Cyber Systems Engineer - Level 4

About the role

The System Security Engineer - Level 4 serves as the technical authority responsible for defining, governing, and validating the entire security posture of a complex missile weapon system across its full lifecycle. This includes enterprise-level security decisions, Anti-Tamper strategy, Cybersecurity architecture, Program Protection, exportability, supply-chain assurance, and survivability against highly capable adversaries. This individual sets the technical direction for the program, mentors engineering staff, leads major design reviews, interfaces directly with the customer community, and ensures that the delivered system complies with all relevant regulations, guidance, and DoD policies.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical authority for System Security Engineering (SSE), Anti-Tamper (AT), Cybersecurity, Exportability, and Program Protection across a major missile/weapon program.
• Develop overarching security architecture, strategy, and implementation roadmap.
• Lead the identification and classification of Critical Program Information (CPI), perform advanced threat and vulnerability assessments, and define risk acceptance criteria and trade-offs balancing security, cost, performance, and schedule.
• Author, review, and approve key security program artifacts: Program Protection Plan (PPP), System Security Plan (SSP), Security Classification Guide (SCG), AT Plan, Exportability Assessment, supply-chain risk assessments, and other compliance/regulatory documentation.
• Oversee implementation of security controls (hardware, firmware, software, supply chain, physical, personnel, industrial security) across the system development life cycle (design, integration, production, sustainment).
• Ensure countermeasures are effective and compliance with DoD and NIST guidance (e.g., NIST SP 800-160, RMF, DoD AT policies).
• Lead Verification & Validation (V&V), security testing, and certification/authorization processes, including risk acceptance documentation, and periodic security reviews.
• Serve as mentor and technical leader across SSE, AT, and Cybersecurity teams; provide guidance, training, and oversight to mid- and junior-level engineers.
• Interface regularly with program management, system engineers, leadership, and customer stakeholders to communicate security posture, risk, and mitigation strategy.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree with 8 years of professional experience
• Master’s degree with 6 years of professional experience
• Demonstrated experience with Anti-Tamper design and implementation for protection of CPI on classified DoD programs; deep working knowledge of DoD and NIST processes/frameworks (e.g., DoD AT policy, NIST SP 800-160, RMF, etc.).
• Proven track record of leading security architecture for embedded weapon systems, overseeing risk assessments, countermeasure design, security documentation creation, and evaluation of hardware/firmware/software components for compliance and secure operation.
• Must have ability to obtain DoD Secret (or higher) clearance
• U.S. citizenship
• Strong leadership, communication, and cross-discipline collaboration skills; ability to interface with senior management, program leads, customers, and multi-discipline engineering teams.

Qualifications

• Prior experience authoring and leading Program Protection Plans, Security Classification Guides, AT Plans, Exportability Assessments, Supply Chain Risk Management, and other program-level security documents.
• Demonstrated success delivering security for complex embedded/missile/weapon systems across full lifecycle, including involvement in certification/authorization and compliance audits.
• In-depth knowledge of threat-modeling methodologies, adversary capabilities, hardware/firmware reverse-engineering countermeasures, hardware-assurance and tamper-resistance technologies, and security validation (V&V) processes.
• Prior experience in mentoring teams, guiding SSE/AT strategy, and leading cross-functional trade studies, risk assessments, and security cost/performance trade-offs.

Skills

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Benefits

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.

Pay

Primary Level Salary Range: $135,000.00 - $202,600.00

Schedule

TRAVEL: Yes, 10% of the Time