Division Chief Architect – Director 2

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 Aeronautics Systems has an opening for a Division Chief Architect Director 2 to join our team of qualified, diverse individuals. This leadership role is located in Melbourne, FL but will also consider San Diego, CA.

We are interested a division-facing Division Chief Architect Director 2 to join the engineering organization as a direct report to the Vice President of Global Surveillance Engineering. This position will be forward-looking, with the goal of adding value to our products by leveraging capabilities and technologies that exist across the division, the sector, the corporation and throughout industry. 

The background of the ideal candidate should include a STEM degree and extensive experience in the aerospace defense industry; good knowledge of current capabilities in aircraft, payloads, and communication systems is essential.  Additionally, Northrop Grumman boasts incredible capabilities in the space domain – perhaps the greatest prospect to add value is through bringing cross-domain solutions together. Of highest priority for the architect is understanding the current or potential missions that are at the division’s core or are strongly evident across the sector’s mission areas.  Familiarity with the advanced technologies required to operate near the Highly Contested Environment is essential.  Understanding of key architectural tenets of unmanned air systems and autonomy is highly desirable.

The architect will be a driving force for the success of their specific division, driving to increase the value, relevance, and growth for their existing and future division product lines.  The position will require a very collaborative mindset; understanding the missions through the eyes of both the warfighter and command authority is a necessary foundation.  The ability to conceive and direct modeling efforts to define and validate innovative systems and solutions is critical to provide the true cost-benefit for the divisions. Collaboration inside the engineering team is a must to understand mission performance modeling results, and to help guide division and sector investments in NCTA, and to combine smaller initiatives into powerful new capabilities.  

The Division CA will be responsible to:

• Leverage a good understanding of division-specific Mission Engineering needs, and be a key Subject Matter Expert on the threats defining Division integrated technology and mission solutions
• Ability to reconcile industry disruptor behaviors; shifting USG perspectives; recognize and bound sunk cost/” heritage” mindsets
• Ability to structure architectural risk/benefit trades relative to evolving competitive landscape
• Partner with the Division’s primary customers to understand their long-range capability needs (roadmap & challenges) that align with their internal programs, budgets, and schedules
• Collaborate with the Sector Chief Technology Officer, other Division Chief Architects and Enterprise Mission & Technology Campaigns to shape and evaluate emerging business opportunities to optimize and repurpose NGAS solutions to benefit all the divisions across the Sector
• Partner with organizations within the Sector, cross-sector, and Enterprise wide to leverage other efforts to reduce costs and maximize synergy (e.g. modeling and sim, digital engineering, threat analysis, AI/ML, etc.)
• Partner with Business Development to help keep Division programs sold, create growth opportunities, and provide the technical justification for NCTA
• Recommend innovative demonstrations that couple capabilities to provide new or improved solutions to known missions
• Develop resource requirements (people and capital) needed to execute demonstrations and technology integration activities
• Maintain good awareness of emerging vehicle, payload, and integration capabilities maturing throughout the industry.
• Compiling and presenting quarterly recommendations to the Division GMs to help guide their business and growth path forward
• Tightly integrating with Division program Chief Engineers to ensure consistent implementation of Mission Engineering best practices and adoption of key technologies and architectural solutions.
• Ability to integrate and move a project forward with a diverse team combining diverse areas of expertise.

Basic Qualifications:

• A minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics) required with 14 years of related professional/military engineering experience to include a background in the aerospace defense industry OR Master's degree in STEM with 12 years of related professional/military engineering experience to include a background in the aerospace defense industry
• Active Top Secret Clearance/SCI clearance
• Must have the ability to obtain and maintain Special Access Program (SAP) clearance

Preferred qualifications:

• Program management experience
• Business development experience
• Strategy experience
• Experience spanning the air, space, and payload domains

This position reports to Melbourne, FL, USA, however, this position can also be worked from San Diego, CA, CA, USA.

Salary Range: $192,600 USD - $334,400 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.