Principal Systems Engineer

Sr Principal Cyber Systems Engineer - X-Lab Platform Engineer (26-375)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 Space Systems-Missile Defense Integration offers an excellent opportunity for a Sr Principal Cyber Systems Engineer - X-Lab Platform Engineer (26-375) to join our team of skilled and diverse professionals. Based at Schriever Space Force Base, CO, this role is essential to supporting the U.S. President, the Secretary of Defense, and combatant commanders at the strategic, regional, and operational levels. This position does not provide relocation assistance and requires on-site work with no remote options.Position Overview: The Command and Control, Battle Management, and Communications (C2BMC) program is a key component of the Missile Defense System. It is a vital operational system that enables the U.S. president, the Secretary of Defense, and combatant commanders at strategic, regional, and operational levels to plan ballistic missile defense operations systematically, collectively monitor the battle, and dynamically control networked sensors and weapon systems to achieve global and regional mission goals. C2BMC supports layered missile defense capabilities that enable an optimized response to threats across all ranges and flight phases. It serves as a force multiplier by networking, integrating, and synchronizing autonomous sensor and weapon systems and operations, both globally and regionally, to improve performance.Essential Functions:Containers and Kubernetes: Act as the primary administrator for the container platforms, covering cluster build, upgrade, workload onboarding, and decommissioningAny task performed manually more than twice is a candidate for automationMaintain infrastructure as code in version control, with peer review required before mergingObservability, Recovery, and ComplianceDevelop and sustain platform monitoring and alerting systems, setting thresholds based on actual operational impact and actively reducing alert noiseThe current setup includes Prometheus, Grafana, and Mattermost for alerting; similar monitoring and alerting tools are also applicableOwn backup and recovery for virtual machine and container workloadsVerify restores on a scheduled basis instead of assuming backup success, and keep documented recovery procedures with specified RTO and RPOApply STIGs and security baselines, and remediate findings within program service levelsSupport RMF and ATO activities, including artifact generation, scan review, and POA&M remediationServe as technical lead for a group of platform engineers, setting technical direction and reviewing designs before implementation beginsDecompose complex initiatives into actionable work, provide effort estimates with stated assumptions, and support sprint and iteration planningCoordinate with networks, cyber, and program stakeholders on cross-team dependenciesCoordination requests are raised early and explicitly rather than assuming ownership of another team's scopeOwn assigned initiatives from cradle to grave, including requirements, implementation plan, execution, and closeout documentationProvide escalation support for complex incidents and drive root-cause corrective actions to closureAdminister the on-premises hypervisor platform across multiple clusters and remote sites, including cluster lifecycle management, upgrades, and patch currency aligned with vendor-recommended baselinesMaintain multi-tenant separation using projects, categories, and role-based access control so that a user group accesses only its assigned assetsHandle persistent storage, ingress, certificates, image registry, and cluster networking, including namespace quotas and network policies to ensure tenant separationAutomation and CI/CDCreate and sustain configuration management content to support provisioning, patching, and compliance remediationOwn the CI/CD pipelines used for platform delivery, including runners, pipeline stages, artifact and image handling, and deployment automationBasic Qualifications:A Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, Cybersecurity Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or a related field from an accredited university, along with 8 years of experience; or a Master's degree in a related field with 6 years of relevant work experience; or 12 years of relevant work experience may be considered as an alternative to a degreeApplicants must have a current, active Government-Issued 8140 certification at IAT Level II or higher (such as Security+ CE, CCNA-Security, CySA+, CND, etc.) at the time of application, which is required to start. The candidate is responsible for maintaining their 8140 certifications throughout the entire contract periodApplicants must have a current, active in-scope Government-issued Secret security clearance at the time of application, which is required to startWillingness to travel 10% of the time for business needsPrevious experience in Virtualization and Private CloudExperience with VMware vSphere, Red Hat Virtualization, or OpenStackExperience with any production Kubernetes distribution such as Nutanix Kubernetes Platform or Red Hat OpenShiftExperience with tools such as Ansible ; Puppet, Chef, or SaltExperience Scripting in Python, Bash, or PowerShellPreferred Qualifications:Deep experience with an on-premises private cloud platform and multi-tenant RBAC for least privilegeExperience maximizing infrastructure uptime while maintaining a compliant, patched hypervisor platformKubernetes or OpenShift administrationCertifications such as RHCSA, RHCE, or CKA are a plusCI/CD pipeline development and implementation of a monitoring stack at team or enterprise scaleNutanix AHV and Prism Central experienceWhat We Can Offer You: Northrop Grumman provides a comprehensive benefits package and a supportive work environment that encourages your growth, benefiting both employees and the company. The benefits are flexible and customizable, enabling you to choose options that suit your individual and family needs. Your benefits will include the following:Health PlanSavings PlanPaid Time OffEducation AssistanceTraining and DevelopmentFlexible Work Arrangements