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Flight Software Engineering Lead – Level 5 image - Rise Careers
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Flight Software Engineering Lead – Level 5

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available

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.

                                                              

Expand your horizons, advance your career, and contribute to a secure future for generations. Northrop Grumman’s Space Sector invites you to bring your pioneering spirit to our collaborative teams. As a Flight Software Engineering Lead – Level 5 located in Manhattan Beach, CA, you’ll be a linchpin in missions of paramount importance, defining the art of the possible from day one.      

*Please be aware that this position will be contingent upon capturing program award, obtaining customer funding, and holding final clearances prior to start date*

The Flight Software Engineering Lead – Level 5 will drive program execution toward software delivery schedule and should be familiar with software development best practices to right-size the needs of the effort (e.g. configuration management, unit testing). The Software Lead will guide process improvement, especially in configuration management, code quality practices, making optimal tasking assignments, and understanding and documenting the technical baseline and architecture.

The selected candidate will develop software which will operate in a resource constrained target environment with soft and hard real time requirements for various flight/space/ground systems. The software will typically implement complex data analysis, data routing, and/or control systems algorithms. The Flight Software Engineering Lead will need familiarity with various processor, memory, and I/O architectures and be able to implement both procedural and object-oriented software in C++. The statement of work entails working with real-time operating systems and their associated host/development environments and tools.

The ideal candidate should have academic and work experience in software engineering and development across the full life cycle for automated test sets/test systems on aerospace programs. Experience working in a process-oriented environment utilizing agile processes is also desired. The selected candidate should also have strong verbal and written communication skills and be comfortable working on large teams with talented engineers from other engineering disciplines. Must be comfortable working in a lab environment and be able to provide technical leadership for more junior team members.

This position will work a 9/80 schedule, with every other Friday off.

Job responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Direct a team of engineers and coordinate with stakeholders
  • Effectively drive program execution toward software delivery schedule
  • Leverage software development best practices to right-size the needs of the effort (e.g. configuration management, unit testing).
  • Guide process improvement, especially in configuration management, code quality practices, making optimal tasking assignments, and understanding and documenting the technical baseline and architecture.
  • Requirements decomposition/generation
  • Report status and metrics to program leadership
  • Design, develop, document, test, and debug applications software and systems that contain logical and mathematical solutions.
  • Conduct multidisciplinary research and collaborate with equipment designers and/or hardware engineers in the planning, design, development, and utilization of electronic data processing systems for product software.
  • Determine overall system and user needs; analyze system capabilities to resolve problems on program intent, output requirements, input data acquisition, programming techniques and controls; prepares operating instructions; designs and develops utility programs.
  • Ensure software standards are met.
  • Design and execute tests to ensure the software's functionality, performance, and reliability.
  • Other duties as assigned

  

*This position is contingent upon capturing program award, obtaining customer funding, and holding final clearances prior to start date.*

Basic Qualifications:

  • Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related STEM degree with 12+ years of software development experience OR Master’s Degree with 10+ years of software development experience, OR Ph.D. with 8+ years of software development experience
  • Strong proficiency in C/C++ programming, executing in a RTOS environment (i.e., VxWorks, FreeRTOS, RT-Linux, GH Integrity)
  • Experience with VxWorks 6.9 and/or 7.0
  • Prior leadership experience directing a team of software engineers effectively driving program execution toward software delivery schedule
  • Candidate must currently have an active DoD Secret clearance at the time of application and be able and willing to obtain and maintain a DoD Top Secret/SCI clearance

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Experience with MIL-STD-1553B, SpaceWire, and CAN bus implementations and structured protocols
  • Experience in Agile process and Atlassian Tool Suite (Jira, BitBucket, etc.)
  • Experience using SIMICS, VectorCast, GoogleTest
  • Active DoD Top Secret/SCI clearance
     

Curious about all the exciting developments with the Northrop Grumman Space Sector? Click the link below:

https://www.northropgrumman.com/space

Working at Northrop Grumman is more than just a paycheck. We offer a comprehensive Total Rewards and benefits package designed to help you thrive at work and in life. For more information on our Total Rewards package, please visit our Total Rewards site.

Northrop Grumman Total Rewards 

Primary Level Salary Range: $171,000.00 - $256,400.00

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.

Average salary estimate

$213700 / YEARLY (est.)
min
max
$171000K
$256400K

If an employer mentions a salary or salary range on their job, we display it as an "Employer Estimate". If a job has no salary data, Rise displays an estimate if available.

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EMPLOYMENT TYPE
Full-time, onsite
DATE POSTED
November 14, 2025
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