NG Fellow 1 – Software Architect

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes

CLEARANCE TYPE: 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.

Northrop Grumman Fellows are recognized experts who tackle the hardest technical problems and ensure we retain the hard-won insights needed to perform complex missions successfully. They define what is possible in our most critical capability areas while identifying and cultivating the people, processes, and tools required for enduring technical advantage.

Fellows are deployed against our most important programs and captures, aligned to top business priorities, and advance our products and solutions to meet customers’ missions every day.

Northrop Grumman Space Systems is seeking an NG Fellow 1 – Software Architect for Open Systems and Mission Computing. This position is located in Chandler, Arizona and reports to the GNC/SW engineering director.

The ideal candidate will set and drive strategy for a broad set of mission-computing and software-architecture initiatives and will be empowered to shape technical direction across mission software frameworks, real-time computing platforms, hardware-software integration, modular open-system implementations, and digital-engineering-enabled software development approaches.

The Fellow is expected to provide scientific, technical, and intellectual leadership that improves capture success, product differentiation, cross-platform reuse, and long-range mission effectiveness in alignment with the LED strategic plan.

This leader must have a strong grasp of campaign execution and networking strategy and possess the skills, drive, and judgment to successfully interface with senior leaders, chief engineers, program teams, software organizations, and customer stakeholders.

The role is expected to bridge operational mission needs with robust, safety-critical, cyber-resilient software architectures that can be implemented, verified, fielded, sustained, and modernized across advanced defense platforms.

This position is intended to provide architecture governance across reusable software baselines, mission-computing environments, and hardware-software partitioning strategies that support enduring technical advantage.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic & Technical Leadership

• Serve as a sector-level technical authority for software architecture supporting advanced weapons, missile systems, guidance applications, mission computing, and mission-critical defense platforms.
• Define and influence long-term technical roadmaps for software frameworks, reference architectures, interface architectures, data models, real-time execution approaches, modular reuse, and digital engineering practices across the relevant portfolio.
• Drive technical strategy, trades, and risk-reduction plans across the engineering lifecycle—from concept exploration through design, development, integration, verification, test, certification, deployment, and fielding support.
• Provide technical leadership on critical programs and captures, including solution development, technical differentiation, architecture maturity, and alignment to customer mission needs.
• Establish and champion best practices for translating operational and systems-level requirements into robust software blueprints, interface definitions, open-architecture implementation strategies, and reusable implementation patterns for mission-critical environments.
• Lead trade studies on open architecture, software partitioning, hosting strategies, latency, scalability, cybersecurity, fault tolerance, processor utilization, deployment topology, and lifecycle affordability in operationally relevant environments.
• Define architecture principles, technical guardrails, and governance mechanisms for mission software, common services, interface patterns, and modular reuse across multiple programs and captures.
• Guide detailed allocation of software elements to hardware items and hosting environments, including integration, test, deployment, sustainment, and modernization considerations across complex system implementations.

Organizational & People Leadership

• Lead through influence across software, systems, hardware, integration, cybersecurity, and mission engineering organizations, aligning technical direction with LED strategy and growth objectives.
• Mentor chief engineers, IPT leads, and senior technical staff in software architecture, interface design, hardware-software integration, real-time implementation methods, modular reuse, and digital engineering practices.
• Drive adoption of rigorous engineering, reuse, verification, and architecture-governance methods that improve solution quality, mission performance, resiliency, and affordability.
• Engage regularly with senior leadership and customers to present architecture concepts, technical risks, trade studies, mitigations, recommendations, and architecture-maturity assessments in a clear and compelling manner.

Technical Skills and Core Competencies

• Deep experience in software architecture for mission-critical, software-intensive defense systems, including real-time or embedded applications supporting weapons, guidance, command-and-control, or related aerospace platforms.
• Demonstrated experience translating mission and operational needs into scalable software frameworks, APIs, interface contracts, data models, and reusable common services that support complex multi-disciplinary systems.
• Experience with weapons and modular open system architectures (WOSA/MOSA), including requirements definition, interface development, conformance strategies, and implementation approaches for mission-critical defense systems.
• Strong background in real-time operating systems, deterministic software behavior, timing and latency management, hardware abstraction, and software-hardware integration for safety-critical environments.
• Experience with detailed allocation of software elements to hardware items and hosting environments, including integration, test, deployment, sustainment, and modernization considerations across complex system implementations.
• Broad systems engineering and technical oversight experience across complex, multi-discipline defense systems.
• Experience designing, researching, and developing advanced technical solutions that result in differentiated product and business opportunities.
• Experience with software verification strategies, hardware-in-the-loop integration, and development practices aligned with mission assurance, safety, cybersecurity, and resiliency objectives.
• Working knowledge of MBSE and digital engineering practices, along with requirements and architecture tools such as DOORS, Cameo, SysML, DoDAF, or comparable toolsets.
• Demonstrated experience establishing reference architectures, interface standards, software reuse strategies, and governance processes for mission-computing ecosystems across multiple programs.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelors, Master’s, and/or PhD in a relevant STEM degree and robust industry related experience; 20 years of experience with a BS or 18 years of experience with an MS or PhD.
• Active U.S. Government Secret security clearance at t