Sr. Principal Principal Investigator / Research 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 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 Principal Investigator / Research Engineer based out of Woodland Hills, CA. Our success is grounded in our ability to embrace change, move quickly and continuously drive innovation.  The successful candidate will be collaborative, open, transparent, and team-oriented with a focus on team empowerment & shared responsibility, flexibility, continuous learning, and a culture of automation.

This position description does not represent a current opening but may be used to identify candidates with skills and experience for positions within Northrop Grumman that frequently become available. Candidates who express an interest may be considered for future positions at Northrop Grumman.

What You’ll get to Do:

The Future Positioning Navigation Timing Systems (FPNTS) team at Northrop Grumman Mission Systems (NGMS) is looking for you to join our team as a Principal Investigator / Research Engineer to provide technical leadership of navigation research and development programs for military applications based out of Woodland Hills, CA.

• Work in close collaboration with Government R&D organizations such as DARPA, AFRL, ONR, and Army labs to develop advanced navigation and timing technologies, and support transition of those technologies to production.
• Work with a team of navigation and timing experts in a team-based collaborative environment dedicated to advancing the state of the art in navigation
• Apply your research and development skills to build real-world products and capabilities well beyond purely academic or theoretical
• Work with leading-edge inertial navigation instruments including the highest performance accelerometers and gyroscopes to take your fusion concepts to the next level
• Work with leading-edge software-radio systems for tracking GPS, GNSS, and other cooperative signals along with advanced signal processing techniques to extract better performance out of military GPS than conventional receivers
• Research and development of navigation and timing fusion algorithms such as Kalman filters, particle filters, and similar estimations algorithms.
• Work on next generation applications like autonomous navigation, distributed sensing, proliferate low earth orbit (P-LEO) space systems, model-based system engineering, cloud-based software as a service, and swarming vehicles.
• Build physics-based models and mission modeling and simulation tools to demonstrate military utility for a wide variety of applications
• Design and develop navigation warfare techniques, algorithms, and software to enhance mission success in contested environments.
• Present your ideas to internal and external groups; lead proposal activities; and represent Northrop Grumman at technical conferences and working groups.

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Basic Qualifications:

• 9 years of experience with a Bachelors of Science in a STEM discipline; 7 years of experience with Masters; 4 Years with a PhD
• Demonstrated track record of innovation and accomplishment in the field of navigation and timing with deep knowledge of relevent sensors and systems.
• Demonstrated knowledge of principles of navigation, including inertial navigation, aided navigation, and Kalman filtering.
• Must be able to lead teams and work effectively in a collaborative team environment
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• A successful candidate will be comfortable with loosely-defined problems, have a demonstrated ability to think creatively, and draw upon a variety of sources for ideas and solutions.
• Self-motivated and independently able to develop innovative approaches to diverse technical challenges and see them through to realization
• US Citizenship is required in order to obtain and maintain a security clearance

Preferred Qualifications:

• PhD in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering or STEM related discipline with 5 years of directly related experience.
• Experience with timekeeping systems (e.g. oscillators, atomic frequency standards, frequency metrology)
• Experience with GPS and GNSS receiver design and applications
• Experience with GPS anti-jam systems and techniques
• Experience with related RF systems (e.g. comms, electronic warfare)
• Experience working Government-funded R&D programs.
• Proficiency with C/C++, MATLAB/Simulink, VHDL.
• Security clearance with current background investigation.

Salary Range: $129,700 USD - $194,500 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.