F-35 Engineering Director 2 / Chief 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 Aeronautics Systems has an opening for the F-35 Director of Engineering and Chief Engineer (the F-35 Chief Engineer).   The leader selected for this role will report to the Air Dominance Division VP, Engineering and matrixed to the VP, F-35 Programs. The position collaborates with division and functional leadership, cross-sector leadership, and customer engineering and program leadership teams. The position requires travel (2+ days per week) to Palmdale, California and other program sites, primarily Dallas Ft. Worth, TX. This leadership position is based in Redondo Beach, California.

The F-35 Chief Engineer and Engineering Director will be responsible for managing the program’s technical performance and provide technical oversight to a multi-functional Engineering team of over 250+ engineers supporting production, development, and sustainment lines of effort of Northrop Grumman’s F-35 SOW. Duties and responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

• Ensure the F-35 technical team adheres to sound engineering processes across the Air Vehicle Structure, Subsystems, Vehicle Systems, Mission Systems, Weapons Integration and Fleet Sustainment. 
• Manage, develop, and maintain roadmaps for design development, lead preparation of and approves technical and cost inputs for all new proposals and ECPs to achieve program goals.
• Maintain cognizance and integration over technical activities within program IPT's and ensures horizontal integration of the best engineering practices across the company.
• Ensure staffing needs are met while providing development, hiring, and initiatives to retain effective engineering staff.
• Responsible for earned value (cost, schedule, technical performance) of the F-35 contracts; manage SOW within program budgets, maintain appropriate performance assessment and control, establish milestones and monitor adherence to master schedule, ensure on-schedule delivery of products to contract requirements and quality standards, utilize risk management to identify program problems and develop solutions.
• The position will also be responsible for supporting F-35 proposals, assisting the negotiation of work content with the customer and creating performance baseline plans.
• Ability to influence and work collaboratively across an organization

This individual selected for this role must have a collaborative leadership style, strong architecting skills and mature communication skills. Must have the ability to work in a high pace dynamic organization and work collaboratively to influence and gain commitment to performance from all organizations and stakeholders. The successful candidate must have both technical depth and breadth across high-rate fighter aircraft fabrication and assembly, demonstrated creative complex structure and subsystem production / field issue resolution, flight test experience, as well as mission systems engineering knowledge.  This individual will provide advice and consultation to executive leadership on strategy and technical options and utilize their technical knowledge to pursue creative options that support our company and prime customer business decisions. 

The individual will also be shaping the future business and developing strategies that strive to bring the best value to the program.    

As a leader, you always act with integrity, and the highest ethical standards characterize everything you do. You enable your team to achieve predictable and balanced results, while satisfying the needs of internal and external partners. You treat all people with respect, and model personal growth and continuous development. You know how to build an inclusive environment that attracts, retains, and inspires a diverse and engaged team. You create trusted and valued customer relationships and communicate effectively, so that people throughout the organization feel engaged and connected to their work. You deliver excellence, strive for continuous improvement, and respond vigorously to change. You ensure that your team has the information and tools needed to perform at their best. You demonstrate our committed pursuit of applying innovation to meet the requirements of our customer. You create and execute strategies that result in sustainable value creation that delivers measurable results.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering, or related discipline with at least 15 years of relevant experience
• 6 years of experience as a senior technical manager
• 5 years of fighter aircraft production or complex aircraft assembly experience
• Program management experience of large multifunctional engineering teams
• Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a DoD secret clearance

Preferred Qualifications:

• Active DoD secret or higher clearance (with a background investigation completed within the last 6 years or currently enrolled into Continuous Evaluation).
• Advanced degree(s) in Business/Management or Engineering
• Composite and Metallic structure MRB experience
• Fighter aircraft producibility initiative management and issue resolution (Design Productionization)
• Understanding of business processes and working knowledge of business systems

Salary Range: $223,000 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.