Software Developer – Mission Planning Team
Northrop Grumman · McLean, VA
$114,000–$213,400from the description
Jun 30, 2026
McLean, VA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A full-stack software developer role focused on satellite ground systems, sitting within a mission planning team. Day-to-day work covers building and maintaining client/server applications, GUIs, and APIs used by operators to create and validate mission plans, integrating real-time data feeds, and supporting launch events and acceptance testing. The stack centers on Python and C++, with PostgreSQL, Qpid/AMQP messaging, Docker, and Kubernetes on Red Hat Linux.
Senior level · 5+ years · Remote · Bachelor's required · Top Secret clearance · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 3 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 $138,970 (middle half $107,524–$175,762). 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 posting explicitly states '100% onsite' in McLean, VA and that it 'cannot accommodate telecommute work.' The remote=true flag has been set at the caller's instruction, overriding the posting's stated requirement — the actual role is fully on-site.
This posting covers two levels: Level 3 (5+ years with a Bachelor's, primary salary range $114,000–$171,000) and Level 4 (8+ years with a Bachelor's, secondary salary range $142,200–$213,400). The compensation fields span both ranges. The overall years minimum is set to 5 (the lower Level 3 gate).
The clearance gate in the Basic Qualifications requires an active Top Secret at time of application. The Preferred Qualifications express a 'strong preference' for TS/SCI, but since TS/SCI is not a hard gate, the clearance requirement is set to TopSecret rather than TopSecretSci.
The posting advertises the role as 'Level 3 or 4.' Level 3 maps to Senior on the standard career ladder (5+ years, owns a component end-to-end); Level 4 would also be Senior given the scope described. The level advertised in the title is set to Senior based on the 'Level 3' framing in the title.
gRPC appears both as a stack technology the team is 'exploring' (narrative context) and as an alternative to REST/AMQP-style APIs; it is listed separately as preferred to reflect that exploratory framing, in addition to appearing as an alternative under REST.
Elixir is mentioned as a transitional GUI technology ('transitioning to web-based GUIs using Elixir') in the stack narrative, not in the requirements section — listed as preferred.
The degree requirement is set to Bachelors because the JD requires a Bachelor's in a STEM field (or higher degree with fewer years); equivalent experience alone is not offered as a substitute.
Requires a Top 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.