RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: No relocation assistance available
CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: No
CLEARANCE TYPE: Secret
TRAVEL: Yes, 10% of the Time
DescriptionNorthrop Grumman’s Corporate Sector's Chief Information & Digital Office (CIDO) is seeking a
Staff Software Defined Infrastructure Engineer to support its IT Infrastructure & Operations organization. As a Staff Software Defined Infrastructure Engineer at Northrop Grumman, you will have a challenging and rewarding opportunity to lead our technical efforts to implement Software Defined Everything across our environments. Through the use of Infrastructure as Code, automation, Model-based Engineering, DevSecOps, and Agile practices, we are transforming how we design, deploy, and operate critical national defense products and capabilities for the warfighter.
You will be a key technical leader, driving the architecture and implementation of automated infrastructure. This will include the tools and other infrastructure required to support our IT Infra organization in using tools such as Ansible and Terraform, building robust Python-based automation services, and guiding the migration from traditional IT environments to modern, software-defined platforms. Our success is grounded in our ability to embrace change, move quickly, and continuously drive innovation. The successful candidate will be collaborative, open, transparent, and team-oriented, with a focus on team empowerment & shared responsibility, flexibility, continuous learning, and a culture of automation.
This is a virtual/remote role, however the preferred candidate will be within driving distance to a major Northrop Grumman site.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead the design and implementation of Software Defined Infrastructure solutions using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools such as Ansible and Terraform.
- Architect and implement automated provisioning, configuration, and lifecycle management of servers, containers, and Kubernetes clusters across on-prem and cloud environments.
- Develop tooling, services, and frameworks to orchestrate infrastructure workflows, validate configurations, and integrate with CI/CD pipelines.
- Drive migration of traditional IT environments to automated, software-defined platforms, including refactoring legacy configurations into reusable, version-controlled IaC modules.
- Define and enforce standards, patterns, and best practices for Infra as Code, automation, testing, and documentation across team.
- Collaborate with software engineering and IT infrastructure teams to design resilient, scalable, and secure architectures for mission-critical systems.
- Maintain and optimize containerized and Kubernetes-based environments, including cluster configuration, observability, and incident response.
- Work in a fast-paced Agile environment, actively participating in backlog grooming, sprint planning, and continuous improvement activities.
- Mentor and coach junior engineers in software engineering, automation, and infrastructure practices; contribute to knowledge-sharing sessions, design reviews, and documentation.
Basic Qualifications:
- 12 Years of relevant work experience with a Bachelors; 10 Years with Masters; 8 Years with PhD.
- Candidates must have the ability to obtain a U.S. Government Secret level security clearance as a condition of continued employment
- Strong experience designing and implementing automated infrastructure using Infrastructure as Code tools such as Ansible and Terraform.
- Strong proficiency in Python, including building automation services, libraries, or frameworks with robust testing and documentation.
- Experience leading migrations from traditional IT environments (manual/legacy configurations) to software-defined, automated platforms.
- Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies (Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift, or similar), including cluster-level configuration and lifecycle management.
- Experience with daily development and administration in Linux (RHEL, Ubuntu, or similar).
- Experience maintaining production-grade applications or platform services in virtualized or cloud environments such as Amazon Web Services, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform.
- Experience working with and presenting accomplishments to internal and external customers, including technical briefings and status updates.
- Experience mentoring junior engineers and contributing to knowledge-sharing sessions and documentation.
- Understanding of Agile/Scrum methodologies.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience deploying and managing CI/CD pipelines that integrate Infra as Code, automated testing, and environment promotion.
- Experience with monitoring and observability for infrastructure and Kubernetes environments using tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, or similar; ability to set up alerts and incident response processes.
- Experience integrating security and compliance tooling into automated pipelines (e.g., container scanning & signing, code scanning, policy-as-code) and deploying them into classified or air-gapped environments.
- Experience with Git-based workflows (GitLab, GitHub, Bitbucket) including branching strategies and code review practices.
- Experience with model-based or declarative configuration approaches and configuration management at scale.
- Strong communication skills with the ability to influence architecture decisions and drive alignment across software, infrastructure, and security stakeholders.
We offer flexible work arrangements, phenomenal learning opportunities, exposure to a wide variety of projects and customers, and a very friendly team environment. At Northrop Grumman, we are on the cutting edge of innovation. Our diverse portfolio of programs means there are endless paths to cultivate your career. We also offer exceptional benefits/healthcare, a 9/80 work schedule, and a great 401k matching program. Come join us!
Primary Level Salary Range: $177,000.00 - $265,600.00
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.
