Sentinel - Staff Engineer Systems RIA AVE Technical Lead - 18837
Northrop Grumman · Roy, UT
$152,900–$229,300from the description
Jun 30, 2026
Roy, UT
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A technical lead role within a systems engineering team supporting the Sentinel ICBM program, focused on the Aerospace Vehicle Equipment segment. The position involves leading a small team of engineers through requirements decomposition, interface definition, architecture development, and verification planning across major design reviews. It suits a seasoned systems engineer with substantial experience managing teams and navigating full lifecycle development on large, complex defense programs.
Staff level · 12+ years · Ogden-Clearfield, UT · Bachelor's required · Secret clearance · Full-time
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
Why we read it this way (10)
This is a Systems Engineering technical lead role in the defense/aerospace domain (ICBM ground and airborne launch control systems), not a software or IT occupation in the traditional sense. No SOC code maps cleanly: 15-1299 (Computer Occupations, All Other) is used as the closest available code; 15-1211 (Computer Systems Analysts) is the runner-up given the requirements/architecture/verification focus.
The role is explicitly titled 'Staff (level 5),' which directly maps to the Staff seniority band. The scope — leading 5–10 engineers, driving technical rigor across a major defense segment, and interfacing with USAF customers and upper management — supports this classification.
Total years minimum is set to 12, reflecting the bachelor's-degree path (the most common). The JD also accepts 10 years with a master's or 8 years with a PhD.
An active DoD Secret clearance is a hard gate at time of application. The posting also notes candidates must be able to obtain Special Access Program (SAP) approval, but this is framed as a post-hire requirement rather than a start-date gate.
A TS clearance is listed under Preferred Qualifications and is not a hard gate.
'Requirements development,' 'MBSE,' and 'verification planning' are grouped together in a single bullet under Basic Qualifications ('2 or more years of experience with requirements development, MBSE and/or verification planning'). The 'and/or' phrasing means any combination satisfies the requirement; all three are retained as separate required skills reflecting the breadth of the stated expectation.
EVMS (Earned Value Management System) and trade studies appear only under Preferred Qualifications.
Several preferred qualifications are methodological or soft-skill in nature (communication skills, technical leadership experience, Engineering Board Processes, CDR planning) and are omitted from the skills list per extraction rules — they name no specific technology or tool.
Ignored 4 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): Systems Engineering, Requirements development, Verification planning, Team leadership.
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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