Sr. Principal Cyber Systems Engineer at Northrop Grumman
Fairfax, VA
$125,300–$187,900from the description
Jul 14, 2026
Fairfax, VA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior-level network and cyber systems engineering role supporting mission-critical government infrastructure in Northern Virginia. Day-to-day work involves designing and maintaining LAN/WAN networks, applying security configurations to network devices, integrating new systems, responding to security incidents, and producing technical documentation. Suited to experienced engineers comfortable operating across both network architecture and systems administration functions in a classified environment.
Senior level · 7+ years · Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV · TS/SCI clearance · Full-time
Advertised as Principal, but the requirements read as Senior.
Posted 2 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
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 $128,188 (middle half $100,819–$156,589). 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 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (8)
The title 'Sr. Principal' is Northrop Grumman's internal leveling convention. The actual scope — leading a cross-functional engineering discipline team, managing technically diverse staff, and owning mission-critical infrastructure — is consistent with a Senior individual contributor or senior technical lead, not a true Principal/Distinguished engineer in the industry-standard sense. Seniority is assessed as Senior.
Degree requirement: the JD accepts 11 years of relevant experience in lieu of any degree, so no minimum degree is hard-gated.
Total years minimum is set to 7, the lowest stated threshold (Bachelor's + 7 years). The 11-years-in-lieu-of-degree path is an alternative, not a higher floor.
The TS/SCI with Polygraph clearance is explicitly required prior to start — this is a hard gate, not merely preferred.
SOC classification is Medium confidence: the role blends network engineering/systems administration (15-1244) with cybersecurity/STIG compliance work (15-1212). The primary day-to-day duties — LAN/WAN design, network device configuration, systems administration, and infrastructure maintenance — lean toward 15-1244, with 15-1212 as a close runner-up.
All preferred qualifications (FreeIPA, GestioIP, Puppet, Splunk, Bitwarden, Vaultwarden, NAGIOS, ClamAV, DHCP, DNS, LDAP, Intermapper, WhatsUp Gold, VM setup) appear under the explicit 'Preferred Qualifications' heading. 'VM setup and configuration' is listed there without naming a specific hypervisor platform; VMware is emitted as the most common substitute in this context but is inherently a best-guess.
The posting references 'OWT' (likely a classified or program-specific tool) under preferred qualifications; it is omitted as it is not a publicly identifiable, canonical technology.
Requires a TS/SCI 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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