Sr Principal Design Engineer

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 is seeking a highly qualified, mission oriented Aeroscience Test Design Engineer located in Redondo Beach, CA with responsibilities including but not limited to the following:

A design engineer within the highly specialized Aeroscience Test Team is responsible for the mechanical design and preliminary structural analysis of precision and complex test articles and systems that primarily support the acquisition of aerodynamic and propulsion data for development and validation of Northrop Grumman’s advanced air vehicles.  The test articles range from sub to full scale, focus on one area or the entire vehicle, and test in environments to represent conditions at sea level to high altitudes.  The designer is a key member of a close team between engineering and fabrication thus making broader knowledge of engineering disciplines, test instrumentation, and advances fabrication capabilities and techniques an asset.  Generating designs capable of efficient manufacture and assembly is a critical aspect to the role as nearly all articles are one-off and do not have the luxury of refinement and optimization typical of a production environment. 

The Aeroscience test design engineer also monitors and works within the allotted budget & schedule for their scope of the project and provides earned value and status reports to the Test Engineer or Project Manager on weekly basis and should be familiar with those basic principles.  They also generate and present preliminary and critical design reviews (PDR / CDR) to a diverse audience.
 
Some travel should be expected and will be required as the design engineer typically travels with the test article to its test location and provides assembly guidance and intent. 

Basic Qualifications 
•    Bachelors of Science in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering plus 9 years of engineering experience; OR a Master's of Science in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering plus 7 years of engineering experience.
•    4 years CAD experience in both modelling and drafting modules with typical industry software (e.g. NX, CATIA, Solidworks)
•    Willingness to travel 10% of the time
•    Candidate must have and be able to maintain an active U.S. Government security clearance at the Secret level and Special Program Access (SAP)        

      

Preferred Qualifications
•    Master’s degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering
•    Active DOD Secret or Top Secret clearance
•    CAD proficiency in NX, knowledge of FEA tools and applications
•    9 years of engineering experience in an aerospace, mechanical, or test engineering environment
•    Strong communication skills and ability to relay technical engineering findings to senior leadership 
•    Ability to work well within team; be adaptive and effectively communicate with various personality types 
•    Experience with wind tunnel testing
•    Familiarity with Earned Value Management Systems

Salary Range: $117,700 USD - $176,500 USD

Employees may be eligible for 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 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.