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 Defense Systems has an opening for a Sr Principal Network Engineer. We are looking for you to join our team as a Sr Principal Network Engineer based out of Orlando, FL. As a Sr Principal Network Engineer at Northrop Grumman, you will have a challenging and rewarding opportunity to be a part of our Cross-Domain Handling of Releasable Data (CHORD) portfolio. CHORD is a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Cross Domain Solution (CDS). The CHORD portfolio comprises multiple contract awards and with various customers. The successful candidate will be exceptionally meticulous, collaborative, open, transparent, and team-oriented with a focus on team empowerment & personal responsibility, flexibility, continuous learning, and a culture of seeking the best performance from everyone.

Roles & Responsibilities:

• The Sr Principal Network Engineer serves as a senior technical resource responsible for sustaining and troubleshooting a fully defined network architecture, including secure external connectivity through next-generation firewalls (preferably Palo Alto) and DoD end-to-end encryption devices such as TACLANE.
• Manages and handles COMSEC material in accordance with DoD directives, and cross-trains as a tester to support system and integration test activities alongside multi-disciplinary engineering teams
• The engineer also performs end-to-end fault isolation to distinguish product issues from customer network issues under a CLS contract.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Electrical Engineering, or related STEM discipline with 8+ years of relevant network engineering experience OR Master’s degree in STEM and 6+ years of experience OR 12 years of experience in lieu of a degree.
• U.S. citizenship and Active DoD Secret Clearance
• Extensive hands-on experience configuring, operating, and troubleshooting Cisco-based network infrastructure, including enterprise-/mission-scale switches and routers (IOS/IOS-XE/NX-OS).
• Deep understanding of TCP/IP networking, routing protocols (e.g., OSPF, BGP, EIGRP), VLANs, trunking, spanning-tree, and QoS.
• Demonstrated experience supporting and troubleshooting a fully defined/fielded network architecture in a production or mission environment.
• Proven ability to perform end-to-end fault isolation and root cause analysis, including clearly determining whether issues originate within the supported product/system or in the customer’s external network.
• Experience supporting systems under a Contractor Logistics Support (CLS) or similar sustainment contract, including incident/ticket management and documentation of findings.
• Working knowledge of firewall concepts (e.g., security zones, ACLs, NAT, VPNs) and secure external connectivity.
• Familiarity with DoD end-to-end encryption devices (e.g., TACLANE or equivalent) and their role in secure network architectures.
• Willingness and ability to cross-train as a system/test engineer and support execution of formal and informal test activities (e.g., test setup, test execution, defect documentation).
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to interface with customers, operations staff, and internal engineering/test teams.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Current Cisco certification (e.g., CCNP Enterprise, CCNP Security, or higher).
• Current DoD 8570/8140-compliant cybersecurity certification, such as: CompTIA Security+
• Ability to obtain and maintain a higher DoD clearance status as required
• (ISC)² CISSP (or Associate of CISSP)
• Hands-on experience with Palo Alto Networks firewalls, including configuration of security policies, NAT, VPNs, and routing, and troubleshooting using logs, packet captures, and CLI/GUI tools.
• Experience integrating Cisco routing/switching with Palo Alto (or similar next-generation firewalls) to provide secure external connectivity for deployed systems.
• Experience in a senior network engineer role, including reviewing/approving network changes and mentoring junior engineers.
• Experience operating in DoD or other secure/regulated network environments, including exposure to RMF, DISA STIGs, or equivalent cybersecurity/compliance requirements.
• Proficiency with network monitoring and analysis tools (e.g., Wireshark, SolarWinds, NetFlow, SNMP) for proactive issue detection and performance troubleshooting.
• Hands-on experience with TACLANE or similar DoD end-to-end encryption devices, including configuration, operational management, and integration with routing and firewall policies.
• Experience managing and handling COMSEC material, including key loading/changes, adherence to handling and storage procedures, and coordination with COMSEC custodians.
• Experience supporting system and integration test activities, such as:
• Building and configuring test network environments
• Executing test procedures and capturing objective evidence
• Reproducing and troubleshooting defects found during test
• Experience coordinating with multi-disciplinary teams (systems engineering, software, cybersecurity, logistics, test) to resolve complex field and test issues under CLS or similar support constructs.