Senior Staff Thread Lead Systems Engineer - Ground Systems

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be availableCLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: YesCLEARANCE TYPE: SecretTRAVEL: 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.

Join Northrop Grumman on our continued mission to push the boundaries of possible across land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. Enjoy a culture where your voice is valued and start contributing to our team of passionate professionals providing real-life solutions to our world’s biggest challenges. We take pride in creating purposeful work and allowing our employees to grow and achieve their goals every day by Defining Possible. With our competitive pay and comprehensive benefits, we have the right opportunities to fit your life and launch your career today.

Northrop Grumman Defense Systems is seeking a Sr. Staff Thread Lead Systems Engineer to join the Sentinel Systems Engineering Ground Systems team located in Roy, UT.  Northrop Grumman supports the Air Force’s sustainment, development, production and deployment of hardware and system modifications for Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) Ground and Airborne Launch Control Systems, Launch Facilities, and associated infrastructure. 

What you will get to do:

Technical Stewardship and Stakeholder Coordination

• Serve as the subject-matter expert and primary technical point of contact for the Ground Systems thread.
• Lead and champion the GS technical baseline, including requirements, architecture, interfaces, verification, analysis, and associated resource and performance budgets.
• Maintain technical consistency, traceability, completeness, and integrity across the GS thread.
• Develop, assess, and recommend changes to the GS baseline for review and disposition through the program technical governance framework, in collaboration with SEIT leadership and the OCE.
• Engage regularly with U.S. Air Force counterparts, OCE, the Thread Lead Manager, facility and infrastructure stakeholders, and peer thread leads to communicate status, resolve issues, and align technical direction.
• Identify, manage, and communicate GS dependencies and constraints affecting other technical threads, segments, facility designs, and verification activities.
• Escalate technical decisions, risks, and unresolved issues requiring Chief Engineer or OCE direction in a timely manner.

Systems Engineering Leadership

• Lead requirements analysis and decomposition for GS from weapon-system-level requirements through segment, subsystem, facility, and lower-level specifications.
• Establish and maintain requirements associated with facility design criteria, infrastructure capabilities, electrical power, utilities, environmental conditions, and ground-system interfaces.
• Define, allocate, and manage power, utility, capacity, and performance budgets across relevant segments and supporting systems.
• Lead the development and technical evaluation of GS architectures and interfaces, ensuring facility and infrastructure design constraints are appropriately captured, allocated, and traceable.
• Provide technically grounded recommendations for architecture, interface, and allocation decisions through established program technical governance.
• Lead development and use of functional flows, operational scenarios, and analyses to assess GS performance, availability, operability, maintainability, and mission support.
• Lead cross-discipline trade studies that balance technical performance, cost, schedule, risk, infrastructure constraints, and operational needs.
• Present clear, data-driven technical recommendations to program leadership, the OCE, and customer stakeholders.

Verification, Validation, Integration, and Test

• Define verification strategies and success criteria for GS requirements using appropriate analysis, test, inspection, and demonstration methods.
• Review GS verification plans, procedures, reports, and closure evidence, and recommend approval or disposition through the established technical governance process.
• Ensure traceability from requirements to verification methods, test configurations, facility conditions, results, and requirement sell-off status.
• Provide technical direction to integration and test teams on the events, configurations, instrumentation, facilities, and data needed to substantiate GS performance.
• Maintain thread-level awareness of verification results, open items, technical risks, and closure plans through major program reviews and requirement sell-off.
• Coordinate with the OCE, SEIT leadership, and relevant stakeholders to ensure verification evidence supports technically sound closure recommendations.

Risk, Performance, and Technical Integration

• Lead GS technical input to the program risk, issue, and opportunity process, including identification, prioritization, mitigation, and execution planning.
• Establish and maintain Technical Performance Measures relevant to GS, such as power demand and margin, utility capacity, facility environmental performance, infrastructure availability, and interface readiness.
• Define TPM thresholds, margins, and assessment methods; lead return-to-green actions when trends or margins indicate elevated technical risk.
• Organize and lead coordination sessions to maintain horizontal and vertical integration of GS content across segments, integrated product teams, facility design teams, infrastructure stakeholders, and technical disciplines.
• Represent GS as the buyer for segment-level design reviews and as the seller at program-level reviews, including SRR, CDR, and other milestones.
• Deliver technically grounded briefings that clearly communicate GS drivers, assumptions, constraints, margins, tradeoffs, risk posture, and decisions requiring technical-governance disposition.
• Support implementation of final technical direction established by the Chief Engineer and OCE.

Leadership and Talent Development

• Demonstrate strong executive presence in interactions with senior Northrop Grumman and U.S. Air Force leadership.
• Advocate clearly for technically sound GS positions while incorporating stakeholder feedback, emerging data, and final technical direction established by the Chief Engineer and OCE.
• Mentor and develop junior and mid-level engineers through coaching, technical guidance, and knowledge transfer.
• Promote rigorous use of model-based systems engineering, requirements management, interface-control practices, and analysis tools to strengthen technical rigor and decision quality.
• Foster a collaborative environment that encourages early identification of technical concerns, constructive challenge, and timely resolution of cross-functional issues.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in a STEM field and 14 years of relevant experience; Master’s degree and 12 years of relevant experience; or PhD and 9 years of relevant experience.
• Active DoD Secret clearance with SAP eligibility at the time of application.
• At least 4 years supporting ICBM programs, including MMIII or Sentinel, or other comparably complex aerospace, defense, infrastructure, or ground-system developments.
• At least 2 years of experience developing, managing, or verifying facility, infrastructure, power, utility, environmental, or comparable system-support requirements and associated technical documentation.
• Demonstrated systems engineering experience in requirements development, architecture, interface management, integration, and verification and validation for complex systems.
• Experience developing, allocating, managing, or assessing technical budgets or constraints related to power, utilities, environmental conditions, facility capacity, or similar system resources.
• At least 3 years leading engineering teams or cross-IPT efforts with end-to-end responsibility for technical scope, execution, and outcomes.
• Experience interacting regularly with senior program leadership, customer leadership, or both.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Active DoD Top Secret clearance with SAP eligibility.
• Experience supporting large, complex system developments across multiple lifecycle phases, including design, integration and test, verification and sell-off, and transition to operations or production.
• Experience with facilities engineering, infrastructure engineering, electrical power systems, utility systems, environmental control requirements, or site and facility design criteria.
• Experience developing and managing power budgets, capacity budgets, load analyses, utility-demand assessments, or similar technical resource allocations.
• Experience defining and managing facility, infrastructure, or system interfaces across multiple organizations and technical disciplines.
• Proficiency with MBSE and requirements-management tools, such as DOORS, Cameo, or MagicDraw.
• Familiarity with modeling, simulation, and data-analysis tools used to assess system performance, capacity, reliability, availability, and operational readiness.
• Experience leading or presenting at major technical reviews and explaining technical performance, infrastructure constraints, and tradeoffs to senior leadership and customers.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities while building strong cross-IPT, program, customer, and external-stakeholder relationships.

As a full-time employee of Northrop Grumman, 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 position’s standard work schedule is 9/80. The 9/80 schedule allows employees who work a nine-hour day Monday through Thursday to take every other Friday off.

​This position may offer relocation assistance.

#SentinelSystems

Primary Level Salary Range: $0.00 - $0.00The 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.