Systems Engineer - Level 4 at Northrop Grumman
Huntsville, AL
$135,800–$203,600from the description
Jun 30, 2026
Huntsville, AL
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior systems engineering role supporting a ground-based missile defense program, focused on an RF data terminal product. Day-to-day work spans technical planning, requirements analysis, system integration, and verification and validation for complex RF communications hardware and software. The role suits an experienced engineer with a background in AESA systems, RF test equipment, and model-based or requirements management tooling who can lead technical efforts and interface across teams.
Senior level · 8+ years · Remote · Bachelor's required · Secret clearance · Full-time
Advertised as Principal, but the requirements read as Senior.
Posted 5 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
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.
What the occupation pays Median $119,144 (middle half $81,115–$160,963). 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 (9)
The job description explicitly states 'This is not a telework/remote position.' The caller has overridden this and directed that remote=true be set; the metro has been left blank accordingly. Hiring managers should be aware of this conflict.
The title 'Sr Principal Systems Engineer' maps to advertised Principal, but the requirements (B.S. + 8 years, team-level scope) are consistent with a Senior individual contributor, not a true org-wide Principal.
The degree requirement is a B.S. in a STEM field (minimum); M.S. or Ph.D. with fewer years are listed as equivalents, so Bachelors is the floor.
The experience minimum is 8 years with a B.S. (or 6 with M.S., or 4 with Ph.D.); 8 years is used as the overall years minimum per the lowest-degree path.
SOC classification is uncertain: Systems Engineering on a defense hardware/RF program sits between 15-1299 (Computer Occupations, All Other, covering systems engineers) and 15-1211 (Computer Systems Analysts). The role's emphasis on hardware/RF design and MIL-STD compliance leans toward a non-software systems engineering occupation, but no dedicated SOC exists for hardware systems engineers in the 15-12xx range.
MIL-STD and MIL-HDBK preferred qualifications are listed under the 'Preferred Qualifications' section and are not hard gates.
Ignored 2 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): MIL-STD-188-125-1, MIL-STD-188-125-2.
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.
Caller marked this a fully-remote role — scored against the national candidate pool.
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.