Engineer Software - Integration & Test Automation at Northrop Grumman
San Diego, CA
$91,800–$137,600from the description
Jun 30, 2026
San Diego, CA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
This role focuses on designing, developing, and executing automated software tests for embedded systems, as well as building and running integration and acceptance test procedures across development, lab, and operational environments. The position suits an early-career engineer with a STEM background who has hands-on experience in software testing, test automation, CI/CD tooling, and object-oriented programming. A Top Secret clearance and on-site presence in San Diego or Palmdale are required.
Mid level · 2+ years · San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA · Bachelor's required · Top Secret clearance · Full-time
“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 $122,853 (middle half $88,913–$145,358). 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 (8)
The role is titled 'Engineer Software (T02) – Integration & Test Automation' with no seniority level word in the title; the title states no level. The T02 designation is an internal Northrop Grumman grade, not a standard level label.
The role blends test automation/QA (15-1253) with software development (15-1252) — candidates design, develop, and execute automated tests as well as write integration scripts in OOP languages. 15-1253 was chosen as primary because the dominant day-to-day work is integration and test automation; 15-1252 is the close runner-up.
Two locations are listed (San Diego, CA and Palmdale, CA); San Diego CBSA is used as primary since it is the larger metro. Palmdale falls within the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA CBSA (31080).
The posting requires the ability to obtain and maintain a Top Secret clearance (must be in-scope or enrolled in Continuous Evaluation) as a hard gate; an active TS/SCI is listed under Preferred Qualifications only.
The Basic Qualifications list OOP language knowledge using 'AND/OR' constructs: C/C++, C#, or Java (one required) AND Python or JavaScript (one required). These are captured as two separate required skills with alternatives.
The testing frameworks list (Google Test, TestComplete, Cucumber, etc.) is required at the 'knowledge' level in Basic Qualifications; the Preferred section upgrades this to 'professional experience' — the hard gate is knowledge of at least one of these frameworks.
Confluence and JIRA appear only under Preferred Qualifications.
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.
Read the full posting
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