Systems Engineer - Level 2/3 (AHT)
Northrop Grumman
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Aurora, CO · Posted October 6, 2026
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Where Aurora, CO ranks
Where Aurora, CO placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #3Best all-round cities for new graduates in the Mountain West61 / 100 · of 11
- #4Best cities for pay after cost of living in the Mountain West$139k · of 11
- #5Best all-round cities for AI careers in the Mountain West54 / 100 · of 11
- #6Best college towns for junior jobs in the Mountain West30% · of 14
- #6Best cities for software and engineering jobs in the Mountain West137 openings · of 22
- #7Best cities for junior jobs in the Mountain West29% · of 19
Rankings about engineering jobs
- Best cities for software and engineering jobs #1 San Francisco (3,412 openings)
- Best cities for engineering pay after cost of living #1 San Mateo ($216k)
- Most requested AI skills in engineering jobs #1 AI tools in daily work (6.1%)
- AI tools named most often in engineering jobs #1 Claude (1.7%)
- Employers with the most engineering jobs #1 Amazon (2,992 roles)
Pay compared with the market
This listing does not state pay. Across 67 open systems engineer listings that state pay, the middle half runs $141,500 to $171,500 and the median is $164,500.
Listed pay is what employers advertise, not what people are paid.
How AI is used in this kind of work
Among computer occupations, all other, AI is already used for a large share of the tasks. Measured exposure for computer occupations, all other: 31% (high).
Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.
Skills this job asks for
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About the job
RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available
CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes
CLEARANCE TYPE: SCI
TRAVEL: Yes, 25% of the Time 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 (NGSP) is looking for you to join our team as a Systems Engineer - Level 2 or 3 based out of Aurora, CO.
What you'll get to do:
This position serves as a technical point of contact for systems engineering, owning the system technical baseline and ensuring consistency between CONOPS, requirements, design, and test. The role coordinates cross-discipline teams (systems, software, hardware, test & integration, operations), capturing mission threads, user workflows, and operational constraints and translating them into requirements and design. The selected candidate will drive requirements development with customers and stakeholders, develop integration strategies, V&V plans, and detailed test plans and procedures, use modeling and simulation and MBSE artifacts to support design decisions and trade studies, identify and mitigate technical risks, present technical approaches and results to internal stakeholders and external customers, and support proposals and technical volumes for new business or contract modifications.
Job Duties
Systems Engineering focal point for the program across multiple phases of the program lifecycle.
Ownership of the system technical baseline, ensuring consistency between CONOPS, requirements, design, and test.
Perform across multi-disciplined teams (systems, software, hardware, test, operations) to resolve issues and drive decisions.
Capture mission threads, user workflows, and operational constraints and flow them into requirements and design.
Lead requirements development with customers and stakeholders; clarify and negotiate technical needs and constraints.
Develop integration strategies, V&V plans, and detailed test plans and procedures at system and subsystem levels.
Use modeling and simulation, analytical tools, and MBSE artifacts to support design decisions and trade studies.
Identify technical risks and opportunities; develop and track mitigation plans.
Present technical approaches, status, and results to internal leadership and external customers.
Support proposals, basis-of-estimate development, and technical volumes for new business or modifications.
This requisition will be filled at the job grade based on an evaluation of the candidates qualifications listed below.
This requisition may be filled as either a level 2 or 3.
Basic Qualifications for a Level 2:
Bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline with 2 years of relevant experience – OR – Master’s degree with 1 year of relevant experience
Active Top Secret/SCI clearance is required at time of application
Experience with system requirements and interface control documents (ICDs)
Ability to perform requirements analysis, allocation, and traceability from high-level needs down to components and services.
Ability to specify and validate requirements related to build, deployment, and rollback processes in a cloud environment.
Ability to create clear technical documentation (requirements, interface specs, sequence diagrams, data flow diagrams).
Familiarity with reading, creating and interpreting CAMEO/DOORS/MBSE models
Basic Qualifications for a Level 3:
Bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline with 5 years of relevant experience – OR – Master’s degree with 3 years of relevant experience – OR – PhD with 1 year of relevant experience.
Active Top Secret/SCI clearance is required at time of application
Experience with system requirements and interface control documents (ICDs)
Ability to perform requirements analysis, allocation, and traceability from high-level needs down to components and services.
Ability to specify and validate requirements related to build, deployment, and rollback processes in a cloud environment.
Ability to create clear technical documentation (requirements, interface specs, sequence diagrams, data flow diagrams).
Familiarity with reading, creating and interpreting CAMEO/DOORS/MBSE models
Preferred Qualifications
Experience in systems engineering for distributed systems or cloud-native applications.
Familiarity with network security aspects relevant to container and cloud deployments (TLS, certificates, secrets management).
Familiarity with service meshes (e.g., Istio, Linkerd) in Kubernetes environments.
Hands-on experience with: Requirements management tools (e.g., DOORS, Jama, JIRA/Confluence-based flows).
Modeling and simulation or MBSE tools (e.g., SysML, Cameo, Rhapsody, MATLAB/Simulink).
Test automation, test management tools, or lab integration environments.
Good Customer interaction and presentation skills.
Experience interfacing with government or prime customers, including participation in design and test reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, etc.).
Certification(s) in Systems Engineering (e.g., INCOSE ASEP/CSEP/ESEP) or Project Management (e.g., PMP) are a plus.
Primary Level Salary Range: $91,800.00 - $137,600.00
Secondary 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.
Northrop Grumman is an Equal Opportunity Employer, making decisions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class. For our complete EEO and pay transparency statement, please visit http://www.northropgrumman.com/EEO. U.S. Citizenship is required for all positions with a government clearance and certain other restricted positions.