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Posted June 13, 2026
Northrop Grumman

Staff Systems Engineer - FMS Development Lead - R10236122

San Diego, CA, US Full Time
$177000 - $265600
Reference: R10236122

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes

CLEARANCE TYPE: Secret

TRAVEL: 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.

Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems has an opening for a Staff Systems Engineer FMS Development Lead to join our team of qualified, diverse individuals within our Systems Engineering organization. This role is located in Rancho Bernardo, CA.

In this role, you will fill the role of Global Hawk SEI Development Lead for the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Business Area. You will be responsible for leading a diverse engineering team to provide imaginative, technical solutions to a wide range of difficult problems across the FMS customers' Global Hawk portfolio. You'll be working across the entire spectrum of the Systems Engineering V-Model, and will support SE disciplines including requirements development, use case development, capability (hardware and software) development, integration planning, lab integration, test planning, formal test, and verification.

Essential Functions:

  • Leading a multi-disciplinary team of engineers to execute to program objectives and meet technical criteria
  • Work closely with customers and end users to ensure system requirements, design, risks, and limitations are understood, communicated, and accepted
  • Lead and execute systems engineering functions to maintain the technical baseline, and to ensure the baseline reflects a cohesive system solution
  • Responsible for capturing and translating the intent of stakeholders’ mission needs
  • Ensures the system architecture, operations concepts, and design are affordable, effective and responsive to customer needs and objectives
  • Utilizes operational experience, architecture, and system knowledge to create innovative system solutions to address stakeholder mission needs
  • Support the development and validation of system level models used for concept development, design, verification, and validation
  • Ability to lead team and coordinate with engineering IPTs to minimize technical risk
  • Leverage your experience supporting Fielded Aircraft Systems, UAV systems, and the full lifecycle of Systems Engineering, including design reviews, requirements decomposition, test planning, and requirements verification
  • Ability to plan, execute a schedule and lead a team towards those goals
  • Clearly define end user needs and desired capabilities
  • Define Use Cases into development lifecycle to define system requirements and architecture
  • Utilize operational experience, architecture, and system knowledge to define solutions for stakeholder mission needs
  • Support the development and validation of system level models used for concept development, design, verification, and validation
  • Manage and oversee Systems Engineering execution of the overall cost, schedule, and technical baseline for the respective program
  • Lead and oversee successful milestone reviews (e.g. SRR, SFR, PDR, CDR, FCA).
  • Perform Risk and Opportunity management
  • Utilize Integrated Functional Capability (IFC) Planning and certification process
  • Presentation skills to effectively provide status to internal executive management and customers

Basic Qualifications:

  • Must have a Bachelors degree in a STEM field and at least 12 years of relevant military / professional experience, OR a Master's Degree in a STEM field and at least 10 years of relevant military / professional experience, OR a PhD and at least 8 years of relevant military / professional experience
  • 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 DOORS experience with requirements management
  • Must have experience with milestone Reviews (e.g. SRR, PDR, CDR, FCA)
  • Must have experience managing Technical Baselines (Functional and Allocated Baselines)
  • Must have experience with interfaces ICDs
  • Must have experience leading a team of 10+ individuals in a technical environment

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Experience with RQ-4 air vehicle, ground segment, sensor payloads, COMMS and support equipment
  • Experience with FMS customers
  • Experience with FMS operations
  • Experience with FMS architecture
  • Requirements verification and validation experience including generating Requirements Verification Plans (RVPs), generating Requirements Verification Reports (RVRs), verification sell-off.  Preferred Functional Configuration Audit (FCA) experience.
  • Experience with Use Case generation
  • Experience as Segment-Level Systems Engineer
  • Active TS/SCI
  • MS degree in STEM field

Primary Level Salary Range: $177,000.00 - $265,600.00

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.

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