Sentinel - Principal/Sr. Principal Systems Engineer - 18555 at Northrop Grumman
Roy, UT
$98,400–$184,200from the description
Aug 6, 2026
Roy, UT
Sep 24, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
This is a systems engineering role supporting the Sentinel ICBM program at Northrop Grumman's facility in Roy, UT, focused on Re-Entry System Electronics within the Payloads Integrated Product Team. Day-to-day work spans the full system lifecycle — requirements verification, electrical hardware evaluation, model validation, testing, configuration management, and technical reporting — with direct interface to Air Force customers. The role suits an experienced systems engineer with a background in complex defense electronics or ICBM programs, and an active Secret clearance is required at time of application.
Senior level · 5+ years · Ogden-Clearfield, UT · Bachelor's required · Secret clearance · Full-time
Advertised as Principal, but the requirements read as Senior.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
Why we read it this way (7)
This role is a Systems Engineer in the defense/aerospace domain, not a pure computer/IT occupation. SOC 15-1299 (Computer Occupations, All Other) is used as the closest available code; 15-1211 (Computer Systems Analysts) is a plausible alternative given the systems analysis and requirements verification focus, but neither is a perfect fit for a hardware-oriented defense systems engineer.
The posting covers two levels: Principal Systems Engineer (Level 3, 5+ years with BS) at $98,400–$147,600/year, and Sr. Principal Systems Engineer (Level 4, 8+ years with BS) at $122,800–$184,200/year. The salary range shown spans both levels combined.
The Sr. Principal level additionally requires current Special Access Program (SAP) approval at time of hire and Mk21/Mk21A interface management experience — these are hard gates for that level only.
An active DoD Secret clearance is required at application for both levels; the ability to obtain Top Secret and SAP access is also required (for the Principal level) or must already be held (Sr. Principal level). Clearance is flagged as Secret (the hard gate at application), with TS/SAP as an additional requirement.
All preferred qualifications — SPICE, Teamcenter/NX, VHDL/FPGA/ASIC, Agile, cable/harness design, nuclear certified design, ICBM experience, MS Office tools — appear under the 'Preferred Qualifications' section and are listed as preferred.
Advertised seniority is set to 'Principal' based on the job title 'Principal/Sr. Principal Systems Engineer'; the actual requirements support a Senior-band classification under standard career-ladder conventions.
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.
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