Sr. Staff Systems Engineer (RF Communications)

This position requires an active Top-Secret clearance and U.S. citizenship. Relocation assistance is not available. Travel is expected at 10% of the time.

About the Role

Northrop Grumman offers employees the opportunity to work on revolutionary systems that impact lives globally. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity, and a drive to achieve what others deem impossible. At the Cincinnati (Xetron) site, part of the Mission Systems sector, you’ll collaborate in a small business environment within a larger corporation, tackling cutting-edge technologies for military and intelligence customers.

This role is ideal for a senior systems engineer who will lead design efforts for new hardware products supporting national defense across land, sea, air, and space domains. You’ll address complex, unsolved problems with ingenuity, serving as the primary technical lead for electrical design, development, integration, and test. The position involves direct interaction with end customers and operators, ensuring pragmatic feedback during the design process.

Teams typically consist of 5-10 engineers with diverse skill sets, covering the entire program lifecycle. This role is contingent upon obtaining funding, customer approval, and final clearances prior to the start date.

Responsibilities

• Lead design efforts for deployable RF sensors and collection systems, ensuring alignment with customer mission objectives.
• Serve as the primary technical point of contact for external customers and internal engineering teams.
• Extract derived requirements and generate system architectures from mission-level concepts of operations (ConOps).
• Resolve and integrate technical requirements across engineering teams, verifying their incorporation into the final product.
• Oversee electrical design, development, integration, and test for development projects.
• Collaborate with end customers to create and develop technical reviews and documentation.
• Lead teams of engineers in executing innovative solutions to complex problems.
• Assess project status in terms of technical progress, cost, and schedule execution.

Requirements

• Bachelor of Science in Engineering or other STEM degree plus 14 years of progressive experience, OR Master of Science plus 12 years of progressive experience, OR PhD plus 9 years of progressive experience.
• Recent design experience and a track record of successful RF product designs.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary engineering teams in technical development projects.
• Active Top-Secret clearance (required for start).
• U.S. citizenship.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience as an IPT lead, functional lead, or military leadership role.
• Familiarity with model-based system engineering (e.g., Cameo) and standards such as ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288, MIL-STD-499, or INCOSE lifecycle processes.
• Experience integrating antenna, RF subsystems, and processing hardware/software into complete systems.
• RF modeling, simulation, and analysis, including link budgets.
• Proficiency in MATLAB.
• Demonstrated ability to quickly learn and apply varied technologies.
• Strong collaboration skills and ability to act as a liaison between technical teams and customers.

Benefits

• Health insurance coverage.
• Life and disability insurance.
• Savings plan (401k).
• Company-paid holidays and paid time off (PTO) for vacation/personal business.
• Annual bonuses based on individual contributions and company performance.
• Eligibility for overtime, shift differential, and discretionary bonuses (depending on position).
• Long-term incentives for eligible leadership positions (Vice President/Director).

Pay

Primary salary range: $175,300 – $262,900. Offers are determined based on experience, education, skills, and market conditions. Additional compensation may include overtime, shift differentials, and discretionary bonuses.