Sr Principal Linux Systems Administrator - Polygraph at Northrop Grumman
Morrisville, NC
$123,400–$185,000from the description
Jul 24, 2026
Morrisville, NC
Jul 26, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A Linux Systems Administrator role supporting classified government contracts on-site in Morrisville, NC. Day-to-day work covers managing multi-user Linux server environments, patching, configuration management, backup and recovery, STIG implementation, and AWS cloud infrastructure. The role suits an experienced IT professional holding an active Top Secret/SCI clearance with a current polygraph and a Security+ CE certification.
Senior level · 7+ years · Durham-Chapel Hill, NC · TS/SCI 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
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $113,073 (middle half $83,507–$143,365). 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 (9)
The title says 'Principal Computer Systems Analyst' but the parenthetical '(Linux Systems Administrator)' and the day-to-day duties (installing, patching, configuring, backup/recovery, file system management, monitoring) are squarely systems administration (15-1244). The security-adjacent work (STIGs, audit logging, ISSM support) is in service of operating the infrastructure, not primary threat analysis, so 15-1212 is the runner-up but not the primary classification.
The advertised title is 'Principal,' but the actual scope — administering Linux servers on classified contracts, working under an ISSM, coordinating with engineers — is consistent with a Senior individual contributor, not an org-wide technical authority. Seniority is assessed as Senior.
Degree requirement is set to None: the JD offers a tiered equivalency ladder (Master's+5 yrs, Bachelor's+7 yrs, Associate's+9 yrs, HS/GED+11 yrs), meaning no specific degree is hard-required when equivalent experience is accepted.
The overall years minimum is set to 7, reflecting the lowest-degree-plus-experience combination that includes a Bachelor's degree (the most common baseline). The HS/GED path requires 11 years; the Master's path requires 5 years.
The clearance requirement is TS/SCI with a current Polygraph adjudicated within the last 5 years — a hard gate explicitly stated in Basic Qualifications.
ServiceNow and JIRA appear together in a narrative context ('ticketing requirements systems') rather than a formal requirements section; captured as preferred with JIRA as an alternative.
The 'C+CIDO' in the preferred qualifications appears to be a garbled rendering of 'C++' (likely a copy/paste artifact); treated as C++ and listed as an alternative to Python.
Morrisville, NC falls within the Raleigh-Cary, NC CBSA (39580), not Durham-Chapel Hill. Corrected CBSA is Raleigh-Cary, NC (39580).
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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