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Principal/Sr Principal Hardware Engineer – 18641 & 18462

Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States
Full Time On-site

Northrop Grumman Defense Systems is seeking a Principal/ Sr. Principal Design Engineer This position is located in Colorado Springs, CO or Manhattan Beach, CA supporting the Sentinel program. 

What You’ll Get To Do:

This position will join the Sentinel Program's Command and Control (C2) Hardware Engineering team.  This position will support a team of Hardware, Electrical, and Mechanical responsible engineers in the design of a diverse set of custom and commercial-off-the-shelf systems and components.  Responsibilities will include a mix of the following dependent on priorities and skillset:

  • Incorporates edits and redlines to existing designs

  • Facilitates ingest of supplier drawings into the Sentinel program too set and workflow.

  • Develops basic data and makes preliminary layouts, sketches, and notes necessary to present design proposals.  Investigates pertinent design factors such as ease of manufacture, availability of materials and equipment, interchangeability, replace ability, strength-weight efficiency, and contractual specification requirements and cost. Coordinates with other organizations affected by design development.

  • Makes layouts of complex assemblies and details parts of devices, mechanisms, and structures. Checks completed layouts and drawings for clarity, completeness, conformity to standards, procedures, specifications, and accuracy of calculations and dimensioning. Identifies design errors, omissions, and other deficiencies, and recommends revisions and/or improvements in design layout to responsible engineers or designers.

Basic Qualifications:

  • Principal - Bachelor’s in degree plus 5 years of experience, or Master's with 3 years of experience, or PHD with 1 year of experience or 4 years in lieu of degree.

  • Sr. Principal - Bachelor's degree plus 8 years of experience, or Masters with 6 years of experience, , or PHD with 4 year of experience or 4 years in lieu of degree.

  • Must have an active U.S. Government DoD Secret security clearance at time of application, current and within scope, with an ability to obtain and maintain Special Access Program (SAP) approval within a reasonable period of time, as determined by the company to meet its business need

  • Must have at least 1 year of experience in generating 3-dimensional CAD models of electronic components and assemblies using tools such as Siemens NX

  • Must have at least 1 year of experience generating and releasing engineering artifacts into Product Lifecycle Management systems such as Siemens TeamCenter

  • Must have familiarity with the application of industry standards for mechanical modeling and engineering release such as ASME Y14.24

  • Experience interpreting supplier engineering drawings and specification sheets

  • Experience analyzing requirements and interface documentation

Preferred Qualifications:

  • STEM Degree

  • Experience deriving hardware-level requirements from interface, compliance, and performance requirements

  • Understanding of SDS division hardware/mechanical design processes and principles, such as E110P and E275M

  • Experience designing and generating control drawings and assemblies of systems using commercially-sourced hardware components

  • Experience developing hardware design materials in support of program design reviews for review with team technical leads and program stakeholders

  • Experience conducting design reviews as the design author and briefing solution designs to program leadership and stakeholders for release into product baseline

  • Understanding of structural analysis concerns as applied to designing mechanical systems

  • Experience with Agile execution principles and tools, including Scrum, Kanban, and Jira

As a full-time employee of Northrop Grumman Space Systems, you are eligible for our robust benefits package including:  
- Medical, Dental & Vision coverage  
- 401k  
- Educational Assistance  
- Life Insurance  
- Employee Assistance Programs & Work/Life Solutions  
- Paid Time Off  
- Health & Wellness Resources  
- Employee Discounts This positions standard work schedule is a 9/80. The 9/80 schedule allows employees who work a nine-hour day Monday through Thursday to take every other Friday off. This role may offer a competitive relocation assistance package. 

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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