Sr Principal Software Engineer - AI Software (San Diego)

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes

CLEARANCE TYPE: Top Secret

TRAVEL: Yes, 25% 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.

Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems is seeking a Senior Principal Software Engineer – AI Software to join our onsite team on site in San Diego, El Segundo or Palmdale, California .

This role requires a self-motivated professional with proven experience collaborating in cross functional teams. The ideal candidate will be a technology visionary and strategist who can lead the strategy, architecture, and hands-on implementation of secure, reliable, and scalable Artificial Intelligence systems that drive measurable business outcomes. This position demands strong interpersonal skills, the ability to influence stakeholders, and a proven track record of delivering results in highly regulated, high clearance environments.

Roles And Responsibilities

• Provide collaborative technical leadership that drives the maturation of Artificial Intelligence solutions across a portfolio of contracts and operating units
• Partner with product, platform, data, security, and compliance to establish responsible AI practices, model governance, and enterprise-grade MLOps.
• Act as the Subject Matter Expert for all aspects of the enterprise Artificial Intelligence roadmap and execution.
• Provide senior technical leadership thorough design reviews, prototyping, code contributions, and mentoring while aligning roadmaps across teams.

Work Environment

The selected candidate will work full time on site at our San Diego, El Segundo or Palmdale facility; remote, hybrid, or telework options are not available for this position. Travel of up to 25% may be required.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics) discipline with 8 years of related engineering experience; OR a Master’s degree in a STEM discipline with 6 years of related engineering experience; OR a PhD in a STEM discipline with 4 years of related engineering experience.
• Professional software engineering experience building and delivering production software (e.g., Python, Java, C++, or similar).
• Applied AI/ML engineering experience delivering models to production (classical ML and/or deep learning, including LLM-enabled solutions).
• Experience integrating AI/ML capabilities into enterprise software systems (APIs/services, data pipelines, and production deployment patterns).
• Experience working in regulated environments with strong emphasis on security, data handling, and governance expectations for AI use.
• Demonstrated technical leadership (leading designs, mentoring engineers, driving cross-team technical alignment).
• Active U.S. Government Top Secret clearance (with a background investigation within the past 5 years or enrolled into Continuous Evaluation).
• Ability to obtain and maintain initial Special Program Access (SAP/PAR). This SAP/PAR must be obtained within a reasonable amount of time as determined by the company to meet its business needs.

Preferred Qualifications

• Current applicable Special Access Program (SAP) clearance.
• Advanced degree (MS/PhD) in Machine Learning, Computer Science, or related field.
• Experience with modern software practices: version control, code reviews, automated testing, CI/CD, and containerized deployment.
• Working knowledge of MLOps fundamentals (model evaluation, reproducibility, monitoring/observability, model lifecycle).
• Experience leading AI technical strategy/roadmaps for a program or product; influencing stakeholders across software, systems, and program leadership.
• Deep experience with LLM solutions, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), evaluation/guardrails, and enterprise-ready integration.
• Strong MLOps experience (pipelines/orchestration, experiment tracking, model registry, automated retraining, drift detection).
• Experience scaling AI systems for reliability/performance (latency/cost optimization, GPU utilization, autoscaling, canary/A/B deployments).
• Experience with secure DevSecOps practices and supply-chain security for software and ML artifacts.
• Familiarity with enterprise AI governance and responsible-use expectations, including alignment to company AI governance procedures.

Primary Level Salary Range: $142,200.00 - $213,400.00

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.