Sr Principal Systems Administrator – X-Lab Cloud Tech Admin (26-244)
Northrop Grumman · Colorado Springs, CO
$117,500–$176,300from the description
Jul 25, 2026
Colorado Springs, CO
Jul 26, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
An on-site infrastructure administration role supporting a missile defense command-and-control experimentation lab at Schriever Space Force Base, Colorado. The work centers on deploying and managing large-scale virtualization and cloud environments — including hypervisors, virtual desktop infrastructure, and Kubernetes containerized systems — across multiple sites. Suits experienced systems administrators with a background in platforms such as Nutanix, VMware, or similar enterprise virtualization technologies.
Senior level · 8+ years · Colorado Springs, CO · 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 $104,090 (middle half $86,062–$133,513). 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 (11)
The role is titled 'Sr Principal Systems Administrator' but the actual scope — deploying and maintaining virtualization/cloud infrastructure, VDI, and Kubernetes at an enterprise level — is consistent with a Senior individual contributor, not a true Principal (org-wide technical authority). Seniority is assessed as Senior.
Degree requirement: the JD accepts a Bachelor's + 8 years, Master's + 6 years, OR 12 years of experience with no degree, so no minimum degree is hard-gated.
Total years minimum is set to 8, reflecting the lowest stated experience threshold (Bachelor's + 8 years path).
VMware, Red Hat OpenStack, and Nutanix are listed together as examples of virtualization technologies in the required qualifications section; VMware is emitted as the primary with the others as alternatives since the JD treats them as interchangeable examples.
VMware Horizon View and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops are listed as examples of VDI solutions in the essential functions narrative rather than a hard-requirements block, so they are marked preferred.
Nutanix Calm and VMware vRealize Automation appear under 'experience with automation platforms' in the required qualifications but are framed as examples ('such as … and others'), making the specific products preferred while the general automation capability is implied as required.
SolarWinds is listed as an example monitoring tool under a 'comfortable with' framing in the required qualifications, so it is marked preferred.
An active in-scope DoD Secret clearance is explicitly required to start. The DoD 8140 IAT Level II certification (e.g., Security+ CE, CCNA-Security, CySA+) is also required at time of application.
This is a fully on-site role at Schriever Space Force Base, CO; no remote or relocation assistance is available.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): DoD 8140 IAT Level II.
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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