Principal Software Engineer (AHT) at Northrop Grumman
Huntsville, AL
$108,800–$163,200from the description
Jul 28, 2026
Huntsville, AL
Jul 29, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A hands-on software engineering role supporting a Counter-UAS ground network program (TGE C-UAS BONES) at Northrop Grumman's Huntsville facility. The engineer will develop and maintain Java applications and C++ codebases, write shell scripts, and work across the full software lifecycle — design, coding, testing, debugging, and documentation — on classified defense systems. The role is fully on-site and requires an active DoD Secret clearance.
Senior level · 5+ years · Huntsville, AL · Bachelor's required · Secret clearance · Full-time
Advertised as Principal, but the requirements read as Senior.
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $130,897 (middle half $102,526–$165,828). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 29, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (5)
The title is 'Principal Software Engineer' but the actual requirements — a BS+5 years or MS+3 years, with no org-wide technical authority scope — align with a Senior-level role. 'Principal' at Northrop Grumman appears to be an internal grade rather than the top-of-ladder Principal band.
The source control requirement lists GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket as interchangeable options ('one or more of the following'); GitHub is used as the primary with the others as alternatives. Jira and Confluence appear in the same list but are distinct tools and are emitted separately.
The degree requirement is set to Bachelor's because the JD states 'Bachelor of Science in STEM with 5+ years OR Master's with 3 years' — a bachelor's degree (or higher) is a hard gate; equivalent experience is not offered as a substitute.
initramfs is a Linux boot-time concept closely related to dracut; it is captured under the dracut skill rather than as a separate entry since the posting treats them together as a single preferred capability.
Requires a Secret clearance — the cleared population is a small fraction of this occupation, so the real candidate pool is materially smaller than the estimate below, which does not model clearance.
Read the full posting
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