Principal / Sr. Principal DevOps Engineer

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes

CLEARANCE TYPE: Secret

TRAVEL: Yes, 10% of the Time

At Northrop Grumman, our employees have incredible opportunities to work on revolutionary systems that impact people's lives around the world today, and for generations to come. Our pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled us to be at the forefront of many technological advancements in our nation's history - from the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, to stealth bombers, to landing on the moon. We look for people who have bold new ideas, courage and a pioneering spirit to join forces to invent the future, and have fun along the way. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity and bringing your whole self to work — and we have an insatiable drive to do what others think is impossible. Our employees are not only part of history, they're making history.

Northrop Grumman Defense Systems (NGDS), Huntsville, AL is currently seeking a Principal or Sr. Principal DevOps Engineer. The successful candidates will demonstrate a broad skill set balanced between interpersonal and technical capabilities achieving sustainable quality products. The selected candidates will participate in the entire software development lifecycle.

This role is intended for engineers performing in a DevOps capacity, working closely with software engineers, cyber operators, and platform teams to develop, secure, deploy, and sustain mission applications and supporting infrastructure. The selected candidate will support CI/CD pipeline implementation and sustainment, containerized application environments, system administration, operational support, and field support representative-type functions as needed to maintain mission effectiveness. The candidates will work closely with other software and systems engineers accomplishing the following:

• Principal Software Engineer: BS or higher degree in Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math (STEM) or related field with 5+ years of experience, or Master's degree in STEM with 3 years of experience OR
• Senior Principal Software Engineer: BS or higher degree in Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math (STEM) or related field with 8+ years of experience, or Master's degree in STEM with 6 years of experience
• Active U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Secret Security Clearance
• Experience with configuration and maintenance of DevOps Infrastructure as Code tools and CI/CD pipelines such as Jenkins, Gitlab CI or similar
• Experience with OCI-compliant container technology and tools such as Podman or Docker
• Experience managing and troubleshooting containerized workloads, specifically using Kubernetes or Docker
• Experience with Linux Operating System, including virtual machines, storage and networking
• Experience with distributed revision control systems such as Git
• Experience supporting system reliability, monitoring, logging, and troubleshooting in production environments.

• Experience with scripting languages such as Python, Bash, or Go to improve platform efficiency
• Kubernetes‑related certifications such as CKA (Certified Kubernetes Administrator), CKAD (Certified Kubernetes Application Developer), CKS (Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist), or KCSP (Kubernetes Certified Service Provider)

• Experience with infrastructure as code tools such as Terraform, Ansible, or CloudFormation

• Experience with the configuration and administration of CNCF tools such as Harbor, ArgoCD, Grafana, Prometheus, and Helm
• Experience implementing “security as code”, including automated vulnerability scanning and compliance‑driven infrastructure
• Experience working in an Agile environment and familiarity with Agile principles and practices
• Experience with project / issue tracking software such as Jira and Confluence
• Demonstrated understanding of service based architectures

• Demonstrated experience deploying and supporting applications in cloud or hybrid environments

 

Primary Level Salary Range: $98,400.00 - $147,600.00

Secondary Level Salary Range: $122,800.00 - $184,200.00

The above salary range represents a general guideline; however, Northrop Grumman considers a number of factors when determining base salary offers such as the scope and responsibilities of the position and the candidate's experience, education, skills and current market conditions.

Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay. Annual bonuses are designed to reward individual contributions as well as allow employees to share in company results. Employees in Vice President or Director positions may be eligible for Long Term Incentives. In addition, Northrop Grumman provides a variety of benefits including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, savings plan, Company paid holidays and paid time off (PTO) for vacation and/or personal business.

The application period for the job is estimated to be 20 days from the job posting date. However, this timeline may be shortened or extended depending on business needs and the availability of qualified candidates.

Northrop Grumman is an Equal Opportunity Employer, making decisions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class. For our complete EEO and pay transparency statement, please visit http://www.northropgrumman.com/EEO. U.S. Citizenship is required for all positions with a government clearance and certain other restricted positions.