Sr Principal Systems Engineer - I&T at Northrop Grumman
Los Angeles, CA
$142,200–$213,400from the description
Jul 13, 2026
Los Angeles, CA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior-level systems engineering role within an Integration & Test department, working on-site in Woodland Hills, CA. The position centers on translating customer requirements into design documentation, developing and executing test procedures to verify and validate system performance, and performing hands-on electrical testing at both circuit card assembly and system levels. It suits engineers with a background in requirements management, verification and validation, and hardware debugging who hold an active Secret clearance.
Senior level · 8+ years · Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA · 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.
Why we read it this way (10)
This role is titled 'Sr Principal Systems Engineer' — 'Sr Principal' is Northrop Grumman's internal level above Principal, but the actual scope and experience requirements (8 years with a BS, hands-on I&T work on a single facility) are consistent with a Senior individual contributor rather than a true org-wide Principal. Advertised seniority is set to Principal to reflect the title; assessed seniority is Senior.
The minimum degree requirement varies by experience level (BS+8 yrs, MS+6 yrs, PhD+3 yrs) with no single hard floor on degree type, so the degree requirement is set to None.
An active Secret clearance is a hard gate for start ('CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes'). A TS/SCI with poly is listed under Preferred Qualifications only.
The SOC classification is Medium confidence: Systems Engineering in a defense/hardware context sits between 15-1211 (Computer Systems Analysts) and 15-1299 (Computer Occupations, All Other). The role is primarily requirements engineering, V&V, and hardware integration/test rather than software development.
Programming languages (MATLAB, C, C++, C#, Python) appear under Preferred Qualifications as a group of interchangeable options; emitted as a single preferred skill with alternatives.
Test equipment knowledge (network analyzers, oscilloscopes, etc.) is listed under Preferred Qualifications; emitted as a single preferred skill with alternatives.
Requirements development, test procedure development, and V&V are listed as required Systems Engineering experience areas under Basic Qualifications, but are methodologies/activities rather than named tools — included here because they represent concrete, gateable competencies central to this role.
The role is 100% on-site at Woodland Hills, CA; no remote work is available.
Ignored 2 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): requirements development, test procedure development.
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.
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