Sr Principal Engineer Propulsion

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 in need of a Sr. Principal Propulsion Engineer to work at its Elkton, Maryland facility.

Description:

Perform analysis, design, or test of one or more moderately complex materials (including energetics), structural components, and control systems for propulsion systems. Apply engineering principles, industry standards, company standards and customer requirements to develop propulsion systems (electric, solid/liquid fuel rocket, air-breathing, thrusters) for application in launch vehicles, missile systems, and space mission systems. Coordinate strategy for developing and leveraging multi-disciplinary design, optimization, and analysis processes to support mission requirements. Define and coordinate the conduct of testing required to evaluate design work.

Responsibilities:
-Provide/lead the development of acoustic, shock and vibration environments and loads to support systems and component design, validation testing and structural margin verification, by applying combinations of dynamic test data and analysis
-Provide/lead structural dynamic analysis simulation and modeling efforts to support design activities across all Northrop Grumman, Propulsion System and Controls product lines. These simulations include development of structural dynamic models, gridding, selection of boundary conditions and constraints, selection of applicable material properties, selection of appropriate simulation code and methodology, and performing model validation 
-Key responsibilities for this position include taking a lead role in developing analysis methodologies, interpretation of test and analytical results, and recommendation for design improvement
-Preparation of technical reports and presentations of work product to both internal and external customers
-Provide system level test support including making technical assessments of test hardware and test data
-Lead analytical services in support of failure investigations: developing fault trees, developing approaches, and providing analytical efforts to assess fault causes
-Assist project team in design of experiments testing to provide necessary data to validate detailed analyses
-Form close working relationships with internal and external customer technical community and specific customer technical points of contact
-Develop analytical approaches to assist in the resolution of unique structural issues.  Assist in design of test articles to provide necessary data for full scale application

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelors degree in STEM plus 9 years of experience.  Will also consider a Masters degree in STEM plus 7 years of experience or a PhD with 4 years of experience.  Degree in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering a plus.
• Strong experience in modeling with FEA software (ABAQUS, NASTRAN, ANSYS, Wave6 or equivalent)
• Programming skills in Matlab, Simulink or Python
• Experience with shock and vibration testing and analysis
• Demonstrated ability to prepare and present analytical results in both oral and written format
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, writing, presentation, and critical thinking skills
  Comfortable in team and lead roles
• Ability to obtain a Secret Clearance which requires US Citizenship as a pre-requisite
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office suite (Excel, Word, Power Point)

Preferred Qualifications:

• Current Active Security Clearance
• Prior experience in solid rocket motor design and analysis
• Experience using NX solid modeling software
• Experience performing structural dynamics analysis on flight vehicles
• Applicable experience in performing analysis incorporating isotropic, orthotropic, hyperelastic materials, and measured damping properties in linear and non-linear dynamic analyses
• Modal test and model correlation experience
• Vibroacoustic analysis experience
• Experience with component loads development following aerospace practices 
• Familiar with SMC-S-016 and/or NASA 7000 series standards 
• Experience calculating fatigue damage accumulation in response to dynamic environments
• Critical thinking skills, logical approaches, attention to detail 

Salary Range: $123,800 USD - $185,800 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.