Principal Software Quality Engineer

PRINCIPAL SOFTWARE QUALITY ENGINEER About the Role Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems is seeking a Principal Software Quality Engineer to join a qualified and diverse team at the Melbourne, Florida campus. The role focuses on software quality assurance, process compliance, requirements review, software testing oversight, quality metrics, audits, and continuous improvement across software development activities. The Principal Software Quality Engineer will provide highly technical feedback during code reviews, analyze software quality data, oversee software testing and discrepancy investigations, facilitate root cause analysis, and ensure compliance with customer, contractual, organizational, and industry requirements. Key Responsibilities Provide technical feedback during code reviews to ensure compliance with software standards and best practices and that code is correct, efficient, and maintainable. Implement tools to support the collection and analysis of software quality data. Perform process audits of software development processes at onsite and supplier locations. Review customer, system, and software requirements to ensure complete and unambiguous requirements flow-down. Participate in contractual reviews, audits, program meetings, and configuration control board meetings. Examine software test environment preparation and configuration-control products to assess readiness for formal testing. Collect and analyze software quality metrics. Peer review software documentation for appropriate content and adherence to standards. Interpret customer technical, software, and quality requirements and ensure integration into program plans, specifications, and product documentation. Ensure compliance with contract, program, quality, organizational, and industry alert requirements. Provide oversight of discrepancy reviews and software failure investigations. Support cause and corrective-action determinations and analyze trends to drive improvements in key metrics. Facilitate root cause analysis of deficiencies and ensure appropriate corrective actions are developed and implemented in a timely manner. Monitor formal software testing to ensure approved test procedures are followed and requirements are fully verified. Ensure test procedures and software anomalies are documented and tracked through closure. Required Qualifications Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, another STEM discipline, or equivalent, with at least 5 years of software experience; or Master's degree in one of the above disciplines with 3 years of experience; or PhD in one of the above disciplines with 0 years of experience. Experience coding in Java, C++, or Python. Understanding of software engineering principles, practices, and theories. Ability to work with multiple enterprise-wide systems and software problem-tracking tools such as DOORS, Jira, Confluence, and BitBucket. Knowledge of waterfall, spiral, or Agile software development life cycles. Active in-scope Secret Clearance with the ability to acquire and maintain Special Program Access prior to starting. Preferred Qualifications No additional preferred qualifications are explicitly specified in the source job description. Skills & Competencies Software quality engineering Software quality assurance Code review Software engineering principles and practices Software testing and verification Requirements analysis and flow-down Process audits and compliance Quality metrics collection and analysis Root cause analysis Corrective action Software failure investigation Configuration control Software documentation review Java, C++, or Python DOORS, Jira, Confluence, and BitBucket Waterfall, spiral, and Agile life cycles Data analysis and trend analysis Technical problem-solving Education & Experience Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, another STEM degree, or equivalent; or Master's degree in one of the above disciplines; or PhD in one of the above disciplines. Experience: Bachelor's degree or equivalent: at least 5 years of software experience. Master's degree: 3 years of experience. PhD: 0 years of experience. Work Arrangement & Schedule Job Location: Melbourne, Florida, United States Work Arrangement: Onsite Employment Type: Not specified in the source job description Standard Schedule: 9/80 work schedule, allowing employees every other Friday off Travel: Yes, 10% of the time Relocation Assistance: No relocation assistance available Clearance Required for Start: Yes — Secret Clearance Location/Work Arrangement Note: The job listing header identifies the location as “Indialantic, Florida, United States (Remote),” while the job description explicitly states that the position is located at the Melbourne campus and that telecommute/remote work is not an option. The detailed job description states onsite in Melbourne, Florida as the work arrangement. Compensation & Benefits Primary Level Salary Range: $82,000.00 – $123,000.00 Employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus depending on the position. Annual bonuses are designed to reward individual contributions and allow employees to share in company results. Employees in Vice President or Director positions may be eligible for Long Term Incentives. Health insurance coverage Life and disability insurance Savings plan Company-paid holidays Paid time off (PTO) for vacation or personal business Compliance / Additional Information Active in-scope Secret Clearance is required, with the ability to acquire and maintain Special Program Access prior to starting. U.S. Citizenship is required for positions requiring government clearance and certain other restricted positions. Northrop Grumman is an Equal Opportunity Employer and makes employment decisions without regard to protected characteristics under applicable law. The application period is estimated to be 20 days from the job posting date and may be shortened or extended based on business needs and the availability of qualified candidates.