Principal Systems Engineer / Senior Principal Systems Engineer - Integration & Test at Northrop Grumman
Baltimore, MD
$108,800–$203,600from the description
Jul 9, 2026
Baltimore, MD
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
This role centers on hands-on integration and testing of RF sensor systems — including radar, COMMS, and SIGINT hardware and software — at a Baltimore, MD facility. Day-to-day work involves developing and executing test plans, troubleshooting hardware/software/firmware issues, analyzing test results, and using tools such as MATLAB and RF lab equipment. It suits engineers with a background in systems integration and RF testing who hold an active Secret clearance.
Senior level · 5+ years · Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD · 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
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
What the occupation pays Median $111,377 (middle half $86,511–$164,827). 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 (11)
This requisition covers two levels simultaneously: Principal Systems Engineer (5+ years with a Bachelor's) and Sr. Principal Systems Engineer (8+ years with a Bachelor's). The salary ranges are stacked: $108,800–$163,200 for the Principal level and $135,800–$203,600 for the Sr. Principal level; both are reported here as a combined min/max. The overall years minimum is set to 5, the lower gate for the Principal level.
A current/active Secret clearance is a hard start requirement per the posting header ('CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes'). The ability to obtain Special Program Access (SAP) is also required but is not itself a clearance level.
The posting titles this role 'Principal Systems Engineer' or 'Sr. Principal Systems Engineer' in the body, but the advertised framing maps to Senior on the standard career ladder — these are experienced individual-contributor engineering roles, not org-wide technical authority positions.
A Bachelor's degree is listed as the baseline, but the JD explicitly accepts 'an additional 4 years of experience in lieu of a degree,' so the degree requirement is set to None.
RF lab test equipment (signal generator, oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer) is listed as a required skill; it represents a category of physical lab instruments rather than a single named tool.
HW/SW/FW integration troubleshooting is listed as a required skill; it is a concrete, domain-specific technical competency central to this role.
C and C++ appear under Preferred Qualifications as 'Knowledge integrating and testing software written in C, C++' — treated as preferred. They are listed as alternatives since the JD presents them together as a single knowledge area.
Python scripting appears under Preferred Qualifications ('Experience developing scripts in python to automate manual processes').
An active Top Secret clearance or higher is listed as a preferred qualification, not a hard gate — the hard gate is Secret.
Ignored 2 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): RF lab test equipment, hardware/software/firmware integration troubleshooting.
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.
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.