Backend Software Engineer - Agent Foundation

About the role

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

About the role

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 Backend Software Engineers to join the Agent Foundation team within i2 Ecosystem & Experience. You will build the APIs and backend services that support enterprise AI agents. The work includes agent registration, configuration, data storage, administration and connections to LangSmith. You will develop secure, maintainable software and support it in production.

This position can be hired as a Level 3 or Level 4 depending on the candidate's experience and education. The preferred location of the position is Falls Church, VA, however, we will consider a virtual telecommuter.

In this job you will

• Build and maintain backend services and APIs for agent registration, configuration, versioning and administration.
• Design database schemas, migrations and reliable data access.
• Implement authentication, authorization, input validation and auditable administrative actions.
• Develop background jobs, queues and event processing with retries and failure recovery.
• Integrate services with LangSmith, model gateways and enterprise APIs.
• Write automated tests and use logs, metrics and traces to diagnose production issues.
• Review code, document APIs and support software releases and maintenance.
• Other duties as assigned.

Basic Qualifications for Level 3

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, information systems, data science, or a related STEM discipline with 5 or more years of relevant professional experience-or a master's degree with 3 or more years of relevant experience.

Basic Qualifications for Level 4

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, information systems, data science, or a related STEM discipline with 8 or more years of relevant professional experience-or a master's degree with 6 or more years of relevant experience.

Additional Basic Qualifications for both levels

• Experience developing production backend software using Python, TypeScript, Java, C#, Go or comparable languages.
• Experience with APIs (e.g. REST APIs), SQL, relational databases and schema migrations.
• Experience with queues, caches, scheduled jobs or asynchronous processing.
• Understanding of service authentication, authorization and protection of sensitive data.
• Experience with Git, automated testing, debugging and collaborative software delivery.
• Ability to explain technical decisions clearly and work effectively with other engineers.
• Experience supporting systems in secure government environments, including access controls, security requirements and controlled change processes.
• Ability to obtain and maintain any security clearance required for the position. U.S. citizenship may be required based on the final clearance determination.
• Experience with containerization technologies (e.g. docker)

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with FastAPI, Node.js, PostgreSQL, Redis or comparable technologies.
• Experience with Azure, containers and automated deployment pipelines.
• Experience with LangSmith or other AI application tooling.
• Experience building versioned APIs and reusable developer capabilities.
• Experience with developing CI/CD Pipelines
• Experience implementing authentication and authorization solutions using OIDC and OAuth 2.0.
• Experience with developing Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers.

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.