NG Fellow 1 - Tracking and Discrimination

Description

Northrop Grumman Fellows are recognized experts who tackle the hardest technical problems and ensure we retain the hard-won insights needed to perform complex missions successfully. They define what is possible in our most critical capability areas while identifying and cultivating the people, processes, and tools required for enduring technical advantage. Fellows are deployed against our most important programs and captures, aligned to top business priorities, and advance our products and solutions to meet customers’ missions every day.

Northrop Grumman Space Systems is seeking an NG Fellow 1 – Tracking and Discrimination to support multiple critical and strategic programs. This position is in Chandler, Arizona and reports to the GNC/SW director.

The ideal candidate will set and drive strategy for a broad set of sensing, hypersonic tracking, target-state estimation, sensor fusion, target discrimination, and mission-algorithm initiatives and will be empowered to shape technical direction across radar and infrared sensor exploitation; low-latency, real-time track formation and maintenance; multi-sensor fusion; object classification; countermeasure rejection; and embedded or high-performance software implementation. The Fellow is expected to provide scientific, technical, and intellectual leadership that materially improves capture success and market-share growth in alignment with the LED long-range strategic plan.

This leader must have a strong grasp of campaign execution and networking strategy and possess the skills, drive, and judgment to successfully interface with senior leaders, chief engineers, program teams, and customer stakeholders. The role supports the full life cycle of systems engineering and verification activities associated with tracking and discrimination and is expected to mature advanced sensor-processing, target-state estimation, sensor-fusion, and threat-discrimination concepts into robust software and algorithm solutions that support missile-defense and advanced weapon-system mission objectives.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic & Technical Leadership

• Serve as a sector-level technical authority for tracking, hypersonic tracking, target-state estimation, sensor fusion, and discrimination algorithms supporting missile defense, launch vehicle, interceptor, and related weapon-system applications.
• Define and influence long-term technical roadmaps for radar, infrared, and multi-sensor sensing; real-time tracking and target-state estimation; Kalman-filter-based estimation; target discrimination and classification; counter-countermeasure performance; and sensor-data exploitation capabilities.
• Lead the development and maturation of nonlinear and maneuver-aware estimation approaches—including Extended Kalman Filters, Unscented Kalman Filters, and Interacting Multiple Model filters—to maintain high-confidence tracks of highly dynamic targets in cluttered, contested, and operationally relevant environments.
• Drive technical strategy, trades, and risk-reduction plans across the engineering lifecycle—from concept exploration through design, development, integration, verification, test, and fielding support.
• Provide technical leadership on critical programs and captures, including solution development, discrimination approaches, technical differentiation, and alignment to customer mission needs.
• Establish and champion best practices for maturing advanced tracking, target-state estimation, sensor-fusion, and discrimination concepts into robust software implementations, including requirements definition, performance assessment, and verification planning.
• Lead trade studies on sensor-data exploitation and fusion architectures, target-state and track quality, discrimination accuracy, clutter and background rejection, countermeasure effectiveness, latency, electronic protection, and mission robustness in operationally relevant environments.

Organizational & People Leadership

• Lead through influence across software, systems, GNC, sensing, mission engineering, and verification organizations, aligning technical direction with LED strategy and growth objectives.
• Mentor chief engineers, IPT leads, and senior technical staff in sensor-data exploitation, multi-sensor fusion, tracking and discrimination methods, target-state estimation, Kalman filtering, classification logic, and implementation practices.
• Drive adoption of rigorous engineering and verification methods that improve mission performance, solution quality, and affordability.
• Engage regularly with senior leadership and customers to present technical concepts, trade studies, risks, mitigations, and recommendations in a clear and compelling manner.

Technical Skills and Core Competencies

• Deep experience in tracking and discrimination algorithms, including hypersonic and highly maneuvering-target tracking, target-state estimation, track maintenance, object classification, threat discrimination, countermeasure rejection, and multi-sensor data fusion.
• Demonstrated experience implementing sensing, tracking, state-estimation, sensor-fusion, and discrimination logic in real-time embedded or high-performance software environments with awareness of latency, compute, and mission-critical robustness constraints.
• Strong background in radar signal processing, infrared and electro-optical sensing, sensor fusion, state estimation and filtering—including Kalman, Extended Kalman, Unscented Kalman, and Interacting Multiple Model approaches—kinematics, uncertainty analysis, wave propagation, electromagnetics, and other applied-math techniques relevant to tracking and discrimination performance.
• Ability to develop and evaluate target-state representations that estimate position, velocity, acceleration, maneuver behavior, and associated uncertainty to support real-time threat assessment, track prediction, and interceptor or mission-system decision functions.
• Broad systems engineering and technical oversight experience across complex, multi-discipline defense systems.
• Experience designing, researching, and developing advanced technical solutions that result in differentiated product and business opportunities.
• Proficiency in software realization for mission-critical sensor-processing and mission-decision functions in missile defense, interceptor, or related weapon-system applications.
• Experience with modeling, simulation, verification, and performance trade studies for seeker, radar, sensor-processing, debris, classification, target-state estimation, sensor fusion, or mission-decision functions, including 6-DOF or similarly high-fidelity environments.
• Working knowledge of MBSE and digital engineering practices, along with requirements and architecture tools such as DOORS, Cameo, UML, SysML, or comparable toolsets.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelors, Master’s, and/or PhD in a relevant STEM degree and robust industry related experience; 20 years of experience with a BS or 18 years of experience with an MS or PhD.
• Active U.S. Government Secret security clearance at time of application, with the capability to obtain TS/SCI clearance.
• Demonstrated experience with radar, infrared, electro-optical, or closely related sensor-data processing for mission-critical applications.
• Demonstrated experience with systems engineering and verification activities spanning requirements development, integration, test, and fielding support for complex development efforts.
• Experience working closely with IPT Leads, Chief Engineers, and program leadership on complex development efforts.
• Ability to support strategic initiatives and captures tied to portfolio growth objectives.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, Physics, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related technical discipline.
• Experience with missile-defense or advanced weapon-system applications involving threat discrimination, track correlation, target classification, countermeasure rejection, hypersonic tracking, target-state estimation, or sensor fusion.
• Experience implementing target tracking, target-state estimation, sensor fusion, discrimination, classification, and sensor-driven decision support in embedded mission systems or real-time mission software.
• Experience with tracking and estimating the state of hypersonic or other highly maneuvering threats, including nonlinear dynamics, maneuver detection, uncertainty management, and low-latency track maintenance.
• Experience developing or evaluating multi-sensor fusion architectures that combine radar, infrared, electro-optical, or space-based sensor information to improve track continuity, target-state accuracy, and discrimination confidence.
• Experience with modeling and simulation environments used to assess track quality, discrimination performance, clutter rejection, latency, mission timelines, and robustness in representative mission conditions.
• Experience and proficiency with Agile principles, processes, and tools; Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE); and verification environments such as software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, or comparable test frameworks.
• Track record of contributing to or leading successful captures and proposals for advanced weapon-system programs.

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