Principal/Sr. Principal Dedicated Cloud Engineer

Help define how the Air Force delivers mission capability in the cloud. Northrop Grumman Defense Systems (NGDS) is seeking a Dedicated Cloud Engineer to support DAF CLOUDworks, a rapidly growing secure cloud program that encompasses 10+ teams across information security, infrastructure development, and cloud migration.

You will work directly with DAF CLOUDworks mission partners to rapidly enable required application functionality and evolve secure cloud offerings-implementing new requirements, enhancing functionality, increasing efficiency, and reducing operating/deployment costs. Successful candidates will be strong communicators and problem solvers who build and maintain effective working relationships with internal and external stakeholders.

What You’ll Do

• Work side-by-side with mission partners to enable and deploy cloud-hosted applications and services.
• Design, implement, and support solutions in Kubernetes-centric, cloud environments.
• Automate deployment, configuration, and monitoring using GitOps and CI/CD pipelines.
• Integrate and manage infrastructure components including networking, storage, Linux/Windows hosts, and security controls.
• Contribute to platform engineering efforts to improve reliability, scalability, and security across the DAF CLOUDworks environment.
• Diagnose complex issues across applications, networks, containers, and cloud platforms, and drive them to resolution.

• Principal Engineer (Level 3):

• High school diploma with 9+ years of relevant experience OR bachelor’s degree with 5+ years of relevant experience OR master’s degree with 3+ years of relevant experience

• Sr. Principal Engineer (Level 4):

• High school diploma with 12+ years of relevant experience OR bachelor’s degree with 8+ years of relevant experience OR master’s degree with 6+ years of relevant experience

• Active Top Secret clearance with Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI)
• Ability to obtain IAT Level II certification per DoD 8570.01 (such as CASP+ or Security+) within 60 days of start date
• Technical knowledge of infrastructure components, including:
• Network
• Storage
• Linux/Windows
• IT security concepts
• Working knowledge and/or familiarity with cloud-based technologies, such as:
• AWS Platform
• Azure Platform
• Google Cloud Platform
• Experience with Kustomize and Helm
• Experience with Linux
• Experience with GitOps and CI/CD, with an emphasis on GitLab
• Experience in application deployment and release management
• Experience with containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift)
• Experience with CI/CD tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, CircleCI, ArgoCD)
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform, Ansible, or similar tools
• Experience with monitoring and logging tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack)
• Proficiency in at least one scripting language (Python, Bash)
• Strong understanding of application deployment strategies (e.g., blue/green, canary)

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with microservice orchestration, with a strong focus on Kubernetes
• Fundamental cloud certifications such as:
• AWS Cloud Practitioner (or higher)
• Azure Fundamentals (or higher)
• Experience with advanced application and network troubleshooting, database administration, and PKI management
• Experience with cloud providers, with an emphasis on AWS services
• Experience with Agile methodologies
• Experience with various forms of automation, including:
• Batch scripting
• Pipeline automation
• Kubernetes operators
• Infrastructure-as-code (e.g., Terraform, Ansible)
• Experience with cloud-native application architectures
• Experience with service mesh technologies (e.g., Istio, Linkerd)
• Experience with security scanning and vulnerability management tools
• Experience with platform engineering concepts

Primary Level Salary Range: $98,400.00 - $155,400.00

Secondary Level Salary Range: $122,800.00 - $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.

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.