Sr Principal DevOps Platform 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, but they’re also making history.

Today’s dynamic global security threats require solutions both big and small – solutions living within the Northrop Grumman Microelectronics Center (NGMC). Boasting state-of-the-art design capabilities, multiple processing nodes, electrical testing, environmental and QCI screening, and failure analysis, the NGMC is a leader in designing, fabricating, packaging, and delivering discriminating microelectronics to the military, aerospace, and commercial markets.  For more than 70 years, we have been offering a wide range of trusted foundry and semiconductor services that deliver high performing and reliable microelectronics. Our wide breadth of technologies and capabilities allows us to provide our customers with unique “More than Moore” solutions. Microelectronics | Northrop Grumman

One of our most challenging new fields is Microelectronics Design and Applications (MDA), which combines the unique properties of superconductivity and quantum mechanics to develop radical new energy-efficient computing systems. MDA is seeking a Senior Principal DevOps Platform Engineer with demonstrated ability to lead development of new technologies to support our innovative MDA team in support of emerging supercomputing technologies.

What You'll Get To Do:

As a Senior Principal DevOps Platform Engineer, you will have an opportunity to be a part of a technology development organization that is collaborative, open, transparent, team-oriented, and flexible, where continuous learning is encouraged, all within a culture of design. By combining software and hardware knowledge to automate and improve the software development lifecycle, help MDA bridge the gap between development and production.

Roles and Responsibilities:

Support the MDA DevOps initiative with any program specific responsibilities allocated to the role to include:

• Design and manage platform architecture in air-gapped environments
• Deploy and maintain Kubernetes clusters to support containerized applications with scalability, reliability, and security
• Develop and manage infrastructure-as-code (IaC) solutions to automate and standardize platform tool deployments (e.g. Terraform, Ansible, Fluentd)
• Build and optimize CI/CD pipeline templates in GitLab to streamline application deployment and testing workflows across various environments
• Deploy and maintain robust monitoring, alerting, and observability tools (e.g. Prometheus, Grafana, ELK) to enhance performance reliability and visibility
• Automate incident management processes, including root cause analysis and self-healing mechanisms, to improve platform stability
• Ensure compliance with security best practices throughout the platform and processes
• Collaborate with development, Information Assurance, and IT teams to align infrastructure with platform requirements
• Stay up to date on emerging technologies and trends to incorporate relevant advancements into the DevOps Platform

This position is contingent upon clearance.

This position will serve 100% onsite in Linthicum / Annapolis Junction, MD.

Basic Qualifications for Senior Principal DevOps Platform Engineer:

• Bachelor's degree in a STEM discipline with 8+ years of relative experience; Master's degree in a STEM discipline with 6+ years of relative experience; PhD and 3+ years of relative experience. 
• Proficient with Linux operating systems and command line
• Experience and knowledge of container management lifecycle
• Proficient in Kubernetes cluster deployment, management, and scaling
• Strong knowledge of automation and scripting tools
• Experience administering, integrating, and maintaining the following DevOps platform tools: GitLab, Nexus Repository, Vault, Container registries
• Experience working with Agile methodologies and practices
• Strong communication and collaboration abilities with a focus on continuous learning
• Proven problem-solving skills: critical thinking, effective troubleshooting – identify, analyze, and effectively resolve challenges by using a logical approach
• Willingness and ability to work onsite full-time
• This position requires the applicant to be a U.S. citizen with the ability to obtain/maintain a DoD TS/SCI with Polygraph security clearance.

Preferred Qualifications for Senior Principal DevOps Platform Engineer:

• Willingness to learn transformational computing technology concepts and domain appropriate for a lead engineering role
• Experience with Data engineering and processing pipelines
• Experience with test automation and instrument control
• Experience administering, integrating, and maintaining Data Services as part of the platform toolchain
• Experience with Authentication and Authorization: Key cloak, OpenSSL, PKCS12, X.509, AD/LDAP.
• Active DoD TS/SCI with poly clearance per business requirements.

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 all positions with a government clearance and certain other restricted positions.