Staff Engineer Systems Northrop Grumman Corporation
Rolling Meadows, IL

Job Description

Northrop Grumman Mission Systems (NGMS) seeks to fill Staff Engineer Systems positions within the Systems Engineering, Integration, and Test (SEIT) organization for Central Region Engineering (CRE) at our Rolling Meadows, Illinois location. The selected candidates will be responsible for performing SEIT technical leadership responsibilities on programs. This role encompasses team leadership, project management, and technical performance.

NGMS is a leading global provider, manufacturer and integrator of advanced, secure and agile software-defined systems and solutions. Our products range from advanced sensing technologies to state-of-the-art targeting and tracking systems that are deployed in Electro-Optical Infrared (EOIR) and Radio Frequency (RF) systems. These systems are designed, developed, built, integrated, and tested by the capable folks at our company to protect the lives of U.S. and Allied warfighters in present and future conflicts. Our SEIT organization provides complex avionics systems in Targeting, EOIR, and RF technology areas. The Staff Engineer Systems opportunity is available in four functional teams within Rolling Meadows SEIT including:

System Planning and Control: Includes SEIT Leads and Sub-team Leads. SEIT Leads are responsible for the overall systems engineering effort on the program, directing the execution of all systems engineering activities. The SEIT Lead is responsible for horizontal and vertical technical integration across the program. An example of vertical integration is the flow down of requirements and integration of the piece parts into a working system. An example of horizontal integration is the inclusion of specialty engineering across the system lifecycle and throughout each sub-team. The SEIT Lead is also responsible for ensuring the integrity of the systems engineering processes and timely development of core systems engineering work products. While all systems engineers, except for the Chief Engineer, directly report to the SEIT Lead on a project, many systems engineers also have a dotted line relationship to one or more sub-teams. Sub-team Leads are responsible for day-to-day execution of a subset of the system. They are responsible for the technical reviews, design, implementation, and verification of their subset of the system. They work with the SEIT Lead and Chief Engineer to ensure the right product is being developed and provided for Systems Integration and Test. Note that in a product based organization structure, this role is often referred to as the Integrated Product Team (IPT) Lead.

System Definition and Architecture: Includes Chief Engineers and System Architects. A Chief Engineer is the definitive technical authority for all aspects of engineering on a program and acts as both a technical leader for the systems engineering team and as an independent advisor to the Program Manager. The Chief Engineer is the central point of contact and authority with the customer for the technical solution. As the technical lead for systems engineering, the Chief Engineer has accountability for the system architecture, ConOps, and requirements. The Chief Engineer also has the technical authority as the overall approver for system-level requirements verification. Because the Chief Engineer has accountability for the performance of the system, they are the chair of the system Technical Review Board. A System Architect must have an understanding of how our systems architecture design process meets our mission level goals. Assignments may also include analysis and trade studies of product line architectures using analytical models and mission level simulations.

Systems Design: Engineers in this department are involved with creating and refining Model Based System Engineering products (System behavioral models, Use Case realizations, State Machines, etc.), generation and update of System and sub-system level specifications in DOORS, including requirements traceability, creation of Verification Cross Reference Matrices (VCRM), verification traceability (tracing requirements to test plans/procedures/results), and update and maintenance of system drawings and documents. As a part of the SEIT team, a Systems Design engineer is exposed to the front end Systems Engineering process and coordinates across many disciplines to ensure that the system description and requirements are properly and thoroughly defined and captured. This department also includes Modeling & Simulation engineers. A primary task for a modeling and simulations engineer is development of in-house models and algorithms. Strong domain knowledge combined with valuable software development skills are required to produce the accurate models that drive the critical analysis needed to design our future systems.

System Integration & Test: Engineers in Integration & Test conduct integration testing and evaluate complex electronics systems from hardware/software design through aircraft installation. Key responsibilities will be to ensure that the systems we design are correct both from a requirement perspective (Verification) and a customer perspective (Validation). This will involve the creation and execution of Integration, Design Verification Test, and Flight Test plans and procedures. Tasks can vary in location from on-site activities in one of our Systems Integration Labs (SILs) to activities out in the "field" (test events, ranges, customer sites, etc.) and they can consist across a broad spectrum of environments and complexities.

During the interview process, our team will seek to understand both your experience and preferences in order to determine which area provides the best opportunity for you to succeed. These SEIT roles provide a great opportunity to work alongside a variety of other Systems, Hardware, Software and Mechanical engineers to successfully execute on mission-critical programs.

Position Summary / Responsibilities, Staff Engineer Systems:

Performs technical planning, system integration, verification and validation, cost and risk, and supportability and effectiveness analyses for total systems. Analyses are performed at all levels of total system product to include: concept, design, fabrication, test, installation, operation, maintenance and disposal. Ensures the logical and systematic conversion of customer or product requirements into total systems solutions that acknowledge technical, schedule, and cost constraints. Performs functional analysis, timeline analysis, detail trade studies, requirements allocation and interface definition studies to translate customer requirements into hardware and software specifications.

As a Staff Engineer Systems, you will be expected to demonstrate the following behaviors:

Knowledge, Skills and Ability - Apply advanced technical principles, theories, and concepts. Contributes to the development of new principles and concepts.

Problem Solving - Work on unusually complex technical problems and provide solutions which are highly innovative and ingenious.

Discretion/Latitude - Works under consultative direction toward predetermined long-range goals and objectives. Assignments are often self-initiated. Determine and pursue courses of action necessary to obtain desired results. Work checked through consultation and agreement with others rather than by formal review of superior.

Impact - Develops advanced technological ideas and guides their development into a final product. Erroneous decisions or recommendations would typically result in failure to achieve critical organizational objectives and affect the image of the organization technological capability.

Liaison - Serves as organization spokesperson on advanced projects and/or programs. Acts as advisor to management and customers on advanced technical research studies and applications.

MSRMM

Basic Qualifications:

* Bachelors of Science degree in a technical discipline with a minimum of 14 years of related experience required, or 12 years with Master's, and 9 years with a PhD
* Demonstrated excellence in written and oral communication skills along with proven success working in an integrated product team environment
* Prior experience as a Systems Engineer (Systems Architecture, System Requirement Definition, Integration & Test, etc)
* Technical leadership experience (Integrated Product Team Lead, Systems Engineering Lead, Chief Engineer, Chief Architect, Integration & Test Lead, etc)
* U.S. citizen
* Active Secret (or higher) security clearance

Preferred Qualifications:

* Experience working Department of Defense development contracts
* Prior experience negotiating with customers to convert customer needs into testable system requirements
* Expertise in digital signal processing algorithms
* Systems Engineering experience with Department of Defense technology, specifically RF and EOIR
* Active Top Secret security clearance

Northrop Grumman is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action 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/AA and Pay Transparency statement, please visit www.northropgrumman.com/EEO. U.S. Citizenship is required for most positions.