Software Engineer/Product Owner Level 5 at Northrop Grumman
Aurora, CO
$177,000–$265,600from the description
Jun 30, 2026
Aurora, CO
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior-level Product Owner role within a large software engineering department supporting space systems programs. The position centers on managing and prioritizing a product backlog, coordinating stakeholder objectives, and steering Agile development teams toward timely delivery. It suits a highly experienced Java developer with a background in containerization, version control, and cross-team collaboration who holds an active Top Secret clearance.
Senior level · 12+ years · Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO · TS/SCI 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.
Posted 4 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
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $140,636 (middle half $126,359–$175,118). 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 (6)
The posting title is 'Level 5 Software Engineer' but the body describes a Product Owner role (defining/prioritizing product backlog, aligning stakeholders, guiding development teams). This is a genuine hybrid — the SOC is coded as Software Developers (15-1252) because the hard-gate qualifications are all software engineering credentials (Java, Git, containerization), but Computer and Information Systems Managers (11-3021) is a plausible runner-up given the Product Owner framing.
Northrop Grumman's 'Level 5' maps to a very senior/principal individual-contributor band internally, but the actual requirements (12+ years, component/product scope) are consistent with a Senior band on the standard market ladder — not a true org-wide Principal. Advertised seniority reflects the Level 5 title claim.
Degree requirement is set to None because the JD explicitly accepts '4 additional years of experience in lieu of a degree.'
Containerization is listed as a required skill alongside Kubernetes and Helm with an 'and/or' construction; Docker is the canonical containerization tool and is emitted separately as the representative skill for that requirement.
Preferred qualifications include requirements decomposition, code debugging/peer review, motivating large agile teams, multi-customer prioritization, and delegation history — these are responsibilities/soft skills rather than named technologies and are not emitted as skills.
Requires a TS/SCI 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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