Hybrid Sr Principal Chief Engineer at NGC

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available

CLEARANCE TYPE: Secret

TRAVEL: Yes, 25% of the Time

Description

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’s Payload and Ground Systems (PGS) division, Mission Enabling Products (MEP) Business Unit is a leading designer, producer, and supplier of products including spacecraft panels, lasers, spacecraft bus structures, precision optical structures, deployable structural systems and mechanisms, solar arrays, antenna reflectors, aircraft and missile components. Our products have applications in air, naval, weapons, laser, and space products that power and enable satellites of all classes and have been on virtually every U.S. satellite built in the last 20 years.  

The Structures Operating Unit within the MEP Business Unit designs, manufactures, and tests composite structures for air and space products and is seeking an experienced, highly motivated Chief Engineer for the Aircraft & Missiles Product Line/Value Stream to join our team. The representative candidate will have demonstrated strong and successful leadership abilities. This position is required to be onsite with a primary office location in San Diego, CA (Miramar). 

Roles and Responsibilities (What You'll Get to Do):

The chief engineer is responsible for the technical direction and execution of all aspects of engineering on a program including design, development, implementation, integration, testing, and delivery of product to the customer. The chief engineer is the senior technical leader for the program engineering team, and also serves as technical advisor and delegate to the program manager.  The chief engineer ensures that all engineering teams adhere to sound engineering processes, in accordance with company policies, procedures, and quality standards. This includes maintaining cognizance over technical activities within program's Integrated Product Teams (IPTs) and ensuring horizontal integration of the best engineering practices across the company. The chief engineer may also perform systems engineering and program management related roles and functions as necessary.

• Exemplify NG’s Values and Leadership Behaviors as a senior technical leader
  • Sets a Vision
  • Builds a High Performing Team
  • Takes Ownership
  • Leads with Courage
  • Responds to Challenges with Resilience
  • Acts with Speed
• New business development
  • Engage customers and guide technical spec and requirements evolution to better position business for technical success
  • Serve as technical lead for proposals providing technical input, risk assessment, and performing initial requirements compliance matrix assessment
• Customer support and value
  • Be the voice of the customer
  • Communicate NG’s technical value to the customer
  • Perform or lead architecture trade studies, early program technical interaction, communicate customer goals (written or implied)
  • Serve as technical representative for customer and beyond including site management through proposal and all engineering phases
• Resolve technical issues
  • Guide technical decisions and arbitrate conflicts
  • Acts as chair for program and product value stream design control during developmental phase of the program
  • Participate in and or lead FRB/MRB activities
  • Provide escalation following established tiered Escalation Process
• Support IRAD and product technology development to support current and long-term business needs
  • Maintain an awareness of customer needs, market / industry trends, and latest tech developments
  • Represent the product line and advocate for IRAD and tech development investment
  • Develop and maintain product value stream IRAD and technology roadmaps

• Support program setup and initial start (SRR, architecture review, program requirements review, compliance matrix, lead technical kick-off)
  • Establish program milestone review plan in collaboration with PM and customer
  • Develop and evaluate initial program concept and support schedule (IMS) development
  • Derive requirements for program/architecture concept from spec requirements
  • Process capabilities vs requirements negotiation (proposal and concurrent engineering phase)
  • Convene and chair program technical kick-off meetings
  • Support ITAR/Export compliance and classification guidance as Technical Advisor (TA) (ITC role) for the product line
• Oversee team execution to ensure technical requirements are achieved within cost and schedule constraints
  • Own requirements compliance matrix in collaboration with Integrated Product Teams (IPT)
  • Lead and/or support technical peer (independent) reviews at product level
  • Collaboration of multi-site technical teams
  • Serve as technical advisor to program management
• Oversee design evolution and continually evaluate technical, cost, and schedule and implement mitigation planning
  • Technical risk identification and mitigation
• Monitor manufacturability and cost performance
  • Engagement with manufacturing team (Ops. VSL, Tooling, ME, QE)
  • Provide guidance on improvements to meet external customer needs
• Capture, archive, and share lessons learned across value stream
  • Evaluate engineering cost performance for execution/process improvement opportunities
• Mentor junior engineers

Essential Skills:

• Technical Subject Matter Expertise - Deep understanding of at least one technical subject area, with broad understanding of interdependencies related to other disciplines
• Systems Thinking - Broad understanding of system dependencies and relationships to other systems, overall architecture, customer requirements and system lifecycle
• Complex Problem Solving - Innovatively applying domain and multi-disciplinary expertise, and lessons learned to identify root cause, assess options and resolve technical issues
• Program Performance - Understanding and communicating of technical team operations, to include supplier and customer communications, technical risks and mitigations, and financial and schedule implications of technical decisions
• Leadership - Ability to effectively communicate, build relationships and consensus, influence stakeholders at all levels, and coordinate technical teams to ensure effective task execution

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in a Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) field and 9+ years of related technical experience, OR Master's Degree in a STEM field and 7+ years of related technical experience
• Experience as a Subject Matter Expert (SME), Technical Lead, Integrated Product Team (IPT) Lead, Chief Engineer, or other engineering leadership role that demonstrates team building, organizational, and interpersonal skills
• Broad experience across multiple engineering disciplines (design, analysis, materials, manufacturing, and test)
• Experience in designing, building, testing and deploying mission critical systems through Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP), Initial Operating Capability (IOC), and Full Rate Production (FRP)
• Technical proficiency in material test and development, metals, fiber reinforced composites, failure mode mechanisms, manufacturing, and applications
• Demonstrated experience with discrepancy/non-conformance resolution, Root Cause & Corrective Action (RCCA), Material Review Boards (MRB) and Failure Review Boards (FRB)
• Experience with FAA, FAR, and DoD requirements and programs
• Experience in the design and analysis of aircraft structural and/or mechanical systems
• Familiarity with RF electrical properties of materials, RF analysis, and test techniques
• Experience with development programs including internal research and development (IRAD) or customer-funded research and development (CRAD)
• Experience with proposal development
• Ability to mentor, provide feedback, and coaching
• Ability and experience making sound decisions that impact the organization's operations and performance
• Current, active DoD Secret clearance (with a background investigation completed within the last 6 years or currently enrolled into Continuous Evaluation)
• Ability to travel up to 25% of the time

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering
• Familiarity with ceramic materials and high temperature applications
• Familiarity with design and analysis engineering software tools including FEMAP, NASTRAN, NX, Teamcenter, LS Dyna
• Experience with cost account management (CAM)
• Ability to obtain and maintain Top-Secret security clearance as well as the ability to obtain and maintain SCI
• Ability to mentor, provide feedback, and coaching
• Experience with Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and foreign customers
• Ability to seek out, and utilize proper experience base across enterprise to resolve technical issues and or attract new business

Salary Range: $137,400.00 - $206,000.00

The above salary range represents a general guideline; however, Northrop Grumman considers a number of factors when determining base salary offers such as the scope and responsibilities of the position and the candidate's experience, education, skills and current market conditions.

Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and 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 application period for the job is estimated to be 20 days from the job posting date. However, this timeline may be shortened or extended depending on business needs and the availability of qualified candidates.

Northrop Grumman is an Equal Opportunity 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 and pay transparency statement, please visit http://www.northropgrumman.com/EEO. U.S. Citizenship is required for all positions with a government clearance and certain other restricted positions. Apply Now