Lead Automation Test Engineer - Level 4

About the role

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 Space Systems, Multi-Domain Operations, and Missile Defense Integration Business Unit (BU) has an exciting career opportunity for a Sr. Principal Test Engineer Lead – Test Automation (Level 4) to join our team of qualified, diverse individuals. This position supports the Modeling and Simulation Vistas – Threat and Advanced Simulations Development (MSV‑TASD) program and will split time between Schriever Space Force Base (SSFB) and the Northrop Grumman facility in Colorado Springs, CO.

This role requires candidates to be onsite daily with very limited remote/hybrid work available.

Position Overview:

The selected Sr. Principal Test Engineer Lead will be part of the TASD Systems Team, overseeing test engineering with a focus on standardization and rigor in the testing process to include program wide standard manual test processes and automated test design, development, and integration where possible. This position will lead the effort to transform several software projects and their associated application suites from an ad-hoc manual test execution to a strategy that relies on rigorous processes, documentation, evidence and automated testing.  This position will require flexibility and creative solution development across multiple environments with varying cyber security constraints.

The Sr. Principal Test Engineer Lead will support the development and verification of TASD software products across the portfolio, including Threat Modeling and Simulation Software (TMSS), Red‑Force Objective Simulation Environment (ROSE), Missile Defense Advanced Simulation (MDASim), Threat Generator External (TGx), and the Missile Defense Space Tool (MDST). Responsibilities include designing, testing, analyzing, benchmarking, validating and verifying, documenting, automating, and integrating products for all organizations within the TASD program.

Essential Functions:

• Leading the test engineers in developing standard processes, test plans, results documentation and recording, and best practices to ensure quality software.
• Leading the definition and implementation of a test automation strategy and roadmap to improve multiple TASD software products automated testing suites.
• Leading the design and implementation of manual and automated regression, integration, and end‑to‑end test suites for client, client–server, and cloud‑based simulation systems.
• Creating or utilizing test tools and harnesses to support manual and automated testing (e.g., scripting, test data setup, environment orchestration) and training other test engineers in their use.
• Supporting agile software teams within the context of a larger program, including embedding automation into CI/CD pipelines and enforcing quality gates.
• Leading the test engineers in efforts to improve product quality through rigorous testing, analysis, automation, and peer review, including identification and reduction of unreliable or inefficient tests.
• Interfacing with TASD customers and stakeholders, preparing and presenting technical briefings on test strategies, plans, status, and results.
• Defining and tracking test and quality metrics (e.g., automation coverage, defect trends, test stability) and using them to drive continuous improvement.

The selected candidate should thrive in a fast‑paced work environment with high expectations, significantly diverse assignments, and collaborative team settings across all levels.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics) discipline preferred from an accredited university and 8 years of related experience; a Master’s Degree in a STEM discipline and 6 years of related experience; or a PhD with 4 years of related experience.
• Self-starter with the ability to work both independently and in a team environment.
• Strong written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills to collaborate effectively with technical teams and customer personnel.
• Familiarity with Agile software development practices.
• Solid understanding of the software development lifecycle and how testing and automation integrate into that lifecycle.
• Hands-on experience designing, developing, and maintaining test automation, including.
• Experience successfully leading a team of test engineers, including setting priorities, assigning work, and providing technical directions.

• Applicants must have an active in-scope U.S. Government issued Secret security clearance at time of application, which is required to start.
• Ability for some limited travel (less than 10% time) to support program meetings.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience training or coaching others in development of test automation, such as mentoring manual testers or developers in automation practices and tools.

• Experience with C++, C#, Java, Python, or other modern development languages, including the ability to read and review production code and contribute to test code.
• Experience with automated test frameworks and tools, such as:
  • Unit test frameworks (e.g., JUnit, TestNG, NUnit, xUnit, pytest, or similar).
  • API test frameworks or tools (e.g., REST Assured, Postman/Newman, Karate, or similar).
  • UI/client automation tools (e.g., Selenium WebDriver, Playwright, Cypress, or platform specific desktop UI automation tools).
• Experience in agile software development methodologies including Scrum, Kanban, and Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe).
• Experience engineering modeling and simulation (M&S) systems using an optimistic and/or conservative discrete event simulation platform.
• Knowledge or experience in several of the following: missile defense domain knowledge, command and control, and modeling and simulation development.
• Experience designing or operating CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Azure DevOps) that incorporate automated tests and quality gates.
• Experience with Atlassian tools such as Jira, Confluence, and Git (or equivalent work tracking, documentation, and configuration management tools).
• Experience defining and tracking test/quality metrics and using them to influence design, prioritization, and risk management.

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