Principal / Senior Principal Systems Engineer
Northrop Grumman · Los Angeles, CA
$114,000–$213,400from the description
Jun 30, 2026
Los Angeles, CA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A systems engineering role focused on developing, managing, and verifying requirements for complex defense systems. Day-to-day work involves maintaining requirements baselines in IBM Rational DOORS, writing test cases, supporting verification and validation activities, and coordinating with Agile teams and customers. Suits engineers with a background in requirements engineering, technical documentation, and hands-on testing in a defense or aerospace environment.
Senior level · 5+ years · Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA · 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.
Why we read it this way (9)
This posting covers two levels simultaneously: Principal Systems Engineer ($114K–$171K, 5+ yrs with BS) and Senior Principal Systems Engineer ($142.2K–$213.4K, 8+ yrs with BS). The compensation range spans both; the overall years minimum reflects the lower (Principal) gate. The seniority band is assessed as Senior — 'Principal' and 'Senior Principal' at Northrop Grumman are individual-contributor titles on the defense/aerospace ladder, not org-wide technical authority roles in the Staff/Principal sense of the seniority schema.
SOC classification is Medium confidence. Systems Engineering in a defense context (requirements management, V&V, test) sits between 15-1299 (Computer Occupations, All Other — the closest match for systems engineering as a discipline) and 15-1211 (Computer Systems Analysts). Neither is a perfect fit; 15-1299 is used as the primary.
The role is strictly onsite at Woodland Hills, CA — no remote option is stated.
An active/current Secret clearance is required at the time of application, not merely the ability to obtain one.
Requirements development, test case development, verification and validation, and technical baseline management are listed as required competencies in the Basic Qualifications section; while they are not named commercial tools, they are concrete, domain-specific engineering disciplines central to this role and are retained as skills.
Agile is referenced in the job responsibilities as a required working mode ('Lead an Agile team'), but appears under Preferred Qualifications as 'Experience working in an Agile engineering team' — listed as preferred accordingly.
ClearQuest and ClearCase are listed together under Preferred Qualifications; ClearCase is captured as an alternative to ClearQuest since they are related IBM configuration-management tools often used interchangeably in this context.
Ignored 3 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): requirements development, test case development, technical baseline management.
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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