Principal / Sr. Principal Cyber Systems Administrator

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes CLEARANCE TYPE: Secret TRAVEL: No 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 is seeking a Principal/Sr. Principal Cyber Systems Administrator in Huntsville, AL to support the Secure Transmission, Remote Asset & Network Data (STRAND) upgrade to the C‑UAS Network Communication System (NCS). This role will provide mid to senior-level system and network administration for secure communications, cloud-based data pipelines, remote asset management, and observability services supporting C‑UAS/BONES architectures in connected, intermittent, and disconnected environments. The role will act as a technical lead, collaborating with systems engineering, cyber, and software teams to ensure mission-ready infrastructure at operational sites and test ranges. Responsibilities • Serve as an administrator for Linux and Windows servers/systems and virtualized environments supporting STRAND and C‑UAS NCS. • Design, configure, and maintain core network services including DHCP, DNS, NTP, VPN, routing, and firewall policies across multiple sites. • Implement and sustain secure communications including HTTPS, TLS/mTLS, PKI, and certificate-based authentication for users, services, and machine-to-machine traffic. • Lead automation and configuration management using Ansible and Git-based workflows; drive adoption of intent-based configuration practices. • Engineer and maintain monitoring and observability solutions (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, log aggregation, tracing) to provide real-time insight into system and network health. • Own the process for patching and hardening systems, including application of OS and application security updates, STIGs, and IAVA/IAVM remediation with clear documentation. • Support secure data collection and transfer from V‑BONE and other networked assets to Army-authorized cloud environments (e.g., AWS), including S3 storage, checksums, and integrity validation. • Participate in and technically support integration events, lab testing, and field deployments , including Government test ranges (e.g., Yuma Proving Ground) and operational locations. • Develop and maintain runbooks, SOPs, configuration baselines, and troubleshooting guides ; provide Tier‑3-4/subject matter expert support for complex incidents. • Collaborate with cyber and systems engineering to support RMF/ATO and FedRAMP-aligned activities, including security documentation and continuous monitoring support. Basic Qualifications (ICMP03 – Principal Level) • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Cyber Security, Engineering, or related STEM discipline and 8+ years of relevant experience; – OR Master’s degree and 6+ years; • U.S. citizen with an active DoD Secret clearance • Extensive hands-on experience administering Linux and Windows servers/systems in production or mission-critical DoD or enterprise environments. • Strong experience with virtualization platforms (e.g.,