Principal Engineer Data

About the role

• RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: No relocation assistance available
• CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes
• CLEARANCE TYPE: Secret
• TRAVEL: Yes, 10% of the Time

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 Aeronautics Systems is seeking a Principal Data Engineer with AI Experience to join our onsite team in El Segundo, California.

A hybrid work arrangement may be considered for this position.

We are looking for a passionate Principal Data Engineer to design and develop an ecosystem of interconnected business systems, virtualized data pipelines, data catalogs, and end-user consumable data products. We are seeking self-motivated individuals who have a thirst for knowledge, a relentless drive to solve complex problems, and proven experience collaborating in cross functional teams.

Job Responsibilities

• Demonstrated technical leadership (leading designs, mentoring engineers, driving cross-team technical alignment).
• Design, develop, and maintain scalable data pipelines and ETL(Extract, Transform, Load) processes across multiple data sources.
• Build and optimize data models for analytics and reporting
• Implement robust data quality, validation, and monitoring frameworks to ensure reliability of downstream insights.
• Collaborate with data scientists, product managers, and business stakeholders to translate analytical requirements into technical specifications.
• Create reusable, documented analytics code libraries to accelerate self‑service analytics.
• Evaluate emerging data technologies and recommend improvements to the analytics stack.
• Ensure compliance with data governance, security, and privacy policies.
• Develop and maintain Tableau dashboards,, and ad‑hoc querying tools for customers and stakeholders.
• Provide technical leadership through design reviews, prototyping, code contributions, and mentoring while aligning roadmaps across teams.
• Partner with product, platform, data, security, and compliance to establish responsible AI practices, model governance and predictive modeling
• Applied AI/ML engineering experience delivering models to production (classical ML and/or deep learning, including LLM-enabled solutions).
• Experience integrating AI/ML capabilities into enterprise software systems (APIs/services, data pipelines, and production deployment patterns).
• Experience working in regulated environments with strong emphasis on security, data handling, and governance expectations for AI use.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in a Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) field with at least 5 years of experience OR Master’s Degree in a Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) field with at least 3 years of experience OR PhD Degree in a Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) field with at least 1 years of experience
• Experience with Python, GIT, Command Line, SQL Servers, DataBricks, Oracle databases, Dagster, Tableau, Microsoft Excel, Visual Studio, FastAPI, Azure, SQL Alchemy, pytorch, scikit-learn, pillow, OpenCV and torchvision
• Experience with data architecture, data models, physical database designs, data integration strategy and design for operational systems, systems integration, and analytical systems
• Experience with SQL Server and proficiency in data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, etc.)
• Active US Government secret clearance and with the ability to obtain special program access

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with modern data orchestration tools (e.g. Airflow)
• Proficiency in leading data visualization tools (e.g. Tableau, PowerBI)
• Expert in Python, SQL, and data visualization tools.
• Experience in ERP, MRP, and Quality systems (e.g. SAP, MES, Solumina, TIPQA, etc.)
• Experience with data platform technologies (e.g., Palantir, Databricks, etc.).
• Experience leading AI technical strategy/roadmaps for a program or product; influencing stakeholders across software, systems, and program leadership.
• Deep experience with LLM solutions, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), evaluation/guardrails, and enterprise-ready integration.
• Familiarity with enterprise AI governance and responsible-use expectations, including alignment to company AI governance procedures.

Primary Level Salary Range

$114,000.00 - $171,000.00

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.