Space Staff Chief Engineer for EO/IR Solutions

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available

CLEARANCE TYPE: Top 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.

The Payload and Ground Systems organization within the Northrop Grumman Space Systems pushes the boundaries of innovation, redefines engineering capabilities, and drives advances in various sciences. Our team is chartered with providing the skills, 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!

The Payload and Ground Systems Division (PGSD) has an immediate need for a Chief Engineer to lead and develop next generation space systems solutions. The chief engineer has technical authority for all aspects of engineering on all program elements (systems/hardware/software/ support/integration and test) and leads a multi-disciplined engineering team managing the technical performance of the product/program satisfying the allocated cost and schedule requirements.

This specific role is to lead the development, manufacture, and sustainment of an optical system for space applications. This position will be located at our Space Systems Sector in Rolling Meadows, IL.

Responsibilities for the Chief Engineer can include:

• Ensures that the program is adhering to sound engineering processes in the development, production, test and sustainment products for our customers and is compliant with company policy, procedures, and quality standards

• Maintains cognizance over technical activities within program Integrated Product Teams (IPTs) and ensures horizontal integration of the best engineering practices across the company

• The Chief Engineer is expected to mentor Senior IPT leaders as part of this position

• The Chief Engineer typically supports large development/production programs with contract values up to $75M that have medium/high risks with established or state-of-the-art processes

• Maintaining knowledge of current and developing technologies and developing strategies for their insertion into both legacy and next-generation sensors

• Providing physics level and mission level subject matter expertise

• Guiding system implementation approaches for operational concepts

• Authoring technical documentation such as white papers, proposal technical volumes, program milestone briefings (i.e. SRR, PDR, CDR, MRR, etc.), systems engineering design documentation

• Provide technical oversight to sub-contractors to ensure requirements and quality standards are met.

• Coordinating requirements development

• Hardware/software design oversight

• Verification and validation test activities

• Performing key systems engineering elements to meet a given program’s requirements

• Supporting the design and development of sensor system architectures

• Performing functional analysis, timeline analysis, detailed trade studies, requirements allocation, and interface definition studies to translate customer requirements into hardware and software specifications

• Responsibility for close customer cooperation to ensure that requirements meet customer expectations

• Providing presentations to customers and senior management, with tailored material based on the audience

• Leading / overseeing technical work products developed by the larger engineering team, supporting design reviews and integration and test activities as needed

• capability assessments to predict requirement compliance

• functional algorithm development

• Risk assessment and burn down of mitigation steps

• Generating and reporting system Technical Performance Measures

• Interface development and documentation

In addition, the ideal candidate has recent experience in the fields of Electro-Optical and Infrared Sensors (EO/IR), Fiber Optics, Laser physics, LiDAR, optical alignment, and development and manufacture of optical systems.

As the Chief Engineer, you will be expected to demonstrate the following behaviors:

Knowledge, Skills and Ability: Apply advanced technical principles, theories, and concepts. Contributes to the development of new principles and concepts.

Problem Solving: Work on unusually complex technical problems and provide solutions which are highly innovative and ingenious.

Discretion/Latitude: Works under consultative direction toward predetermined long-range goals and objectives. Assignments are often self-initiated. Determine and pursue courses of action necessary to obtain desired results. Work checked through consultation and agreement with others rather than by formal review of superior.

Impact: Develops advanced technological ideas and guides their development into a final product. Erroneous decisions or recommendations would typically result in failure to achieve critical organizational objectives and effect the image of the organization technological capability.

Liaison: Serves as organization spokesperson on advanced projects and/or programs. Acts as advisor to management and customers on advanced technical research studies and applications.

Basic Qualifications: 

• BS degree in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics or related technical degree with 12+ years (or MS with 10+ years, or PhD with 7+ years) related experience

• Theoretical knowledge of the System Engineering V-Model and hands on experience executing the systems engineering workflow on space programs

• Experience developing physics-based performance models

• Demonstrated analytical thinking, problem solving skills, and creativity

• Excellent decision making and communication (written and oral) skills

• Team players with a strong work ethic and initiative to perform in a cross functional team

• Demonstrated previous Systems Engineering leadership experience on major Government Systems Acquisitions       

• Ability and willingness to travel up to 25%   

• Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Top Secret with SCI approval/access.

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Active Top Secret Clearance with SCI & polygraph is preferred

• Knowledgeable in orbit planning in LEO, GEO, xGEO orbital regimes

• Prior leadership experience in Chief Engineer role or equivalent

• Subject matter expert in EO/IR, laser physics, LiDAR, optical communications and development and manufacture of optical systems

• Full life cycle experience developing, integrating, and deploying space systems

• Knowledgeable in space systems design and mission planning

• Experience in development and earned value management of cost accounts and schedules as related to Systems Engineering tasks

• Ability to monitor hardware and software design teams with critical insight to know when the teams are not on path to successful implementation and then be able help steer the team to a successful solution

• Knowledge of MATLAB, SysML, Python, or other scripting languages

• Recent experience creating integration and test, design verification test and flight test plans and procedures

• Agile development experience a plus

Salary Range: $157,500.00 - $236,300.00

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.