Sr Principal Data

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: No

CLEARANCE TYPE: Secret

TRAVEL: Yes, 10% of the Time

Description

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.

Join Northrop Grumman on our continued mission to push the boundaries of possible across land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. Enjoy a culture where your voice is valued and contribute to a team of passionate professionals providing real-life solutions to our world's biggest challenges. We take pride in creating purposeful work and developing our employees to grow their careers. We are defining possible every day by bringing out the best in ourselves. Are you ready to join a world-class team where the right opportunities fuel your individual growth?

The Defense Systems Sector Strategic Deterrence Systems Division is seeking a Senior Principal Data Scientist, located in Roy, UT. This role provides technical and delivery leadership for a business domain, building trusted data pipelines and data products that support program outcomes and downstream analytics. Relocation Assistance may be available.

Mission

Own delivery and sustainment of data pipelines and data products for a specific business domain acting as the primary technical and delivery lead for the domain. Align domain work with program goals, cross-domain integration patterns, and platform standards.

Responsibilities

• Own the domain data pipeline and data product roadmap and lead the domain data engineering team in executing it, ensuring it aligns with program objectives, control account plans, and cross-domain data architecture.
• Prioritize and sequence the domain backlog (build and sustain) in collaboration with domain stakeholders, team leadership, and program leadership.
• Lead domain-level solution design for pipelines and data products, ensuring designs leverage shared capabilities (frameworks, orchestration, observability, data quality) and conform to cross-domain data models.
• Ensure domain pipelines meet non-functional requirements (reliability, performance, security, observability) and governance standards across the environments they run in (e.g., unclassified, CUI, and higher-side networks), including appropriate instrumentation, monitoring, and incident response practices.
• Represent domain needs, constraints, and risks in cross-domain and platform planning discussions, influencing sequencing, scope, and technical risk mitigation.
• Provide coaching and technical guidance to domain data engineers, domain observability, and pipeline ops roles, raising technical quality and consistency across the domain team.
• Work closely with domain stakeholders and downstream analytics/data science teams to understand business needs, manage expectations, and communicate roadmap, status, and risks.
• Collaborate with system-of-record owners to align domain pipelines with evolving business processes and data structures.
• Coordinate with the engineering lead and execution lead on architecture decisions, sequencing of cross-domain work, and management of technical risks affecting the domain.

Typical Minimum Education or Experience

• T04: Bachelor's degree with 8+ years of relevant experience; or a Master's degree with 6+ years; or a PhD with 4+ years.
• Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government DoD Secret security clearance, with the ability to obtain and maintain Special Access Program (SAP) approval within a reasonable period of time, as determined by the company to meet its business need.
• 3+ years leading technical design and delivery as a technical lead, domain lead, or equivalent technical owner for production data pipelines, data products, integration capabilities, or a sustained delivery workstream.
• 3+ years integrating data from multiple enterprise systems of record and working through data-model, process, schema, or dependency considerations across one or more business domains.
• Demonstrated experience prioritizing build-versus-sustainment work, sequencing delivery, managing technical risk, and aligning domain delivery with stakeholder needs.
• Demonstrated experience leading solution design and applying shared platform standards and non-functional requirements for reliability, performance, security, observability, and data quality.
• Demonstrated experience mentoring engineers and communicating technical decisions, delivery risks, and tradeoffs to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

These qualifications would be nice to have

• Master's degree or PhD in Data Science, Data Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related STEM discipline.
• 3+ years serving as a technical lead for data products, domain pipelines, or delivery work in aerospace, defense, or another highly regulated engineering or manufacturing environment.
• 3+ years building or operating pipelines using Apache Spark, Delta Lake, Apache Airflow, Kafka, Postgres, Databricks, or comparable technologies.
• Experience integrating data from systems such as DOORS, CAMEO, CPLM, SAP, and Workday into analytical, operational, or data-platform capabilities, including managing source-schema evolution and integration impacts.
• Experience aligning technical roadmaps, backlogs, and delivery plans with control accounts, earned-value baselines, program milestones, technical risk, and dependency sequencing.
• Experience working across two or more business domains—Systems Engineering, Program Management, or Design & Manufacturing—and contributing to cross-domain data models or integration patterns.
• Experience operating data products across unclassified, CUI, air-gapped, or otherwise constrained environments.

Primary Level Salary Range

Primary Level Salary Range: $135,000.00 - $202,600.00

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 U.S. Citizenship is required for all positions with a government clearance and certain other restricted positions.