Sr. Staff Chief Engineer

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman · Aerospace · Rolling Meadows, IL +1 · Engineering Mult-Func

The Sr. Staff Chief Engineer at Northrop Grumman is responsible for the technical direction of all engineering aspects on a program, including design, development, implementation, testing, and delivery of products. This role acts as a technical leader and advisor, ensuring adherence to engineering processes and quality standards across hardware, software, and firmware disciplines. The position requires experience in the defense contracting environment, particularly during EMD and LRIP phases, and involves working with advanced sensing and targeting systems.

What you'd actually do

  1. Owns responsibility for the technical direction of all engineering aspects on a program, including design, development, implementation, testing and delivery of any product to a customer.
  2. Acts as both a technical leader for the engineering team as well as an independent advisor to the program manager.
  3. Coordinates across all engineering disciplines on the program to ensure that the teams adhere to engineering processes in accordance with company policies, procedures, and quality standards.
  4. Experience working collaboratively on complex projects that encompass hardware, software, and firmware
  5. Ability to obtain and maintain a minimum of a U.S. Government Secret Clearance with additional customer specified clearance prior to start

Skills

Required

  • BS degree in Mechanical, Electrical Engineering, Physics or other STEM field with 14+ years of related experience, MS degree in STEM field with 12+ years of related experience, or PhD in STEM field with 10+ years of related experience
  • 5+ years of related engineering experience working in an engineering organization at a defense contractor during EMD and/or LRIP phases
  • Demonstrated proficiency in analytical thinking and problem-solving skills
  • Experience in creating and delivering technical presentations to internal and external leadership
  • Experience working collaboratively on complex projects that encompass hardware, software, and firmware
  • Ability to obtain and maintain a minimum of a U.S. Government Secret Clearance with additional customer specified clearance prior to start
  • U.S. Citizenship required

Nice to have

  • Experience in all aspects of the engineering process from proposal / requirements analysis through verification testing and fielding of systems
  • Experience in a Systems Engineering Integration & Test environment from one or more of the following specialty areas: EOIR systems, sensors, optics, antenna design, direction finding, geolocation, threat analysis
  • Experience decomposing requirements for DoD-based platforms or systems
  • Demonstrated expertise in SysML modeling and MBSE tools (e.g., IBM Rational DOORS, Enterprise Architect, Cameo). Ability to develop and maintain system models, traceability matrices, and verification cross‑reference artifacts
  • Experience in development and Earned Value Management (EVM) of cost accounts and schedules
  • Active U.S. Government Secret or Top Secret security clearance

What the JD emphasized

  • Secret Clearance
  • Secret or Top Secret security clearance