Principal/Sr. Principal RF Microwave/Mixed Signal Design Engineer

Northrop Grumman

Baltimore, USonsite$109k-$204k/yrPosted Jul 21, 2026
Posting intelligenceActively listed

Skills

githubpythonc++c#

About the role

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes

CLEARANCE TYPE: Interim Secret

TRAVEL: Yes, 10% 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 Mission Systems sector delivers a decisive advantage to its customers through software-defined, hardware-enabled solutions. Northrop Grumman Mission Systems (NGMS) in Linthicum enables these hardware solutions by providing RF microwave and mixed signal architecture, design, verification, and support expertise across a wide variety electronic sensor products. Our engineers work on complex, leading edge, high reliability electronics supporting maritime, ground, airborne, and space platforms.

NGMS engineers share a great sense of pride knowing their contributions have a direct effect on the safety and security of the country and its allies. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity, teamwork, and bringing your whole self to work to accomplish the mission while learning and having fun along the way. The Mission Sector Engineering and Sciences (MS E&S) organization is fertile ground for all experience levels to become part of our growing team and contribute to our goals. The department offers opportunities to grow on a technical track both broad and deep as well as explore project leadership or management positions.

Designing, modeling, and verifying RF and mixed signal assembly product types including apertures, radome, circulators/isolators, Transmit/Receive modules and switches, interposer assemblies, filters, RF manifolds/splitters, backplanes, beamformers, and other relevant RF building blocks within RF antenna subsystem.

Designing, modeling, and verifying RF and mixed signal subsystems products including Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) and other RF Subsystem products within an electronic sensor system like a Radar.

Using industry design tools for modeling and simulating RF and mixed signal performance. Tools include but are not limited to: ANSYS EM Suite, CST Microwave, Keysight ADS, Genesys, Matlab/Simulink, Xpedition, DXDesigner, TICRA/GRASP, FEKO, Python/C++/C#, Github, Labview.

RF and mixed signal hardware test planning and test specification creation

RF and mixed signal hardware production follow, engineering troubleshoot and sustainment engineering.

Prototyping RF and mixed signal hardware with standard RF test equipment such as RF lab equipment such as vector network analyzers, spectrum analyzers, digital oscilloscopes, signal generators, phase noise test sets, and power meters.

Antenna measurements using anechoic chambers and antenna range test equipment.

Deriving and trading requirements from antenna subsystem-level down through component levels.

Managing RF budgets, frequency planning, and common assembly level interfaces.

Predicting assembly level performance through selecting materials, components, and packaging approaches, RF chain analysis, electromagnetic simulation, data collection and analysis, and other modeling techniques

Collaborating with peer functions such as Mechanical, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, and Test Design.

Utilizing world class manufacturing capabilities both on-site and within the broader company for prototyping through full-rate production from the foundry level to microelectronic packaging to printed circuit board fabrication and assembly to subsystem level integration and test

Working directly with a wide variety of different external supplier partners including leading domestic foundries, printed circuit board fabricators and assemblers, component manufacturers, material fabricators, and more

Supporting products throughout the product life cycle

These roles are contingent upon Program Award.

This requisition can be filled at either the T03 or T4 level based on the below requirements.

T03 Principal Engineer Basic Qualifications:

Electrical Engineering or related STEM field degree: Bachelor of Science with 5 years of RF/microwave experience; Master’s degree with 3 years of RF/microwave experience; or PhD degree

US Citizenship is required

Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Security Clearance

Proven knowledge of electrical engineering design software and equipment

Effective verbal and written communication skills

Productive in a team working environment

T04 Senior Principal Engineer Basic Qualifications:

Electrical Engineering or related STEM field degree: Bachelor of Science with 9 years of RF/microwave experience; Master’s degree with 7 years of RF/microwave experience; PhD degree with 4 years of experience

US Citizenship is required

Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Security Clearance

Proven knowledge of electrical engineering design software and equipment

Effective verbal and written communication skills

Ability to design, implement, install and maintain electrical systems

Technical Team Leadership

Preferred Qualifications:

Secret or Top Secret / SCI security clearance

Direct experience designing or testing AESA / phased array, Radar, SIGINT, or SATCOM products

Experience working in DoD Radar electronic designs through all phases of a product’s lifecycle from concept through production support

Integrated Circuit packaging techniques including chip-and-wire, QFN, flip-chip, interposers

Electronic troubleshooting from component to assembly levels

Graduate degree concentration in RF/Microwave Engineering or Computional Electromagnetics

Demonstrated ability to write code to conduct complex data reduction and analysis using Matlab or Python/C++/C#

Technical team leadership experience with or without Cost Account Management Experience

Primary Level Salary Range: $108,800.00 - $163,200.00

Secondary Level Salary Range: $135,800.00 - $203,600.00

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.

Compensation

This Design Engineer role pays $109k-$204k/yr. Within typical range for design engineer roles in United States.

Questions about this role

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