Hi everyone, my name is Rich and I'm a SWE in the Space Systems sector within Northrop - not a recruiter or in HR. We have teams across the U.S. that work on some really interesting projects. For example, did you know Northrop Grumman was a prime contractor for the James Webb Space Telescope? We designed & developed the sun shield and also integrated the final spacecraft build. Check it out: https://www.northropgrumman.com/space/james-webb-space-teles...
A lot of positions require a security clearance of course but there are a lot that don't so you can definitely find something that fits what you'd like/want to do. Can honestly say that I've personally learned a lot working here and had the chance to take training classes led by brilliant engineers. We have jobs for all ranges of experience - from new grads to seasoned professionals.
I'm a longtime reader/lurker here on HN and would be happy to talk to anyone interested in working for NG. Feel free to reply with your contact info and I'll reach out as soon as I can.
Full disclosure: some jobs here have referral bonuses so it would help me & my growing family out if I got to refer some great talent for a role. New baby due in a few months! :) So if you see a job you match up with and feel like helping out a future co-worker, ping me about the position and let me give you a referral before you apply yourself. Don't have to, just if you're feeling nice I guess.
Super interesting! Can you give some more info? What is work/life balance like at NG? Workload? Culture?
I see the required qualifications of having a STEM degree and good GPA? A Masters is required for the normal SE role? Any wiggle room for exemplary talent/experience? I see salary tops out at 123k plus bonuses.
Sure, those are all great questions! Northrop Grumman is a huge company with many divisions, sectors, teams, projects & products but I'm happy to give more info as best I can within my own experience here at NG in the Space Sector. Usual disclaimers apply: I don't speak for or represent the company in any official capacity here. These are just my personal opinions, etc etc... You know the drill lol.
Work/life balance is frankly excellent, in my experience. My management team have been really great any time I've had to take time for medical/dental appointments, family appointment conflicts (like attending a child's preschool concert during the day), splitting some time to WFH if there's some training that I need to finish, etc. As far as I've seen, my coworkers & teammates have been treated the same way. Nobody has really given anyone a hard time or any pushback on handling family/self-care appointments during core business hours. There have been times where I needed to work later than usual to wrap up sprint tasks or hop on a meeting with a team in a different time zone but that's the exception.
My team (and I believe all other teams on the project as well) has a 9/80 work schedule so we have every other Friday off. It's really nice when that coincides with a holiday on the following Monday. That's not company-wide, though, so YMMV.
That feeds directly into the culture since having flexibility to handle those inevitable personal life issues contributes to happier employees and builds happier/better functioning teams, in my opinion. NG employees also have access to lots of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) within the company. For example, we have the Asian Pacific Professional Network, greeNG, NGFAMILY, Northrop Grumman Women’s International Network and many more. Complete list can be found here: https://www.northropgrumman.com/sustainability/employee-reso...
We've got our own credit union if that sort of thing interest you. A few of their representatives were just at my campus recently to go over the benefits. I don't use this service so I can't really say much more about it other than to say it's there and have only heard positive things.
There are a lot of educational & training opportunities within Northrop which I use quite a bit. Some of the training is led by doctoral-level scientists or other well-respected engineers in the field. Recently I took one of these instructor-led classes in inertial navigation fundamentals taught by a Ph.D. working on the related NG product line. Super fascinating class!!! Really math heavy but that's my jam so I enjoyed it very much! :)
Regarding your education & GPA question, since I'm not a recruiter I can't say if that's a hard rule for every position. Maybe? It most likely depends on the job your going for since some jobs may be more dependent on the education & training you'd get from an EE degree if you wanted to work on a robotics or satellite project as an Electrical Engineer. If you're going for software engineering jobs, the education requirement may be more flexible since there are SWEs on teams I'm aware of with ME & EE degrees so there is probably wiggle room for talent & experience. Of course that's just my opinion - you'd have to speak with the recruiter/hiring manager on what they're looking for specifically. I can't imagine a legit rockstar SWE without a degree being turned down for a role but YMMV.
The salary number you mentioned is totally dependent on the local market, job title/duties, education/experience requirements, and rarity of the skills needed, etc so without a specific job listing I couldn't say if that's accurate. What I can say is I've seen numbers on job postings ranging from the mid $60's for some entry-level positions to the mid $200's for more senior positions. It's honestly just down to the factors mentioned. However, aside from base compensation, some jobs have relocation & hiring bonuses. I personally got the relocation bonus when I moved from another state for my current job. They also have (as far as I know it's still a thing) a partner company that assists with selling & finding homes & moving assistance. That's a perk I used as well - super handy. Make sure to ask the recruiter about those if you need relocation assistance.
Hopefully this information has answered your questions but if you want to give me your email I'll be happy to follow-up with you. We can of course just reply here too lol... There's another link that may be helpful if you want to learn more about official sources of work/life info: https://www.northropgrumman.com/careers/life-northrop-grumma...
Great question! It looks like we have a few open positions in the UK & Australia for citizens of those countries, but as far as I can tell, all of the jobs here in the US require citizenship. Could totally be wrong about this, however! I'd recommend pinging a recruiter or HR and ask them directly about the citizenship requirement.
First of all, congrats on the baby! Hope everything goes well!
I was looking through the jobs and I found two that I think would be a good fit for me. Here is my email: no3lcodes@gmail.com Would love to talk to you about the company and the culture there! Thank you very much.
Hi everyone, my name is Rich and I'm a SWE in the Space Systems sector within Northrop - not a recruiter or in HR. We have teams across the U.S. that work on some really interesting projects. For example, did you know Northrop Grumman was a prime contractor for the James Webb Space Telescope? We designed & developed the sun shield and also integrated the final spacecraft build. Check it out: https://www.northropgrumman.com/space/james-webb-space-teles...
A lot of positions require a security clearance of course but there are a lot that don't so you can definitely find something that fits what you'd like/want to do. Can honestly say that I've personally learned a lot working here and had the chance to take training classes led by brilliant engineers. We have jobs for all ranges of experience - from new grads to seasoned professionals.
I'm a longtime reader/lurker here on HN and would be happy to talk to anyone interested in working for NG. Feel free to reply with your contact info and I'll reach out as soon as I can.
Full disclosure: some jobs here have referral bonuses so it would help me & my growing family out if I got to refer some great talent for a role. New baby due in a few months! :) So if you see a job you match up with and feel like helping out a future co-worker, ping me about the position and let me give you a referral before you apply yourself. Don't have to, just if you're feeling nice I guess.