Senior Principal Systems Engineer - COMMS at Northrop Grumman
Baltimore, MD
$135,800–$203,600from the description
Jul 13, 2026
Baltimore, MD
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior-level systems engineering role focused on communications waveforms and capabilities within a defense mission systems environment. The position involves serving as a technical subject-matter expert across multiple development programs — owning COMMS technology roadmaps, leading architecture and design reviews, validating link budgets and performance models, and mentoring junior engineers. It suits an experienced engineer with a background in RF systems, military radio integration, and modeling tools such as MATLAB or Python, who holds an active Secret clearance.
Senior level · 8+ years · Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD · 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.
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 $138,582 (middle half $107,217–$160,197). 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 'Sr. Principal Systems Engineer (Comms)' — 'Sr. Principal' is Northrop Grumman's internal level above Principal, but the scope described (SME for a product area, mentoring junior/mid engineers, multi-program technical lead) maps to a Senior individual contributor on a standard career ladder rather than a true org-wide Principal. Advertised seniority is set to Principal to reflect the title; required seniority is set to Senior.
The MATLAB/Python/C++ requirement is stated as 'MATLAB, Python, and/or C/C++' — these are presented as interchangeable options for the same modelling/simulation work, so they are captured as a single requirement with alternatives. All three are listed under Basic Qualifications.
Degree requirement is set to None because the JD explicitly accepts '4 additional years of experience in lieu of a degree', making the degree substitutable.
The 8-year figure reflects the Bachelor's + 8 years path, which is the most common baseline; the JD also accepts Master's + 6 or PhD + 4.
Preferred qualifications cover networking (TCP/IP, WAN, routers/firewalls/switches), RF/antenna design, Visio/CATIA documentation, and Link 16 message formats — all listed under the Preferred section.
SOC classification is uncertain: the role is primarily a Systems Engineer in the defense/communications domain, which sits closest to 15-1299 (Computer Occupations, All Other) given its focus on COMMS waveforms, link budgets, and systems integration rather than pure software development. 15-1252 is noted as an alternative given the explicit coding requirement (MATLAB/Python/C++).
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): RF design.
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
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