Principal Cyber Systems Administrator (*Active Top Secret and adjudicated CI Poly required)

US CITIZENSHIP REQUIRED FOR THIS POSITION: Yes

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available

CLEARANCE TYPE: Polygraph

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.

The Payload and Ground Systems, a division within Northrop Grumman’s Space Systems Sector is known for pushing the boundaries of innovation, redefining engineering capabilities, and driving advances in various sciences through cutting-edge technology.  Our team is chartered with providing the skills, and 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!

Northrop Grumman Space Systems is seeking a Principal Cyber Systems Administrator to join our team supporting our SWORDFISH/Starfleet program.   This position would be based in the Aurora, Colorado area.

About our organization: As a Principal Cyber Systems Administrator, you'll be joining our growing Aurora Software and Digital Engineering department which has 200+ Software Engineers, DevOps Engineers, Systems Administrators, Database Administrators, and Network Engineers from entry-level to the most senior chief engineers and architects. We have plenty of opportunities for career advancement into higher-level technical roles or leadership positions. Our department is part of a larger organization that includes Systems Engineering, Integration, and Test staff as well as a Hardware Engineering unit. This larger organization influences cross-program collaboration, professional development, and training, as well as engagement and inclusion activities such as lunch-n-learns, campus events, and leadership mixers.

About the program: As a Principal Cyber Systems Administrator, you’ll be joining an existing on-contract classified program supporting a critical national security mission that is both in Operations and major development. The program team is based out of Aurora, CO yet has a distributed team located at several other NG sites across the US. Some of the program’s baseline and environments are unclassified allowing some work outside a secure facility. The rest of the program’s baseline is in secure environments. The team located in Aurora is composed of roughly 25 staff primarily composed of software developers composed into small agile scrum teams with local technical and program leadership. You’ll work with developers as well as two Systems Administrator peers to perform all job duties noted below and covered in the qualifications section. The program’s culture is fast-paced, proactive, collaborative, and welcoming of new ideas, technology, and tools.

Job responsibilities will include, but not be limited to, the following:     

• Performing administration on VMware technologies (or related)  

• Communicating effectively at all levels of the organization, with internal or external customers, in written and oral formats.  

• Maintaining smooth operation of multi-user computer systems, including coordination with network, software, and system engineers, PC desktop technicians, project managers, end users, and customer and IT management.  

• Supporting multiple networks concurrently.

• Ensuring necessary administration tasks are completed and coordinating with others as necessary.  

• Analyzing internal or external customer requirements and determining equipment and software requirements for solutions to problems through automated systems.  

• Recommending and implementing system enhancements that will improve the performance and reliability of the system including installing, upgrading/patching, monitoring, problem resolution, and configuration management.  

• Providing backup and recovery services; managing file systems and disk space; managing virus protection on a routine basis.  

• Creating and maintaining user and computer accounts and modifying file permissions and security access lists.  

• Testing new releases of products to ensure compatibility and minimize user impact.  

• Developing and documenting technical processes and procedures as needed.  

• Making recommendations to purchase hardware, software, and system components.  

• Interacting, meeting, discussing, and troubleshooting issues with vendors; evaluating vendor products, services, and suggestions.  

• Adhering to strict Information Systems security guidelines in all cases.  

• Maintaining security audit and logging information on all classified networked and standalone computers as directed by the Information Systems Security Manager (ISSM).  

• Working under minimal direction and independently determining and developing approaches to solutions. 

This position requires being onsite and does not support remote or hybrid work. 

Basic Qualifications

• 6 Years of relevant experience with a completed Bachelor's degree; 4 Years of relevant experience with a completed Masters's degree; An additional 4 years of relevant work experience may be considered in lieu of a completed degree (High School diploma or equivalent is required with additional experience)

• Must have an Active Top Secret DoD security clearance AND an adjudicated CI Poly [US Citizenship required]

• Ability to obtain an SCI clearance (any offer is contingent upon obtaining an SCI or completing an SCI cross-over to become approved to brief)

• Prior Privilege Usage (PU) access (or equivalent)

• Current DOD 8570 IAT Level 2 baseline certification (ex. CompTIA Security+ certification)

• Expertise administering Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

• Expertise in administering VMware ESX and VMware

• Experience using version control tools for scripts and/or configuration files

• Ability and willingness to travel domestically up to 25% of the time

• Ability to lift equipment weighing up to 40 pounds

Preferred Qualifications

• Degree in a STEM-related discipline

• Active SCI security clearance

• Current Privilege Usage (PU) access

• Active VMware Certified Professional – Network Virtualization

• Expertise administering Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) in a classified environment for at least 2 years

• Experience hardening Linux systems following RMF and STIGs

• Experience with Cyber (STIG, NESSUS, Splunk, Kibana)

• Experience administering Windows including Windows Server, Group Policies (GPOs), and Active Directory management

• Expertise administering VMware ESX (6.x or higher) and VMware in a classified environment for at least 2 years

• Experience with NIST Compliance/Standards/Regulations

• Experience performing CTF/ATO processes

• Experience using Ansible

• Experience with automation using scripting and strong desire to drive new automation

• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, processes, and tools

• Experience using the Atlassian Suite (Jira, Bitbucket, Confluence)

• Experience doing Asset Management

• Understanding of Enterprise-level storage concepts to include all commonly used RAID-levels

• Writing skills for documentation using Wiki pages, SharePoint, and Confluence

To better support our employee’s work/life balance, most NG worksites support a 9/80 work schedule. The 9/80 schedule allows employees to work a nine-hour day Monday through Thursday and take every other Friday off.  This schedule or other work-hour flexibility options can be determined upon hire.

With us, you’ll discover a culture of curiosity and collaboration that will have you Defining Possible from the day you start. Our space systems connect and protect millions of people on Earth every day, now and for the future. Explore your future and launch your career today. #definingpossible

Salary Range: $93,000.00 - $139,600.00

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.

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 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 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.