Staff Software Systems Architect
Northrop Grumman5 days ago
Huntsville, AL, USAStaff+
Base Salary
$169k - $254k/yr
Responsibilities
- Lead architecture, design, and technical direction for IBCS Engagement Operations software.
- Define and maintain system and software architectures for complex, distributed mission systems.
- Lead requirements analysis, allocation, and traceability from mission needs to software components and interfaces.
- Develop architecture artifacts including system views, data models, and Interface Control Documents.
- Conduct architectural trade studies and analyses of alternatives covering capability, performance, cost, schedule, and risk.
- Define interfaces, data flows, and integration patterns across sensors, command-and-control systems, and mission applications.
- Guide Java and C++ implementation, design patterns, coding practices, and integration approaches.
- Support integration and testing by defining configurations, troubleshooting complex issues, and verifying system behavior.
- Lead technical reviews and present architecture decisions and trade-offs to leadership and customers.
- Translate operational concepts and stakeholder needs into architectural decisions and system capabilities.
- Mentor junior and mid-level engineers and promote systems-thinking and architectural discipline.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, systems engineering, or a related STEM discipline with typically 10+ years of relevant experience, or a related master’s degree with typically 8+ years of relevant experience.
- U.S. citizenship and an active DoD Secret security clearance, with the ability to obtain and maintain higher-level clearance as needed.
- Extensive hands-on software development experience in both Java and C++.
- Experience designing and implementing complex, distributed software systems and system architectures.
- Experience with system decomposition, data and interface modeling, architectural trade studies, software integration, and system-level troubleshooting.
- Experience supporting Integrated Air and Missile Defense or comparable complex defense or command-and-control systems.
- Experience with Engagement Operations such as engagement planning and scheduling, threat evaluation, target selection, battlespace prediction, or sensor resource management.
- Experience with requirements allocation and traceability, architecture documentation, ICDs, and technical specifications.
- Preferred qualifications include a relevant master’s degree, staff-level architecture or technical leadership experience, IBCS or joint/coalition command-and-control experience, and end-to-end IAMD Engagement Operations experience.
- Preferred experience includes service-oriented or microservice architectures, MBSE, SysML, Cameo, Rhapsody, non-functional requirements, RESTful services, APIs, JSON, XML, gRPC, message-oriented middleware, DDS, JMS, Kafka, DevOps practices, Git-based version control, and DoD or aerospace technical reviews.
- Preferred candidates can lead and mentor engineering teams and deliver technical briefings to program leadership and customers.
Benefits
- Health insurance, life and disability insurance, savings plan, company-paid holidays, paid time off, and potential overtime, shift differential, and discretionary bonus eligibility.
- No relocation assistance is available.
- Active Secret clearance is required at start; travel is required 10% of the time.
- The role is subject to U.S. citizenship requirements for government-cleared work.
Tech Stack
Categories
About Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman designs and manufactures aircraft, spacecraft, missile defense, C4ISR, and cyber systems for the U.S. government, NASA, and allied nations. The company operates primarily through long-term defense and space contracts, delivering products and services spanning autonomous systems, sensors, software, and sustainment. Founded in 1994 and headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, it is a public company listed on the NYSE (ticker: NOC).