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HW Requirements Systems Engineer (Level 2 or Level 3)

Northrop Grumman

Cincinnati, OHFull-time$83–155K/yrSeen 2w agoSeen in employer's feed 4 days ago

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At a glance

Compensation
$83–155K/yr
Location
Cincinnati, OH
Schedule
Full-time
Work Authorization
US work authorization required

Olive lists jobs from US employers, including remote roles you can work from the United States.

Requirements

Credentials this posting asks for.

Top Secret clearance, required

Job overview

Northrop Grumman seeks cleared Systems Engineers in Cincinnati to support systems engineering efforts for national security. The role spans the systems engineering lifecycle, including requirements, architecture, design, integration, verification, validation, and sustainment. Engineers develop and analyze system models, collaborate with technical and cross-functional teams, and provide recommendations to support system performance and requirements compliance. The position may be filled at Systems Engineer or Principal Systems Engineer level.

Skills & qualifications

RequiredNice to have

Skills

Systems Modeling, requiredRequirements Management, requiredRequirements Definition, requiredArchitecture Development, requiredSystem Design, requiredSystem Diagramming, requiredSystems Integration, requiredVerification, requiredValidation, requiredSustainment, requiredMBSE Standards, requiredDoDAF 2.0, nice to haveCAMEO, nice to haveRF Hardware Communication, nice to haveCollection Design, nice to haveModeling Tool Customization, nice to haveSystems Engineering Practices, nice to haveSysML, nice to haveCross-Functional Communication, nice to haveSelf-Learning, nice to haveWritten Communication, nice to haveOral Communication, nice to havePython Automation Testing, nice to have

Qualifications

Bachelor's in STEM or Master's in STEM, required2+ Years Relative Experience, required5+ Years Relative Experience, requiredUS Citizenship, requiredActive Top Secret Clearance, requiredCustomer-Specific Security Screening, nice to have

Benefits

Relocation Assistance
Medical Insurance
Paid Time Off

Full job description

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes

CLEARANCE TYPE: Top 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.

Join Northrop Grumman – Cincinnati (aka Xetron), part of Mission Systems sector, focused on the development of new capabilities for our military and intelligence customers around the globe. Our Northrop Grumman Cincinnati, Ohio small business culture operates collaboratively within a larger corporation providing the benefits of both. This unique relationship offers employees the ability to know everyone at the site while working on technologies and products that are beyond state-of-the-art. You and your team will wrestle with the next big problems in an atmosphere of collaboration and cooperation, sharing your expertise while learning from the expert next to you. Remember when you were excited about getting to work because of the challenge of the problem, the importance of the solution and the fun you had with your team? It's that kind of place! But don’t take my word for it, see for yourself! See why we receive comments on our YouTube Videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af0y\_8\_T6gU) like “This company is insanely advanced” and “Wow. This is mind blowing.” See some of our recent Awards and Recognition (https://news.northropgrumman.com/news/awards) and read about some of the reasons (https://www.cincinnatiexperience.com/) to live in Cincinnati (https://blog.herrealtors.com/post/25-reasons-why-cincinnati-is-an-awesome-city) .

We are seeking cleared Systems Engineers in our Cincinnati, Ohio Systems Engineering group to support efforts that make a direct impact on our nation’s security.

Qualified candidates will have a strong background in the full systems engineering lifecycle, including requirements definition, architecture development, design, integration, verification, validation, and sustainment. Experience contributing to design efforts for deployable hardware products is highly desirable, particularly solutions in support of National Defense partners. Our products span all domains of intelligence and defense battlespaces — land, sea, air, and space, Many of the problem sets we address do not have known solutions, so demonstrated ingenuity, technical breadth, and creative problem solving are essential for success in these roles.

Essential Duties:

  • Develop model profiles, system diagrams, architecture frameworks, and model queries in the MBSE tools that capture and analyze systems throughout their lifecycle from concept definition through integration.

  • Work closely with Technical Leads to understand program intent, system capabilities, and output requirements

  • Integrate and collaborate with multi-disciplinary technical teams to transform requirements and technical information into MBSE tools for analysis and decision-making.

  • Provide recommendations derived from analysis results to optimize system performance and ensure compliance with requirements through formal presentations to technical leads and reports.

  • Support the development of architecture models

  • Perform model configuration management

  • Interface with cross-functional teams including technical leads, product owners, program management, and government customers to ensure that high-quality products are generated on time and within the available resources

  • Be actively involved in the efforts associated with Agile development, including iteration planning and status

This position can be filled at the System Engineer or Principal System Engineer Level.

Basic Qualifications for a Systems Engineer (level 2):

  • Bachelor's degree in a STEM discipline with 2 years of relative experience; or a Master's degree in a STEM discipline with 0 years of relative experience

  • US Citizenship is required

  • Active US Government Top Secret security clearance is required

  • Willingness and ability to work onsite full-time

  • Demonstrated ability to create models of complex systems that provide traceability of evolving requirements

  • Demonstrated experience in the Systems Engineering Life Cycle with experience in one or more of the following: requirements capture and management, requirements definition, architecture development, system design, system diagraming, integration, verification, validation, and/or sustainment

  • Working knowledge of MBSE standards to guide model development

Basic Qualifications for a Principal Systems Engineer (level 3):

  • Bachelor's degree in a STEM discipline with 5 years of relative experience; or a Master's degree in a STEM discipline with 3 years of relative experience

  • US Citizenship is required

  • Active US Government Top Secret security clearance is required

  • Willingness and ability to work onsite full-time

  • Demonstrated ability to create models of complex systems that provide traceability of evolving requirements

  • Demonstrated experience in the Systems Engineering Life Cycle with experience in one or more of the following: requirements capture and management, requirements definition, architecture development, system design, system diagraming, integration, verification, validation, and/or sustainment

  • Working knowledge of MBSE standards to guide model development

Preferred Qualifications for both levels:

  • Experience developing models using the DoD Architecture Framework (DoDAF 2.0) modeling framework within the CAMEO development environment

  • Desired technical contribution with RF hardware communication and collection design projects

  • Custom plug-ins and other modeling tool customizations are preferred

  • Solid understanding of general systems engineering practices and tools

  • Demonstrated proficiency with systems modeling languages (SysML) or other industry-specific modeling languages

  • Demonstrated ability to communicate cross-functionally and interpret information across multiple engineering disciplines and operations

  • Ability to quickly self-learn relevant subject matter from a variety of new disciplines

  • Demonstrated excellent written and oral communication skills

  • Experience developing/utilizing Python automation tests

  • Ability to meet customer-specific security screening requirements within a timeframe set forth by management

Primary Level Salary Range: $83,400.00 - $125,200.00

Secondary Level Salary Range: $103,600.00 - $155,400.00

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.

Job Category: Engineering

How this job compares

Set against the 11,543 open Systems Engineer jobs on Olive Jobs, counted November 12, 2026.

Pay
  • This posting$83–155K/yr
  • Ohio median$100–160K/yr152 salary ranges
  • US median$115–187K/yr8,706 salary ranges

This range's midpoint, $119K, is 6% below the Ohio median midpoint ($127K) — in the middle half of Systems Engineer salary ranges in Ohio.

Openings
Olive Jobs lists 346 open Systems Engineer jobs in Ohio and 11,543 across the US. 5% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
Experience
This posting asks for at least 2 years of experience — less than three in four Systems Engineer postings that state a minimum ask for (median 5 years, across 9,608 postings).
Education
4,347 of the 11,543 open Systems Engineer jobs (38%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.

Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on November 12, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.

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