RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: No relocation assistance available
CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: No
CLEARANCE TYPE: 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.
At the heart of Defining Possible is our commitment to missions. In rapidly changing global security environments, Northrop Grumman brings informed insights and secure technological solutions to enable strategic objectives. We’re looking for innovators who can help us keep building on our wide portfolio of secure, affordable, integrated, and multi-domain systems and technologies that fuel those missions. By joining in our shared mission, we will support yours by expanding your personal network and developing skills, whether you are new to the field or an industry thought leader. At Northrop Grumman, you will have the resources, support, and team to do some of the best work of your career.
Northrop Grumman’s Corporate Sector Chief Information & Digital Office (CIDO) is seeking a Senior Staff Computer Systems Architect to serve as the Application Architecture Lead, defining and guiding enterprise application architecture within the Strategy and Architecture team of the Governance & Strategy organization. This role will serve as the lead for enterprise application and portfolio architecture direction covering application portfolio coherence, rationalization, modernization priorities, lifecycle strategy, platform usage patterns, integration expectations, and target-state application architecture approaches across the company.
This role is aligned to the target architecture operating model in which the Head of Strategy and Architecture leads the broader Strategy and Architecture portfolio and the Enterprise Technical Architecture Lead leads the technical architecture lane spanning data, application, technology, and security architecture. The Application Architecture Lead is responsible for helping ensure that business capability, application investment, integration, and modernization decisions produce a coherent enterprise application landscape rather than fragmented local optimization and duplicative portfolio choices. This role is expected to work closely with the current Enterprise Applications organization and reflect the consolidated application landscape that includes EPA, EMS, and ERP within that enterprise applications scope.
This position will be available as a virtual telecommuter, however, the incumbent most be within 90 miles of a major Northrop Grumman location for ad hoc onsite meetings.
The successful candidate will:
- Define enterprise application architecture principles, target-state patterns, and portfolio guardrails.
- Guide application-related trade-offs involving modernization, rationalization, reuse, integration, lifecycle planning, and platform alignment.
- Partner with business capability, data, technology, security, delivery, and Enterprise Applications stakeholders to improve coherence in enterprise application decisions.
- Help the Enterprise Technical Architecture Lead and peer technical domain leads translate enterprise priorities into practical application architecture roadmaps, standards, and architectural expectations across the broader Enterprise Applications landscape, including Enterprise Platforms and Applications, Enterprise Manufacturing Systems, and Enterprise Resource Platforms scope.
Key Responsibilities:
- Serve as the Application Architecture Lead for the enterprise technical architecture lane.
- Define and maintain enterprise application architecture principles, standards, reference patterns, and target-state guidance for the application landscape.
- Guide application portfolio decisions related to rationalization, modernization, reuse, retirement, lifecycle planning, and cross-system coherence.
- Shape enterprise approaches for application portfolio evolution, platform usage alignment, integration expectations, and application-related architectural consistency.
- Partner with business capability, data, technology, security, delivery, and portfolio stakeholders to evaluate architectural trade-offs and improve coherence in enterprise application decisions.
- Identify duplication, overlap, fragmentation, technical debt concentration, and architectural risks across the enterprise application landscape.
- Participate in architecture reviews, standards governance, and decision forums involving significant application, platform, integration, and modernization initiatives.
- Develop recommendations that improve application reuse, maintainability, investment coherence, and long-range portfolio sustainability across the enterprise.
- Mentor architects and technical leaders on enterprise application architecture methods, patterns, and expectations.
- Support executive-facing architecture communication and leadership visibility into enterprise application architecture risks, standards decisions, and modernization implications.
Basic Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related technical field and 14+ years of relevant experience, or a Master’s degree with 12+ years, or a PhD with 10+ years.
- Candidates must have the ability to obtain, and maintain, a U.S. Government Secret level security clearance as a condition of continued employment.
- Demonstrated experience in application architecture, portfolio architecture, enterprise systems architecture, or application modernization leadership.
- Experience defining enterprise application standards, reference patterns, target-state architecture direction, or portfolio guardrails across complex environments.
- Strong understanding of application lifecycle management, modernization strategy, integration patterns, technical debt considerations, and how application architecture decisions affect business operations.
- Experience influencing enterprise application-related architecture decisions across multiple teams, organizations, or technical domains.
- Ability to connect business priorities, application investment decisions, enterprise standards, and technology direction into coherent application architecture decisions.
- Strong TOGAF knowledge if not TOGAF certified.
- Well versed on the Application lifecycle.
- Strong executive presence.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience leading enterprise application architecture, portfolio rationalization, platform modernization, or application lifecycle strategy efforts in a large organization.
- Experience in defense, aerospace, federal, or other regulated environments.
- Experience with enterprise platforms, ERP environments, shared business systems, integration-heavy portfolios, or large-scale application modernization efforts.
- Experience supporting architecture review boards, standards governance, or modernization planning involving large application estates.
- Ability to balance long-range application architecture direction with practical delivery, operational, and investment constraints.
- Ability to work effectively across technical and non-technical stakeholders, including senior leaders.
We offer flexible w