Staff Systems Engineer - Air to Ground

Northrop Grumman Mission Systems is hiring a Staff Systems Engineer (Air-to-Ground) to support the Systems Engineering Integration and Test (SEIT) team across multiple development programs. This role is 100% on-site in Linthicum, MD, with responsibilities spanning radar system architecture, requirements, modeling and simulation, verification and test strategy, integration and test oversight, and technical reviews. You will partner closely with radar systems engineering teams, customers, and program leadership to help advance air-to-ground radar capabilities.

What you will do

• Lead development of radar system architectures for air-to-ground missions, aligning with platform and mission needs (including SAR, ISAR, GMTI/T, targeting, weather, surface return, sea surface search, ship track, and related capabilities).
• Define and partition system-level requirements, performance budgets, and interfaces across RF, processing, software, and platform teams.
• Direct and review trade studies across waveforms, antenna design, processing architectures, and CONOPS or mission scenarios.
• Own radar performance modeling and simulation, including end-to-end link budgets, coverage, detection and tracking performance, and clutter and interference analysis.
• Guide the development and evaluation of Air-to-Ground concepts and algorithms from a systems perspective.
• Make data-driven recommendations to optimize performance, cost, schedule, and technical risk.
• Define verification strategies and test architectures from lab through flight test for new and evolved radar capabilities.
• Oversee integration and test campaigns, including test planning, execution oversight, data analysis, and discrepancy resolution.
• Drive root cause investigations and corrective actions for complex system-level issues.
• Represent the radar system engineering team in technical reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR) and risk/issue boards.
• Interface with customers to present technical approaches, performance results, and roadmaps.
• Support business development through capture strategy, concept development, and contributions to proposal technical volumes and BOEs.
• Mentor early- and mid-career engineers in radar systems engineering best practices.
• Promote rigorous engineering discipline, configuration control, and requirements traceability.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree with 12 years of experience, Master’s degree with 10 years of experience, or Ph.D. with 8 years in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related technical field (additional 4 years experience may be considered in lieu of a degree).
• U.S. Citizenship is required.
• Active/current U.S. Government Secret Clearance.
• Ability to obtain Special Program Access (SAP).
• Experience with Radar Air-to-Ground applications, including developing and applying models in MATLAB, Python, and/or C/C++.
• Experience leading systems engineering for radar or advanced RF sensor systems, including requirements, architecture, modeling, and integration/test.
• Understanding of air-to-ground radar modes and performance.
• Experience leading complex technical efforts and resolving system-level issues across hardware and software boundaries.
• Experience with radar modeling and analysis tools (MATLAB, Python, or equivalent), including end-to-end performance assessments.
• Strong communication and leadership skills, including experience presenting to senior leadership and customers.

Technologies

• MATLAB
• Python
• C/C++
• MBSE

Benefits

• Health Plan
• Savings Plan
• Paid Time Off
• Additional Benefits including Education Assistance and Training and Development
• 9/80 Work Schedule (where available)

Other details

• Location: Baltimore, MD (onsite) (Linthicum, MD)
• Salary: USD 169,000 - 253,600 per year
• Relocation assistance: may be available
• Clearance required for start: Yes
• Clearance type: Secret
• Travel: Yes, 10% of the time

Preferred qualifications

• Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in a relevant STEM field with emphasis in radar, RF systems, or signal processing.
• Experience as a lead systems engineer or IPT lead on an airborne radar development or major upgrade program.
• Familiarity with MBSE approaches and tools to manage complex architectures and requirements.
• Experience shaping technology roadmaps and IRAD/CRAD efforts in radar or advanced sensors.