Principal / Sr. Principal Electronics Engineer – Precision Sensor Electronics

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available
CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: No
CLEARANCE TYPE: Secret
TRAVEL: Yes, 10% 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.

That same spirit of innovation continues within Northrop Grumman's Mission Systems sector, where we develop mission-enabling technologies for global security. Our Engineering and Sciences (E&S) organization brings together multidisciplinary technical expertise to research, develop, design, integrate, and sustain advanced systems and technologies. From our Woodland Hills campus in the greater Los Angeles area, our engineering teams support programs across Navigation and Cockpit Systems (NACS) and Emerging Capabilities Development (ECD), spanning established products and next-generation research and development. Together, we advance precision sensing, positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) capabilities that strengthen mission effectiveness and provide a decisive advantage to the warfighter.

We are seeking a Principal / Sr. Principal Electronics Engineer to join our engineering team. In this role, you will design, develop, integrate, and verify precision analog and mixed-signal electronics for advanced PNT applications, including resilient navigation in GPS-denied or contested environments. These electronics support inertial sensors, including gyroscopes and accelerometers, as well as inertial measurement units (IMUs), inertial navigation systems (INS), and other precision sensing and measurement instrumentation.

Achieving the accuracy, stability, and low-noise performance these technologies demand requires rigorous circuit design, quantitative analysis, and hands-on laboratory verification. You'll collaborate with mechanical and systems engineers, digital hardware and embedded firmware engineers, controls specialists, and experts in sensor physics and precision instrumentation to translate demanding performance requirements into reliable and manufacturable electronic hardware. The role offers opportunities to take technical ownership from initial design through debugging, verified performance, and next-generation sensor-interface development.

What You'll Do

• Design precision analog and mixed-signal electronic circuits for advanced sensing and electromechanical instrumentation.
• Develop sensor excitation, drive, detection, pickoff, signal-conditioning, and actuation electronics for precision measurement and closed-loop control of electromechanical devices.
• Design and optimize low-noise analog front ends, precision measurement circuits, data acquisition interfaces, and analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog signal chains.
• Develop electronic noise and error budgets using circuit-level modeling, spectral analysis, and quantitative evaluation of noise contributions to instrument performance.
• Deliver detailed electronic designs from circuit analysis, modeling, simulation, schematic capture, and component selection through engineering reviews, design verification, controlled release, and revision management of schematics and supporting documentation.
• Drive circuit card assembly (CCA) development through board bring-up, hands-on hardware integration, and testing while verifying hardware performance under representative environmental conditions to support qualification and production readiness.
• Characterize and debug electronic hardware through hands-on laboratory testing, correlate analytical predictions and circuit simulations with measured performance, and verify the effectiveness of design improvements.
• Own complex electronic hardware anomalies from initial discrepancy through systematic bench troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, corrective action, and verified technical resolution.
• Collaborate with sensor physicists, controls specialists, and FPGA/digital engineers to evaluate transducer interfaces, feedback-loop behavior, noise mechanisms, and their effects on sensor performance.
• Communicate technical findings, design tradeoffs, and engineering recommendations through design reviews, technical reports, and discussions with program stakeholders.
• Share circuit-design methods, test procedures, failure-analysis findings, and lessons learned through documentation, peer reviews, and mentoring; seek feedback from experienced specialists to expand technical capability.
• (Sr. Principal) Lead complex precision-electronics development while remaining directly involved in laboratory investigations and hardware verification; establish circuit architectures, guide technical reviews, and mentor engineers toward independent technical ownership.

This position requires full-time on-site work at our Woodland Hills, CA facility and follows a 9/80 work schedule, with every other Friday off.

This position may be filled at either the Principal or Sr. Principal level based on the qualifications listed below.

Basic Qualifications for Principal Electronics Engineer

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or a related STEM discipline with 5 or more years of relevant experience; Master's degree with 3 or more years; or PhD with 1 or more years.
• Demonstrated experience independently designing, analyzing, integrating, and verifying precision analog or mixed-signal electronic circuits.
• Experience with circuit modeling, simulation, schematic capture, component selection, and electronic hardware development.
• Experience applying quantitative analysis to evaluate circuit performance, including noise, accuracy, stability, signal fidelity, or other relevant electrical characteristics.
• Experience correlating analytical predictions or simulation results with laboratory measurements and investigating unexpected hardware behavior.
• Demonstrated hands-on laboratory experience with electronic test instrumentation, circuit characterization, debugging, and design verification.
• Strong analytical problem-solving skills and ability to communicate technical findings and engineering recommendations.
• U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government Secret security clearance.

Basic Qualifications for Sr. Principal Electronics Engineer

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or a related STEM discipline with 8 or more years of relevant experience; Master's degree with 6 or more years; or PhD with 4 or more years.
• Demonstrated experience independently designing, analyzing, integrating, and verifying precision analog or mixed-signal electronic circuits.
• Experience with circuit modeling, simulation, schematic capture, component selection, and electronic hardware development.
• Experience applying quantitative analysis to evaluate circuit performance, including noise, accuracy, stability, signal fidelity, or other relevant electrical characteristics.
• Experience correlating analytical predictions or simulation results with laboratory measurements and investigating unexpected hardware behavior.
• Demonstrated hands-on laboratory experience with electronic test instrumentation, circuit characterization, debugging, and design verification.
• Strong analytical problem-solving skills and ability to communicate technical findings and engineering recommendations.
• U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government Secret security clearance.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced experience architecting precision sensor electronics, including excitation, capacitive or optical sensor interfaces, pickoff, actuation, signal-conditioning, low-noise analog front ends, and feedback-control circuitry.
• Expertise in electronic noise mechanisms and analysis, including thermal, shot, flicker (1/f), and burst noise; voltage and current noise spectral densities; input-referred and integrated noise; PSD analysis; and circuit-level noise budgeting for precision measurement systems.
• Demonstrated ability to translate circuit-level noise, error, and stability characteristics into instrument-level performance predictions, design requirements, and engineering improvements.
• Advanced experience in precision analog and mixed-signal design, including feedback control, grounding and shielding, signal and power integrity, and application of worst-case or tolerance-based circuit analyses.
• Experience integrating precision electronics with embedded control systems and FPGA interfaces in complex, high-reliability electromechanical instruments.
• Advanced experience designing and optimizing precision analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion signal chains, including converter interfaces, low-noise voltage references, sampling considerations, dynamic range, and linearity.
• Experience using Cadence, PSpice, LTspice, Siemens EDA/Mentor, or equivalent electronic design and simulation tools.
• Experience using MATLAB/Simulink, Python, LabVIEW, or equivalent tools for computational analysis, automated electronic testing, or experimental data analysis.
• Experience maturing precision sensor electronics from validated prototypes toward environmentally robust, manufacturable, production-ready hardware.

Primary Level Salary Range: $114,000.00 - $171,000.00
Secondary Level Salary Range: $142,200.00 - $213,400.00
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.