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Principal or Senior Principal Flight Avionics Responsible Engineer

Melbourne, Florida, United States
Full Time On-site
RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes

CLEARANCE TYPE: Top Secret

TRAVEL: Yes, 25% 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 Aeronautics Systems has an opening for Principal or Senior Principal Flight Avionics Responsible Engineer to join the team of qualified individuals on our Avionics Organization. This position is located onsite in Melbourne, Florida.

In this role as the Flight Avionics engineer, your success depends on good leadership skills and understanding the scope of the work and the impact of the work on other teams, consistently bringing up concerns, issues and risks to program and technical leadership, and holding the team to a high level of technical rigor. You would need to thrive in a fast-paced work environment with high expectations, significantly diverse assignments, collaborative/team settings across all levels.

Responsibilities:

  • Integration of aircraft cockpit systems and components including Flight Management Computer (FMC), Primary Flight Displays (PFDs), Control Display Units (CDUs), Fight Navigation and Guidance systems, Position, Navigation, Timing (PNT) equipment and other various avionics systems with the capability to support trade studies..
  • Requirements development, analysis, maturation and implementation
  • Document designs using detailed schematics, diagrams and specifications
  • Assist in the preparation and support of the verification of aircraft avionics and Prime Mission Equipment installations and aircraft certification documents.
  • Provide support for the development of system safety documents.
  • Technical management of program strategic partners and suppliers including development of supplier statement of work and requirements, review and analyze supplier design data, hardware/software acquisition, define functional test requirements including acceptance, qualification, and system integration, and support test execution.
  • Informal and formal testing of subsystem requirements in lab, with the ability to troubleshoot hardware avionics equipment in a lab environment.

This role can be filled at the Principal or Senior Principal Level based on the qualifications below.

Basic Qualifications:

At a Principal Level:

  • Must have a Bachelors degree in a STEM field and at least 5 years of relevant military / professional experience, OR a Master's Degree in a STEM field and at least 3 years of relevant military / professional experience, OR a PhD and at least 1 year of relevant military / professional / academic experience

At a Senior Principal Level:

  • Must have a Bachelors degree in a STEM field and at least 8 years of relevant military / professional experience, OR a Master's Degree in a STEM field and at least 6 years of relevant military / professional experience, OR a PhD and at least 4 years of relevant military / professional experience

And at Both Levels:

  • Must have an active US Government Secret or higher clearance (with a background investigation completed within the last 6 years or currently enrolled into Continuous Evaluation).
  • Must have the ability to obtain and maintain Special Access Program (SAP) clearance within a reasonable amount of time as determined by business needs.
  • Must have experience in COTS / MIL-COTS hardware functional design and performance analysis
  • Must have experience with design, development, and integration of flight deck equipment
  • Must have experience with trade studies, documenting subsystem architectures, analyzing performance, and evaluating Technology Readiness Level (TRL) with regard to supplier current and future products offerings
  • Must have experience with system modeling and requirements management tools (Cameo, DOORS, Rhapsody, etc.), developing/maturing requirements, and tracing requirements through various levels.

Preferred Qualifications: 

  • An active Top Secret clearance
  • Experience with Military Navigation and Navigation Aids
  • Experience with integrating Military Navigation instrumentation on aircraft and interfacing with mission software 
  • Integration and/or Design experience with of one or more of the following avionics systems as applied to military aircraft:
    • 1.    Flight Management Systems (FMS)
    • 2.    Primary Flight Displays (PFDs)
    • 3.    Control Display Units (CDUs)
    • 4.    Terrain Avoidance and Warning Systems (TAWS)
    • 5.    Crew Alerting System (CAS)
    • 6.    Moving Maps
    • 7.    Embedded GPS/INS (EGI) Navigation Systems
  • Experience with developing supplier documentation, performance based specifications, and statements of work

  • Experience building supplier evaluation criteria and experience in conducting technical evaluations, documenting results and selection
  • Ability to review documents from the supplier’s development effort and support supplier technical interchange meetings and design reviews
  • Communication, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) experience
  • Performance Based Navigation (PBN) experience and attaining PBN certification
  • Required Navigation Performance (RNP)/ Area Navigation (RNAV) certification experience
  • Experience designing to RTCA DO-178 software standard for RNP RNAV certification
  • Experience designing to RTCA DO-254 hardware standard for airborne electronic systems
  • Experience designing to RTCA DO-200 standard for processing aeronautical data
  • Experience designing to RTCA DO-160 and MIL-STD-810 standards for environmental qualifications
  • Experience with MIL-STD-1553, ARINC 429 and Ethernet communication protocols
  • Experience with Earned Value Management 
  • Experience with supplier/subcontract management
  • Experience with scheduling engineering activities
  • Experience with Agile development

Primary Level Salary Range: $98,400.00 - $147,600.00

Secondary Level Salary Range: $122,800.00 - $184,200.00

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.

About Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman is one of the largest aerospace and defense companies in the United States, building advanced systems across space, air, land, sea, and cyber domains. The company is known for some of the most complex defense programs in the world, including stealth aircraft, autonomous systems, missile defense technologies, satellites, and space-based intelligence platforms that support U.S. national security operations.

For job seekers, Northrop Grumman offers careers across a wide range of high-impact fields including aerospace engineering, software development, cybersecurity, systems engineering, manufacturing, program management, and intelligence support. The company is especially attractive to veterans, cleared professionals, and engineers who want to work on mission-critical systems that directly support the Department of Defense and intelligence community. Many roles involve long-term programs with significant technical depth and real-world operational impact.

Unlike smaller defense startups focused on narrow capabilities, Northrop Grumman operates across multiple major mission areas, giving employees exposure to highly advanced programs such as stealth platforms, space systems, autonomous vehicles, and next-generation command-and-control systems. The company is also a major leader in classified space and intelligence systems, where cutting-edge engineering and secure infrastructure play a critical role in national defense.

As global competition in space, cyber, and advanced military systems continues to intensify, Northrop Grumman remains one of the most strategically important employers in the defense industry. For professionals seeking stable, highly technical careers with long-term impact on national security, Northrop Grumman continues to stand out as a leading destination in aerospace and defense.

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