RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: No relocation assistance available CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: No CLEARANCE TYPE: Secret TRAVEL: Yes, 10% of the Time Northrop Grumman is seeking a StaffAI Software Engineer to support the development, integration, and deployment of advanced AI-enabled software solutions to support our Systems Engineering Integration & Test (SEIT) department. As a member of the SEIT department youll work in a fast-paced team environment alongside physicists, design engineers, and superconducting foundry engineers to make our technologies a reality. This position will serve on-site at Spectrum Center, San Diego. Responsibilities: Lead the design, development, integration, and sustainment of advanced AI-enabled software products and supporting systems acrosscloudand local/on-premises environments. Initiate advanced development efforts and help shape technical direction from concept through deployment, transition,and sustainment. Evaluate AI/ML use cases based on mission need, data availability, model suitability, hardware constraints, latency, scalability, security, and operationalrisk. Guideteams through implementation of complex AI and software solutions across software, systems, cyber, networking, DevOps,andoperations domains. Translate customer, mission, and businessobjectives into secure, scalable, and maintainable technical solutions that account for cost,schedule, and performance constraints. Lead technical trade studies, architecture assessments, and solution analyses to support complex engineering andproductdecisions. Develop and refine AI systems using appropriate model adaptation, fine-tuning, evaluation, and deployment approaches foroperationaluse. Design AI/software solutions that effectively leverage available compute resources, includingGPU,memory, storage, networking, and deployment limitations. Secure and harden end-to-end systems, including infrastructure, platforms, applications, data flows, models,and development pipelines. Evaluate and securely leverage open-source frameworks, models,and tools while maintaining sound engineering,security, and supportability practices. Identify high-value technical improvement opportunities and independently drive solutions that improve performance, resiliency, efficiency, security, or cost. Present technical strategies, risks, and recommendations to program leadership,directors, customers, and other stakeholders. Support proposal activities, technical planning, budgeting,scheduling, and execution planning for advanced development efforts. Mentor engineers, strengthen technical networks across teams, and help elevateengineeringstandardsand execution across the organization. Basic Qualifications for PrincipalAI Software Engineer: Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related STEM discipline with 12 years of relevant experience; or 10 years with a Masters degree; or 8 years with a PhD. Candidate must be a US Citizen. Proven ability to move AI capabilities from research or prototype stage into reliable operational use. Integration of AI into larger end-to-end systems. Experience evaluating AI/ML solutions against data quality, operational constraints, compute availability, and mission suitability. Experience deploying software or AI systems into complex production, lab, or mission environments. Experience performing technical trade studies and making architecture decisions across performance, cost, security, and maintainability. Experience integrating AI capabilities into larger end-to-end systems rather than isolated prototypes. Experience with modern development practices including version control, test automation, CI/CD, and containerized deployment workflows. Clearance: A current/active DoD Secret clearance. Preferred Qualifications for Principal AI Software Engineer: Experience leading advanced AI/ML development efforts from early concept through deploymentandsustainment. Experience evaluating and deploying AI solutions with consideration foraccuracy,latency, throughput, robustness, and hardware efficiency. Experience with computer vision, robotics, autonomous systems, or swarm/distributed intelligentsystems. Experience with GPU optimization, distributed inference, or deployment in constrained compute environments. Experience fine-tuning large language models or related foundation models using methods such as LoRA, QLoRA, domain-adaptive pretraining, or similaradaptationapproaches. Working knowledge across adjacent domainssuch as cyber security, networking, DevOps, systems engineering, or platform engineering. Experience securing end-to-end AI/softwareplatforms spanning infrastructure, applications, data, models, interfaces, and deployment pipelines. Experience evaluating and incorporating open-source models, frameworks,and tooling in a secure and supportable manner. Familiarity with modern software delivery practices including CI/CD, containerization, automation, and platform operations. Demonstrated ability toinfluencetechnical strategy, advise managementor customers on advanced technical efforts, and represent the organization on complexinitiatives. Experience supporting proposals,technical planning, estimation, budget discussions, and schedule-drivenexecution. Proven ability to mentor others, build technical networks, and drive collaboration across largeinterdisciplinaryteams. Trackrecord of delivering measurable mission or business value through new capability development, cost savings, force multiplication, or operational efficiency. Primary Level Salary Range: $214,200.00 - $321,200.00 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 candidates 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.