Principal AI Engineer Software
Northrop Grumman2 months ago
San Diego, CA, USAStaff+
Base Salary
$138k - $207k/yr
Responsibilities
- Design, develop, integrate, and sustain AI-enabled software products across cloud and local/on-premises environments.
- Translate mission, customer, and business needs into secure, scalable, maintainable technical solutions.
- Identify and address system, workflow, and architecture gaps to improve performance, reliability, security, or efficiency.
- Secure and harden infrastructure, platforms, applications, data flows, interfaces, and development pipelines.
- Develop or integrate AI/ML-enabled applications for practical, operational, or production use cases.
- Evaluate and incorporate open-source frameworks, models, and tooling in secure and supportable ways.
- Lead technical efforts across software, cyber, networking, DevOps, and systems engineering disciplines.
- Perform technical trade studies, solution analysis, and architectural assessments.
- Communicate technical approaches, risks, status, and results to leadership and stakeholders.
- Mentor engineers and support technical development across the team.
- Assess when AI is inappropriate and propose better engineering alternatives.
- Deliver measurable business or mission value through productivity improvements, cost savings, force multiplication, or new capabilities.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related STEM discipline with 5 years of relevant experience; alternatively, 3 years with a master’s degree or 1 year with a PhD.
- Current DoD 8570 IAT Level II certification, such as Security+, or higher.
- U.S. citizenship and a current or active DoD Secret clearance.
- Experience developing or deploying AI/ML-enabled applications for practical or operational use cases.
- Experience leading technical efforts across multiple engineering disciplines and guiding teams through implementation.
- Experience translating technical concepts and program information to others.
- Preferred experience securing end-to-end systems across infrastructure, applications, data, interfaces, and deployment pipelines.
- Preferred knowledge of cybersecurity, networking, DevOps, systems engineering, or platform engineering.
- Preferred experience with AI/ML assessment, open-source technologies, modern software delivery, GPU optimization, distributed inference, and secure or regulated environments.
- Preferred experience influencing technical direction, presenting to senior leadership, mentoring engineers, and delivering measurable mission or business value.
Benefits
- Health insurance, life and disability insurance, savings plan, company-paid holidays, and paid time off.
- Base salary range of $137,800.00 to $206,800.00, with potential overtime, shift differential, and discretionary bonus eligibility.
- On-site work at Spectrum Center in San Diego.
- No relocation assistance is available.
- Travel is required approximately 10% of the time.
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).