Principal / Sr. Principal Cyber Systems Administrator

About the role

• RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available
• CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes
• 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 a Principal/Sr. Principal Cyber Systems Administrator in Huntsville, AL to support the Secure Transmission, Remote Asset & Network Data (STRAND) upgrade to the C‑UAS Network Communication System (NCS).

This role will provide mid to senior-level system and network administration for secure communications, cloud-based data pipelines, remote asset management, and observability services supporting C‑UAS/BONES architectures in connected, intermittent, and disconnected environments. The role will act as a technical lead, collaborating with systems engineering, cyber, and software teams to ensure mission-ready infrastructure at operational sites and test ranges.

Responsibilities

• Serve as an administrator for Linux and Windows servers/systems and virtualized environments supporting STRAND and C‑UAS NCS.
• Design, configure, and maintain core network services including DHCP, DNS, NTP, VPN, routing, and firewall policies across multiple sites.
• Implement and sustain secure communications including HTTPS, TLS/mTLS, PKI, and certificate-based authentication for users, services, and machine-to-machine traffic.
• Lead automation and configuration management using Ansible and Git-based workflows; drive adoption of intent-based configuration practices.
• Engineer and maintain monitoring and observability solutions (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, log aggregation, tracing) to provide real-time insight into system and network health.
• Own the process for patching and hardening systems, including application of OS and application security updates, STIGs, and IAVA/IAVM remediation with clear documentation.
• Support secure data collection and transfer from V‑BONE and other networked assets to Army-authorized cloud environments (e.g., AWS), including S3 storage, checksums, and integrity validation.
• Participate in and technically support integration events, lab testing, and field deployments, including Government test ranges (e.g., Yuma Proving Ground) and operational locations.
• Develop and maintain runbooks, SOPs, configuration baselines, and troubleshooting guides; provide Tier‑3-4/subject matter expert support for complex incidents.
• Collaborate with cyber and systems engineering to support RMF/ATO and FedRAMP-aligned activities, including security documentation and continuous monitoring support.

Basic Qualifications

• For a Principal Cyber Systems Administrator: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Cyber Security, Engineering, or related STEM discipline and 5+ years of relevant experience;
• OR Master’s degree and 3+ years.
• For a Sr. Principal Cyber Systems Administrator: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Cyber Security, Engineering, or related STEM discipline and 5+ years of relevant experience -- OR Master's degree and 6+ years.
• U.S. citizen with an active DoD Secret clearance.
• Extensive hands-on experience administering Linux and Windows servers/systems in production or mission-critical DoD or enterprise environments.
• Strong experience with virtualization platforms (e.g., VMware, KVM, Hyper‑V) and/or administering workloads in major cloud environments (AWS or equivalent).
• Demonstrated expertise configuring and supporting network services (DHCP, DNS, routing, VPNs, firewall rules) in multi-site architectures.
• Proven experience implementing and managing PKI, TLS/mTLS, HTTPS, and certificate chains, including CA hierarchy and certificate lifecycle management.
• Experience with automation/configuration management tools such as Ansible, and Git for version control, branching/merging, and change review.
• Experience operating and tuning monitoring and logging solutions such as Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/Loki/Splunk, or similar observability stacks.
• Working knowledge of NIST SP 800‑53, RMF, and DoD Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) as applied to systems and networks.
• Experience leading or executing patching/vulnerability remediation activities (e.g., IAVA/IAVM) and documenting results for compliance and accreditation.
• Experience supporting mission-critical or 24x7 systems and operating in connected, intermittent, and disconnected (CID) environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience with C‑UAS, C‑RAM, SHORAD, FS‑LIDS, M‑LIDS, BONES/B‑NET, or similar sensor/effects networks in OCONUS or deployed settings.
• Experience supporting OCONUS deployments, test ranges, or contingency operations.
• Hands-on experience administering systems in AWS (GovCloud a plus), including:
• Amazon S3 data storage and lifecycle management;
• AWS Lambda or similar serverless services for data ingestion/processing pipelines.
• Experience with Kubernetes platforms (e.g., RKE2) and service meshes such as Istio, including mTLS enforcement, traffic policies, and mesh observability (Kiali or similar).
• Experience integrating SSO, MFA, and RBAC into enterprise/tactical environments and familiarity with zero-trust aligned segmentation and access control.
• Experience with GitOps / CI/CD tools (e.g., ArgoCD, Jenkins, GitLab CI) for automated deployment of infrastructure and applications.
• Familiarity with OCI-compliant container registries and distributed management of container images across multiple sites.
• Experience with intent-based network configuration, hierarchical Git repositories for configuration state, and Secure Zero Touch Provisioning (SZTP).
• Depth in observability stacks, ideally including:
• Prometheus / Mimir (metrics);
• Loki (logs);
• Experience contributing to or maintaining FedRAMP-aligned and RMF/ATO environments, including security plans, boundary diagrams, data flow diagrams, and POA&Ms.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; proven ability to act as a technical lead and collaborate across systems engineering, cyber, software, and operations teams.

Primary Level Salary Range

$98,900.00 - $148,300.00

Secondary Level Salary Range

$123,400.00 - $185,000.00

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.