Cyber Systems Engineer - Level 4
Northrop Grumman · Huntsville, AL
$149,300–$223,900from the description
Jul 13, 2026
Huntsville, AL
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior-level cybersecurity engineering role focused on building, configuring, and maintaining secure classified networks and systems used across development, integration, testing, and operational environments. Day-to-day work involves deploying and managing security monitoring tools, hardening infrastructure across multiple OSI layers, scripting and automation, and collaborating with software developers to diagnose integration issues. Suits experienced systems administrators with a current Top Secret clearance and an active DoD 8140 IAT Level II certification.
Senior level · 8+ years · Huntsville, AL · Top Secret clearance · Full-time
Advertised as Principal, but the requirements read as Senior.
Posted 2 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
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $133,196 (middle half $100,370–$160,739). 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 title 'Sr. Principal Cyber Systems Engineer – Level 4' is advertised as Principal, but the scope (component/system-level cybersecurity engineering on a single program) and the 8-year experience floor are consistent with a Senior band; Principal is reserved for org-wide technical authority.
Degree requirement is marked None because the JD accepts equivalent experience in lieu of a degree (Bachelor's + 8 yrs, Master's + 6 yrs, or PhD + 4 yrs — no degree alone is a hard gate).
An active Top Secret clearance is an explicit hard gate at time of application; TS/SCI is not mentioned, so TopSecret (not TopSecretSci) is used.
DoD 8140 IAT Level II certification (Security+ CE, CCNA-Security, CySA+, CND, etc.) is an explicit hard gate at time of application.
Tenable and Nessus are listed together in the preferred section as a scanning pair; Tenable is the platform and Nessus is its scanner engine — captured as one skill with Nessus as an alternative.
InControl appears in the preferred section but is ambiguous (could refer to multiple products); it is omitted from the skills list as it cannot be mapped to a canonical, widely-recognized tool name.
The role is classified as 15-1212 (Information Security Analysts) rather than 15-1244 (Systems Admins) because the primary focus is cybersecurity posture, monitoring, vulnerability management, and secure network design on classified systems, with sysadmin work as a supporting function. 15-1244 is noted as a plausible runner-up.
Ignored 2 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): DoD 8140 / IAT Level II, Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager.
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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