Principal Engineer Software (Avionics) at Northrop Grumman
Melbourne, FL
$98,400–$147,600from the description
Aug 4, 2026
Melbourne, FL
Sep 24, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
This is an embedded/avionics software engineering role at Northrop Grumman's Melbourne, FL facility, supporting the Global Surveillance division. The engineer will design, implement, test, and maintain software across the full development lifecycle — including builds, releases, deployments, and integration — for safety-critical defense systems. The role suits an experienced software developer with a background in object-oriented languages and real-time operating environments who holds an active DoD Secret clearance.
Senior level · 5+ years · Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL · 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
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 $134,657 (middle half $104,151–$166,625). 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 Aug 5, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (8)
The title is 'Principal Engineer Software' but the actual requirements (5+ years with a bachelor's, or 3 with a master's) and scope (team-level delivery with guidance) align with a Senior-level role, not a Principal/org-wide authority — seniority is assessed as Senior accordingly.
An active DoD Secret clearance (or higher) is a hard gate for start; the ability to obtain a Special Access Program (SAP) clearance prior to employment start is also required.
A Top Secret clearance is listed under Preferred Qualifications — it is preferred, not required.
The posting notes this opportunity is contingent on program funding, with start dates determined after funding confirmation.
RTOS experience is required; LynxOS and VxWorks are named as examples of acceptable RTOS platforms and are listed as alternatives rather than separate requirements.
DO-178C and RTCA/DO-178 both appear under Preferred Qualifications and refer to overlapping aviation software certification standards; both are captured separately as they are distinct named standards.
U.S. Citizenship is required (implied by the clearance requirement).
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
The employer publishes the full description on their own site — read it there ↗. Or sign in to read it here — it's free, and it also lets you track this application.