Senior Principal RF Systems Engineer

Northrop Grumman Mission Systems is a trusted provider of mission-enabling solutions for global security.  Our Engineering and Sciences (E&S) organization pushes the boundaries of innovation, redefines engineering capabilities, and drives advances in various sciences. Our team is chartered with providing the skills, innovative technologies to develop, design, produce and sustain optimized product lines across the sector while providing a decisive advantage to the warfighter.  Come be a part of our mission!

We are looking for you to join our team as a Senior Principal RF Systems Engineer in the Mission Systems, Radio Frequency (RF) Department based out of Rolling Meadows, IL. As a Staff Engineer Systems at Northrop Grumman, you will have a challenging and rewarding opportunity to be a part of our Enterprise-wide digital transformation.

What You’ll get to Do:

Be part of the Systems Definition and Architecture Team. As an RF Systems Architect, you will part of a highly-skilled team of Systems Engineers working on state-of-the-art Radio Frequency Electronic Warfare (RFEW) systems designed to protect the warfighter. Our team supports programs within the Electronic Warfare Systems (EWS) Division and Emerging Capabilities Division (ECD). On RF programs, the Systems Architect is the technical leader of the team and serves as the primary technical interface to the Program Manager and customers. The Systems Architect will need to have an overall understanding of how our systems architecture design process meets our mission level goals. Assignments may also include analysis and trade studies of product line architectures using analytical models and mission level simulations.  

In addition, you may also get to:

• Perform technical planning, system integration, verification and validation, cost and risk, and supportability and effectiveness analyses for total systems.

• Work on analyses, which are performed at all levels of total system product to include: concept, design, fabrication, test, installation, operation, maintenance and disposal.

• Ensure the logical and systematic conversion of customer or product requirements into total systems solutions that acknowledge technical, schedule, and cost constraints.

• Perform functional analysis, timeline analysis, detail trade studies, requirements allocation and interface definition studies to translate customer requirements into hardware and software specifications.

• Design and develop system architectures, and define key capabilities and performance requirements.

• Define design and technology maturity constraints of the system in accordance with customer specifications.

• Develop thorough definition of system external interfaces.

• Defines system implementation approach and operational concept.

• Ensure requirements are met and evaluate performance with customer.

Basic Qualifications:

• BS degree in Electrical, System Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or related technical degree with at least 9 years of related experience required, or 7 years with Master’s, and 4 years with a PhD.

• Experience performing optimum system function allocation to hardware and software requirements.

• Demonstrated success in developing test plans that prove the system satisfies requirements and the ability to quickly capture and process data in tools like MATLAB for debugging and specification verification.

• U.S. citizen and must be able to obtain Interim Secret security clearance prior to start. Once started, must have the ability to obtain and maintain Secret Security Clearance.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in architecting Electronic Warfare RF systems with real-time digital signal processing and threat scenario analysis

• Understanding of RF propagation modeling, computational electromagnetics, wave theory, antenna design, and RF chain analysis.

• Experience turning concepts into reality through MATLAB implementation of new technologies

• Experience using of digital signal processing algorithms used to build state-of-the-art high sensitivity, wideband, and digital receivers.

• Understanding of digital signal processing algorithms in FPGAs and ASICs

• Prior experience designing hardware, firmware, and programming software to best allocate functions for each product

• Ability to monitor hardware and software design teams with critical insight to know when the teams are not on path to successful implementation and then be able help steer the team to a successful solution

• Experience working on Department of Defense contracts

• Active Secret or Top-Secret security clearance

The health and safety of our employees and their families is a top priority. The company encourages employees to remain up-to-date on their COVID-19 vaccinations. U.S. Northrop Grumman employees may be required, in the future, to be vaccinated or have an approved disability/medical or religious accommodation, pursuant to future court decisions and/or government action on the currently stayed federal contractor vaccine mandate under Executive Order 14042 https://www.saferfederalworkforce.gov/contractors/.

Northrop Grumman is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action 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/AA and Pay Transparency statement, please visit http://www.northropgrumman.com/EEO. U.S. Citizenship is required for most positions.