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Principal/Sr. Principal Data Engineer

Requisition ID: R10110479

  • CategoryCategory: Research and Sciences
  • Location Location: Linthicum, MD, USA   |  Annapolis Junction, MD, USA +1 more
  • Citizenship RequirementsCitizenship Required: United States Citizenship
  • Security Clearance TypeClearance Type: SCI
  • TelecommuteTelecommute: No- Teleworking not available for this position
  • ShiftShift: Days (United States of America)
  • Travel RequirementsTravel Required: Yes, 10% of the Time
  • Relocation AssistanceRelocation Assistance: Relocation assistance may be available
  • Number of Positions AvailablePositions Available: 4

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.

The Northrop Grumman Mission Systems (NGMS) Advanced Processing Solutions Business pushes the boundaries of innovation, redefines the leading edge of exotic new technologies, and drives advances in the sciences. One of our most challenging new fields is Transformational Computing, which combines the unique properties of superconductivity and quantum mechanics to develop radical new energy-efficient computing systems. Our team is chartered with providing the skills to transform computing beyond Moore’s Law, advancing development of computer architectures, processing/memory subsystems, and large scale high performance computing systems. You’ll work in a fast-paced team environment alongside a broad array of scientists and engineers to make these processing solutions a reality and deliver remarkable new advantages to the warfighter.

About this position: We are seeking a data engineer who will make significant and ongoing contributions to the maturation of our data driven processes.  You will design, build and oversee the deployment and operation of technology to capture, manage, store and utilize structured and unstructured data from internal and external sources. The ideal candidate will have a keen interest in the tools and processes around ETL and data visualization. They must have a proven ability to drive business results with a passion for discovering solutions hidden in large data sets and working with stakeholders to improve business outcomes.  They must be comfortable working with a wide range of stakeholders, internal data scientist, and functional teams in a fast-paced, research environment with an emphasis on driving collaboration, quality and speed to market. 

This position requires work on site located at Linthicum, MD and/or Annapolis Junction, MD as needed.

Your responsibilities:

  • Create data collection frameworks for structured and unstructured data
  • Administer databases utilizing strong skills at sourcing data from a wide variety of formats
  • Analyze database configurations to optimize the performance of end user models and dashboards
  • Capture data from Data Science (DS) notebooks
  • Assess the effectiveness and accuracy of data sources and data gathering techniques
  • Coordinate with different functional teams to implement solutions and monitor outcomes
  • Analyze multiple data sources in detail to identify trends and patterns using engineering fundamentals.

What you need to be successful in the role:

  • Comfort with exposing data to consumption via API services
  • Comfort with requirements-analysis and stake-holder engagement.
  • Strong problem solving skills and root-cause analysis to ensure that curated data is accurate, repeatable, and explainable.
  • Solid communication skills (written, verbal, and visual)
  • Ability to communicate data and engineering analysis regarding conclusions that were reached.
  • Excellent attention to detail.
  • Development /programming of tools to improve pipeline efficiency, eliminate repetitive tasks, and implement new analysis tools/techniques.
  • Prioritization skills to manage work load and make sound decisions for assigned team's data analysis activities.
  • Ability to create and present data reports to support investigations.

This position can be filled as a Principal Data Engineer OR a Sr. Principal Data Engineer. Qualifications for both are listed below:

Basic Qualifications for a Principal Data Engineer:

  • Bachelor's degree in a technical area with 5 years of relevant experience (3 years with technical MS)
  • Previous Data Warehouse experience
  • Experience manipulating and analyzing complex, high-volume, high-dimensionality data from multiple sources / systems of record
  • Experience with ETL tools, data analytics platforms, and reporting services
  • Proficient in Python
  • Excellent communication skills and customer facing experience
  • Proven ability to learn and master new technologies and techniques
  • Knowledge of data gathering, cleansing and transformation techniques
  • Able to obtain and maintain a Top Secret (TS/SCI) clearance per business requirements. US Citizenship is a requirement of this.

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Product Lifecycle experience
  • Experience working with the following database formats: Mariadb, Mongodb, Influx
  • Experience working with data orchestration tool Apache Airflow
  • Experience mentoring and leading peers in data engineering projects
  • Tableau experience
  • MATLAB experience
  • Active TS/SCI clearance with polygrap

Basic Qualifications for a Sr. Principal Data Engineer:

  • Bachelor's degree in a technical area with 9 years of relevant experience (7 years with technical MS; 4 years with a PhD in related field)
  • Previous Data Warehouse experience
  • Experience manipulating and analyzing complex, high-volume, high-dimensionality data from multiple sources / systems of record
  • Experience with ETL tools, data analytics platforms, and reporting services
  • Proficient in Python
  • Excellent communication skills and customer facing experience
  • Proven ability to learn and master new technologies and techniques
  • Knowledge of data gathering, cleansing and transformation techniques
  • Able to obtain and maintain a Top Secret (TS/SCI) clearance per business requirements. US Citizenship is a requirement of this.

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Product Lifecycle experience
  • Experience working with the following database formats: Mariadb, Mongodb, Influx
  • Experience working with data orchestration tool Apache Airflow
  • Experience mentoring and leading peers in data engineering projects
  • Tableau experience
  • MATLAB experience
  • Active TS/SCI clearance with polygraph

This position reports to Linthicum, MD, USA, however, this position can also be worked from Annapolis Junction, MD, MD, USA.


Salary Range: $109,900 USD - $164,900 USD
Salary Range 2: $136,300 USD - $204,500 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.



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What's great about
Northrop Grumman

  1. Be part of a culture that thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity and bringing your whole self to work.
  2. Use your skills to build and deliver innovative tech solutions that protect the world and shape a better future.
  3. Enjoy benefits like work-life balance, education assistance and paid time off.


Did you know?

Northrop Grumman leads the industry team for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the largest, most complex and powerful space telescope ever built. Launched in December 2021, the telescope incorporates innovative design, advanced technology, and groundbreaking engineering, and will fundamentally alter our understanding of the universe.