and affect the image of the organization’s technological capability. This will include deploying, automating, maintaining, troubleshooting, and improving the systems and software infrastructure running smoothly. 

You will be expected to take ownership of hard problems and drive toward a solution, while working in a multi-discipline team environment.  You will develop, modify, and maintain customized or standardized applications using software engineering best practices and standards, and participate in the full life cycle of software development, to include requirements development, modeling and design, application development, unit to CSCI testing, integration, formal system testing, release, installation, and maintenance.

The ideal candidate will have the ability to take ownership of hard problems and drive to a solution, while working in a team environment and provide leadership for its implementation.  It is critical that you understand the software development life cycle and have an in-depth knowledge of automated testing to facilitate and analyze large data sets. The Software Engineer will participate in the full life cycle of software development, to include requirements development, modeling and design, application development, unit to CSCI testing, integration, formal system testing, release, installation, and maintenance. The Staff Engineer Software will apply technical expertise in solving complex integrations problems and interact with Program Management, external suppliers and/or government customers.  Therefore, excellent verbal, written and interpersonal skills are required. The candidate will design, implement, and manage the integration and testing strategies of a large software system. A solid experience in bash scripting, C/C++, or other OOP languages, in a Linux environment is required.  An active in scope DoD secret security clearance and ability to obtain and maintain a Special Program Access clearance is required.

Essential Functions:

• Work with various team members to integrate functionality with other software components.

• Lead cross-domain communication efforts, facilitating knowledge sharing and collaboration among diverse technical teams to drive project success.

• Architect complex systems that effectively integrate hardware and software components while ensuring alignment with established system requirements and performance metrics.

• Provide technical solutions to a wide range of complex difficult problems that are imaginative, thorough, practicable, and consistent with programs objectives.

• Designs, develops, documents, tests and debugs applications software and systems that contain logical and mathematical solutions.

• Ability to analyze the system as a whole and determine potential impacts of integrating new technologies.

• Review, analyze, and incorporate technical requirements into end-to-end system architectures to include testing and documentation of results

• Provide expertise in customer-facing groups, interpreting technical requirements into actionable software goals.

• Developing software products for all phases of the software lifecycle.

• Contributing to the full life cycle of system development in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team. This includes requirements development, modeling and design, application development, integration, formal system testing, release, installation, and maintenance.

• Working closely with leadership and execute their vision.

• Develop and guide the full lifecycle of software design, implementation, and integration, ensuring adherence to best practices.

• Engage in supplier management, leading discussions with external suppliers to clarify requirements and provide strategic guidance that enhances overall system understanding and performance.

• Collect, analyze, and report on software metrics to track performance and progress.

• Meet milestones and deadlines by providing the best in-class solutions.

• Conducts multidisciplinary research and collaborates with equipment designers and/or hardware engineers in the planning, design, development, and utilization of electronic data processing systems for product and commercial software.

• Determines computer user needs; analyzes system capabilities to resolve problems on program intent, output requirements, input data acquisition, programming techniques and controls.

• Support software working groups with internal and external customers and stakeholders.

Basic Qualifications:

• Staff Software Engineer: Bachelor’s degree in Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) discipline from an accredited university with 12 or more software engineering experience, or Master’s degree and 10 or more years software engineering experience or a PhD with 7 or more years of software engineering experience

• Expert In-depth working knowledge and (12+ years) developing software across multiple operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and RTOS such as LynxOS or VxWorks

• In-depth working knowledge of the full software development life cycle

• In-depth working knowledge of the Agile software development process

• Familiarity with the Atlassian tool suite with add-ons like Git and Confluence

• Expert knowledge and experience (12+ years) with aviation or other safety-critical systems, demonstrating a strong grasp of the demands of safety-critical software development.

• Expert knowledge and experience in architecting complex systems that integrate hardware constraints and software designs, aligning with system requirements and performance objectives.

• Expert knowledge and experience (12+ years) integrating and debugging software on hardware.

• Experience with configuration management using industry standard tools and processes

• Ability to work well across multiple engineering disciplines

• Experience with test automation tools and frameworks

• Excellent oral and written communication skills and strong interpersonal skills

• Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Secret clearance

• The ability to obtain and maintain a special program access clearance

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Active in-scope DoD Top Secret Clearance with program PAR.

• Established expertise with safety-critical software development standards such as DO-178C.

• Extensive knowledge of avionics communication protocols, including ARINC 429, ARINC 422, and MIL-STD-1553.

• Experience with hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and software-in-the-loop (SIL) testing approaches.

• Understanding of certification processes for aviation software and hardware, such as the RTCA/DO-178 standard.

• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively in a multi-disciplinary team, with strong communication skills for effective interaction with a range of technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Proficiency in using agile development tools, such as the GitLab suite, with expertise in Git for version control.

• Experience applying commercial products to military applications.

• Experience with Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) techniques and tools.

• Experience with DOORS.

Primary Level Salary Range: $152,900.00 - $229,300.00

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.