Lead Databricks Data Security Engineer

About the role

The Lead Databricks Data Security Engineer will lead the design, implementation, and governance of access control across Northrop Grumman’s Databricks Lakehouse environment. This role will serve as the senior technical owner of the data access control model, defining the architecture, establishing engineering standards, and translating security and compliance requirements into scalable technical controls.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and implementation of RBAC and ABAC within Databricks Unity Catalog, including data structure, access models, and tagging standards.
• Define the security architecture for data access, including dynamic views, row-level security, and column masking.
• Develop the identity governance approach for Databricks, including service principals, workload identities, and integration with enterprise identity providers.
• Translate regulatory, contractual, and compliance requirements into practical technical controls within the platform.
• Establish and maintain data classification standards and tagging structures that support scalable access control.
• Implement grants, catalogs, tags, and access controls as code using Terraform and/or Databricks Asset Bundles to support version control and audit readiness.
• Work closely with workspace administrators and platform engineers to align workspace, compute, secrets, and network controls with the broader data access strategy.
• Create guardrails, templates, and streamlined workflows that allow data engineers to manage access appropriately while maintaining strong security controls.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline and at least 8 years as a Software Engineer or Data Engineer with a heavy focus on data platform security and security automation; Master's degree and at least 6 years of relevant experience.
• At least 2 years of hands on experience implementing Databricks Unity Catalog security features.
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing RBAC and ABAC models at scale, including hands on experience with Databricks Unity Catalog, grants, dynamic views, row and column level filtering and masking.
• Fluency with identity and federation patterns including SCIM, service principals, and integration with enterprise identity providers such as Entra ID.
• Experience applying infrastructure-as-code practices, preferably Terraform to access, tagging, and policy management in Databricks.
• Proficiency in Python and SQL for automation, monitoring, and compliance.

Qualifications

• U.S. Citizenship is required for all positions with a government clearance and certain other restricted positions.

Skills

• Strong understanding of data security principles and best practices.
• Experience with Databricks Unity Catalog and related tools.
• Hands-on experience with RBAC and ABAC models.
• Knowledge of identity federation and integration with enterprise identity providers.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code practices, particularly Terraform.
• Proficiency in Python and SQL.

Benefits

Northrop Grumman offers a comprehensive benefits package, including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, savings plan, Company paid holidays and paid time off (PTO) for vacation and/or personal business.

Pay

Primary Level Salary Range: $142,200.00 - $213,200.00

Schedule

Full-time telework is allowed.