Principal / Sr. Principal Engineer Software Quality

Location: Woodland Hills, CA
Work type: On-site
Job type: Full-time
Salary: $103.6K – $155.4K / yr
Clearance: Top Secret
U.S. citizenship: Required
Posted: Oct 7, 2026

About the role

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: No relocation assistance available
CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes
CLEARANCE TYPE: Top Secret
TRAVEL: No

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.

We are looking for you to join our team as a Principal Engineer Software Quality / Sr. Principal Engineer Software Quality based out of Woodland Hills, CA. This position is fully on-site.

What you will get to do:

Develop, modify, apply, and maintain quality evaluation plans to assist program activities for processing software and materials into partially finished or finished products.
Collaborate with Program and Engineering management on program quality planning and the establishment of program quality objectives.
Working with the Engineering Process Group, collaborate with software engineering and systems engineering functions to ensure quality standards are in place and followed.
Assists with verification and validation testing of software and system products.
Supports audit activities and audits quality systems for non-conformance identification and corrective action.
Ensures that corrective measures meet acceptable quality standards, and that documentation is compliant with requirements.
Assists Software Engineering in collecting and reporting metrics.

The ideal candidate must be familiar with QMS (ISO 9001, AS9100, or etc..). This position is fully on-site.

This position can be filled as a Principal Engineer Software Quality or Sr. Principal Engineer Software Quality.

Basic Qualifications for Principal Engineer Software Quality:

Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering or other STEM-related field with a minimum of 5 years of relevant software development integration work experience; Master’s Degree in Engineering or other STEM-related field with a minimum of 3 years of relevant software development and integration work experience.
Experience with development processes including Agile, Waterfall, and/or Spiral Development processes.
Experience in the collection of software data and metrics for reporting.
Active Top-Secret Clearance.
US Citizenship Required.
Experience with Scripting languages (e.g. Bash, Python).
Experience with Linux Operating System.
Experience with Git.
Experience with MS Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint).

Basic Qualifications for Sr. Principal Engineer Software Quality:

Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering or other STEM-related field with a minimum of 8 years of relevant software development integration work experience; Master’s Degree in Engineering or other STEM-related field with a minimum of 6 years of relevant software development and integration work experience.
Experience with development processes including Agile, Waterfall, and/or Spiral Development processes.
Experience in the collection of software data and metrics for reporting.
Active Top-Secret Clearance.
US Citizenship Required.
Experience with Scripting languages (e.g. Bash, Python).
Experience with Linux Operating System.
Experience with Git.
Experience with MS Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint).

Preferred Qualifications:

Experience in a Software Engineering environment in an engineering capacity, work plan review, and root cause/corrective action analysis.
Experience with software code review and open to learning different software tools.
Software Development and/or Software Engineering background with an Agile/DevSecOps mindset.
Experience with GitLab.
Experience with Windows 11 Operating System.
Experience with AS9100 or ISO 9001.

#MPR

Primary Level Salary Range: $103,600.00 - $155,400.00
Secondary Level Salary Range: $129,300.00 - $193,900.00
The above salary range represents a general guideline; however, Northrop Grumman considers a number of factors when determining base salary offers such as the scope and responsibilities of the position and the candidate's experience, education, skills and current market conditions.
Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay. Annual bonuses are designed to reward individual contributions as well as allow employees to share in company results. Employees in Vice President or Director positions may be eligible for Long Term Incentives. In addition, Northrop Grumman provides a variety of benefits including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, savings plan, Company paid holidays and paid time off (PTO) for vacation and/or personal business.
The application period for the job is estimated to be 20 days from the job posting date. However, this timeline may be shortened or extended depending on business needs and the availability of qualified candidates.
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. U.S. Citizenship is required for all positions with a government clearance and certain other restricted positions.