Senior Principal Mission and Quality Engineer Lead

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: No relocation assistance available
CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: No
CLEARANCE TYPE: None
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.

Northrop Grumman is seeking a Mission and Quality Assurance Lead to support execution of complex aerospace and defense programs. This role will provide program-integrated leadership across mission assurance, quality assurance, risk management, process improvement, and performance management to ensure contract, customer, and organizational requirements are met.

The selected candidate will partner with program leadership, engineering, operations, supply chain, suppliers, and functional organizations to identify and manage program risks, evaluate process and product quality, drive corrective actions, and improve program execution. The ideal candidate will bring strong analytical and leadership skills, along with demonstrated experience translating operational data and process performance into measurable program results.

Key Responsibilities

Program Mission Assurance and Quality

• Lead mission assurance and quality assurance activities in support of program objectives, customer commitments, and contract requirements.
• Develop and execute program quality and mission assurance plans, procedures, metrics, and review activities.
• Review program plans, statements of work, requirements, deliverables, schedules, and performance data to identify quality, compliance, cost, schedule, and technical concerns.
• Support program reviews, milestone reviews, readiness reviews, customer meetings, and other leadership forums by providing quality and mission assurance assessments.
• Establish and monitor program performance measures to evaluate process capability, product quality, schedule performance, and overall program health.
• Support preparation, review, and approval of contract data requirements lists (CDRLs), quality deliverables, program metrics, and other customer-facing products.
• Ensure quality and mission assurance requirements are flowed down to applicable functional organizations, suppliers, and subcontractors.
• Promote first-time quality, disciplined execution, configuration control, and continuous improvement throughout the program lifecycle.

Risk and Opportunity Management

• Support implementation and sustainment of the program Risk and Opportunity Management Plan.
• Identify, assess, document, and monitor program risks and opportunities across cost, schedule, technical performance, quality, and mission assurance.
• Develop and track risk and opportunity mitigation, handling, and closure plans.
• Participate in program risk and opportunity boards and provide quality and mission assurance inputs to leadership decisions.
• Analyze risk trends and ensure realized risks and issues are transitioned into corrective actions, recovery plans, or process improvements.
• Coordinate with program management, engineering, scheduling, finance, and functional organizations to ensure risk responses are aligned with program priorities and execution plans.

Process and Product Assurance

• Evaluate program processes and products for compliance with customer requirements, contractual commitments, organizational procedures, and applicable quality standards.
• Conduct or support process audits, product evaluations, quality assessments, and readiness reviews.
• Lead root-cause analyses for nonconformances, quality escapes, audit findings, recurring issues, and performance shortfalls.
• Develop, implement, and verify corrective and preventive actions.
• Ensure issues and corrective actions are documented, tracked, communicated, and closed effectively.
• Review program performance data to identify trends, process variation, inefficiencies, and opportunities for improvement.
• Support hardware, software, systems, integration, test, and operational activities as applicable to the assigned program.
• Participate in inspections, verification and validation activities, test readiness reviews, acceptance activities, and system sell-off events.

Program Process Improvement

• Lead Kaizen events, value-stream mapping, Lean Six Sigma activities, and structured improvement initiatives in support of program execution.
• Facilitate cross-functional teams in identifying waste, process gaps, rework, schedule impacts, and resource constraints.
• Develop standardized work, process controls, procedures, and performance measures that improve program consistency and execution.
• Quantify cost avoidance, labor-hour recovery, schedule improvements, throughput gains, and other benefits resulting from improvement initiatives.
• Support program leadership in prioritizing improvement activities based on risk, customer impact, cost, schedule, and mission significance.
• Coach program teams in root-cause analysis, corrective action, process measurement, and continuous improvement methods.

Supplier and Subcontractor Assurance

• Support mission assurance and quality oversight of suppliers and subcontractors contributing to program deliverables.
• Evaluate supplier capability, capacity, process maturity, performance, and compliance with program requirements.
• Review supplier quality plans, metrics, corrective actions, inspection results, and delivery performance.
• Coordinate with Supplier Mission Assurance, Supply Chain, Engineering, and Program Management to resolve supplier issues.
• Support supplier audits, source inspections, acceptance activities, and corrective-action verification.
• Monitor supplier risks and ensure appropriate mitigation plans are incorporated into overall program risk management.

Program Leadership and Communication

• Serve as a trusted advisor to program managers and functional leaders on quality, mission assurance, risk, process performance, and corrective action.
• Prepare clear program-level briefings, assessments, metrics, dashboards, and recommendations for technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Communicate program risks, issues, trends, and opportunities to leadership in a timely and actionable manner.
• Lead and mentor cross-functional teams, analysts, engineers, and less-experienced mission assurance personnel.
• Coordinate across multiple organizations, sites, and disciplines to resolve complex program issues.
• Represent mission assurance and quality in customer, supplier, program, and internal leadership engagements.
• Perform other mission assurance, quality, and program-support duties as assigned.

What You Will Bring

The ideal candidate is a mission-focused, analytical, and collaborative leader who can integrate quality and mission assurance into day-to-day program execution. You will bring experience managing complex operational challenges, developing meaningful program metrics, leading cross-functional teams, and delivering measurable improvements in cost, schedule, quality, and performance.

Success in this role requires sound judgment, disciplined problem-solving, strong communication skills, and the ability to build trusted relationships with program leadership, technical teams, customers, suppliers, and functional organizations.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business, engineering, operations, supply chain management, quality, or a related field with 10 years of relevant experience; or a Master’s degree with 8 years of relevant experience. An additional four years of relevant experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
• Experience supporting or leading mission assurance, quality assurance, program execution, process improvement, or operational-performance activities.
• Demonstrated experience developing and analyzing performance metrics and communicating results to program leadership.
• Experience leading root-cause analysis, corrective action, preventive action, or continuous-improvement activities.
• Experience working across engineering, operations, supply chain, program management, and other functional organizations.
• Experience identifying, assessing, and mitigating program risks involving cost, schedule, technical performance, quality, or mission success.
• Experience facilitating cross-functional teams and implementing sustainable process improvements.
• Experience in Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, value-stream mapping, or other structured improvement methodologies.
• Strong written, verbal, analytical, interpersonal, and presentation skills.
• Ability to obtain and maintain required program access or security clearance, as applicable.

Preferred Qualifications

• Active Top Secret clearance.
• Master’s degree in Business Administration, Supply Chain Management, Operations, Quality, or a related discipline.
• Lean Six Sigma certification or comparable process-improvement training.
• SAFe Scrum Master certification or experience working in Agile or Lean-Agile program environments.
• Experience supporting aerospace, defense, government, logistics, supply chain, or other highly regulated programs.
• Experience supporting complex programs with multiple suppliers, sites, workstreams, or technical disciplines.
• Experience validating cost avoidance, cost savings, labor-hour recovery, schedule improvement, or other measurable program benefits.
• Experience supporting internal and external audits, customer reviews, program assessments, or compliance evaluations.
• Experience working with Enterprise Resource Planning systems, including SAP.
• Experience managing material, asset, procurement, logistics, or supply-chain activities in support of program deliverables.
• Experience supporting classified programs, contracts, or customer engagements.
• Experience leading program improvement initiatives from problem identification through implementation and effectiveness verification.
• Demonstrated ability to influence stakeholders, lead change, and deliver results without direct authority.

Primary Level Salary Range: $117,500.00 - $176,300.00
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.