Senior Principal Cyber Systems Engineer
Northrop Grumman · Melbourne, FL
$135,000–$202,600from the description
Jul 14, 2026
Melbourne, FL
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior-level cybersecurity engineering role focused on System Security Engineering across the full acquisition and development lifecycle of defense systems. Day-to-day work involves security requirements analysis, secure architecture design, RMF documentation, and technical leadership over junior engineers and subcontractors. Suits an experienced DoD cybersecurity engineer familiar with NIST/CNSSI frameworks, agile development environments, and working within classified programs.
Senior level · 9+ 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
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $124,805 (middle half $94,902–$144,193). 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 (7)
The title 'Senior Principal' is Northrop Grumman's internal level label; the actual scope (leading security architecture on a program, mentoring junior engineers, interfacing with management) is consistent with a Senior individual contributor on the broader market ladder, not a Staff/Principal-level org-wide authority role.
Degree requirement: the JD offers a sliding scale — Bachelor's + 9 yrs, Master's + 7 yrs, or PhD + 4 yrs. Bachelor's is set as the minimum formal degree since equivalent experience is not offered as a substitute; the years figure used for the overall years minimum is the Bachelor's track (9 years).
The DoD 8140.01 qualifying certification (CompTIA Security+, CISSP, or similar) is listed as a hard requirement; Security+ is named as the primary with CISSP in alternatives, reflecting the 'or similar' language.
An active Secret clearance is a hard gate for start; the ability to obtain a SAP clearance is listed as a contingency requirement before the start date. Top Secret / SSBI is listed under Preferred Qualifications only.
The alt SOC 15-1299 (Computer Occupations, All Other) is noted because this role blends systems engineering with cybersecurity in a defense/acquisition context, which doesn't map perfectly to the standard Information Security Analyst occupation.
Ignored 2 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): DoD System Security Engineering, Digital Engineering.
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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