Engineering Manager Jobs in San Diego, CA
Engineering Manager jobs in San Diego are concentrated in defense technology, biotech, and software, with hiring clusters in Sorrento Valley, Torrey Pines, and Kearny Mesa. Employers posting right now include Apple, Northrop Grumman, and NV5. Find a role that fits below and apply directly.
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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 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.
Job Description
Northrop Grumman Mission Systems is a trusted provider of mission-enabling solutions for global security. Our Engineering and Sciences (E&S) organization pushes the boundaries of innovation, redefines engineering capabilities, and drives advances in various sciences. Our team is chartered with providing the skills and innovative technologies to develop, design, produce, integrate, test, and sustain optimized product lines across the sector while providing a decisive advantage to the warfighter. Come be a part of our mission!
Position Overview
Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, Navigation Intelligence Connectivity (NIC), Engineering and Sciences is seeking a Hardware Department Manager for an onsite position in San Diego, CA. This role combines the full Department Manager leadership skillset—people leadership, workforce planning, functional strategy, process ownership, and budget management—with deep hardware / electrical engineering experience.
The successful candidate will have personally executed hardware and electrical engineering activities as an engineer and led teams of hardware engineers, while operating as a department-level leader responsible for staff development, staffing, performance management, and functional excellence. The role leads the Hardware Engineering – Electrical / RF & Digital organization, reporting directly to the San Diego E&S Discipline Director, and oversees a dynamic team of hardware engineers supporting NGMS San Diego programs.
Key Responsibilities
Department Manager Leadership
- Provide people leadership for a hardware/electrical engineering-focused organization of approximately 50 team members, including performance management, career development, and succession planning.
- Own workforce planning for the hardware discipline: forecast demand, manage staffing levels, balance workloads across programs, and ensure appropriate skill mix to meet business needs.
- Lead talent development for the department by defining development paths, sponsoring training, enabling mentoring, and growing future technical and functional leaders.
- Support hiring goals through networking, interviewing, and intern placements; drive effective onboarding and integration of new team members.
- Conduct performance evaluations, provide regular feedback and coaching, and manage recognition and corrective actions as needed.
- Oversee budgets and indirect spending for the hardware organization, including labor, equipment, labs, and departmental investments, ensuring alignment with financial goals.
- Drive department-level strategic initiatives and continuous improvement efforts aligned to sector and division priorities.
- Establish and maintain a culture that emphasizes ethics, integrity, safety, inclusion, and high engagement while achieving results within cost, schedule, and quality parameters.
- Coordinate resource sharing and collaboration across multiple business areas and locations, working closely with other department managers and program leadership.
Hardware / Electrical Engineering Discipline Leadership
- Provide leadership for hardware and electrical engineering across the San Diego site, shaping design, development, integration, and test practices, standards, and tools in collaboration with program chief engineers and IPT leads.
- Serve as a resident expert in hardware / electrical engineering, drawing on prior hands-on experience in circuit design, RF/digital hardware, and electronics integration to coach engineers and review hardware approaches and architectures.
- Own and evolve the vision and roadmap for hardware capabilities (labs, tools, and methods); champion the adoption of modern hardware design practices, test automation, and data-driven decision making while aligning with sector standards.
- Define, tailor, and enforce hardware engineering processes and best practices, including design reviews, configuration management of hardware baselines, hardware test planning, defect tracking, and regression testing.
- Drive functional initiatives to enhance hardware capabilities and competitiveness, including training, communities of practice, best-practice sharing, and lessons-learned forums.
- Focus on retention and engagement by building a strong technical community of practice in hardware/electrical engineering, promoting mentoring, technical coaching, knowledge sharing, and recognition of technical excellence.
- Foster engineering rigor, build consensus, and resolve conflicts, collaborating with cross-discipline engineering teams (systems, software, mechanical, RF, test).
- Partner with program leadership to address issues promptly and help teams meet program commitments across hardware design, lab integration, hardware test, and formal sell-off events.
- Manage team assignments across programs and maintain staffing projections, with particular attention to key hardware design milestones, integration events, and hardware verification activities.
- Ensure quality and credibility of hardware work products and independent technical reviews for division programs, including hardware design artifacts, schematics, bills of material, layout reviews, hardware test procedures, test reports, and verification evidence.
Basic Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, or related fields, with 8 years of experience; or a Master’s degree with 6 years of experience.
- 8+ years of professional experience in the defense or aerospace industries.
- Demonstrated senior-level hands-on hardware / electrical engineering experience, including experience in at least one of the following domains and familiarity with several others: Designed, implemented, and integrated complex, multi-discipline hardware subsystems (e.g., RF, digital, mixed-signal, or power electronics). Planned and executed hardware integration and test at card, unit, subsystem, and/or system levels in lab and/or field environments.
- Developed hardware test concepts, test plans, and detailed test procedures tied directly to hardware and system requirements.
- Performed hardware-level and system-level verification and validation, including requirements traceability and coverage assessment.
- Analyzed hardware test results, identifying defects, leading or heavily contributing to root cause investigations, and driving corrective actions to closure.
- Proven Department Manager / leadership experience, including: Managed technical teams of hardware/electrical engineers, including performance management and career development.
- Led teams of hardware engineers through major design, integration, and test activities across multiple programs.
- Executed workforce planning (forecasting, staffing, and allocation) across a portfolio of programs or business areas.
- Managed budgets or indirect spending and aligned departmental resources to financial and business objectives.
- Experience managing multiple technical teams, preferably including hardware engineering and cross-discipline engineering teams, in a matrixed environment.
- Proven technical management experience in program IPT, R&D, Advanced Systems, technology development, and/or functional environments, with direct oversight of hardware design, integration, and test activities.
- Working knowledge of program execution, staffing, engineering metrics, lab/test asset management, and training resources, processes, and tools associated with hardware/electrical engineering.
- Deep familiarity with hardware and electrical engineering processes and tailoring, including requirements decomposition into hardware requirements, hardware architecture and design strategies, and verification planning and test traceability for hardware.
- Demonstrated experience leading large and diverse technical teams, with a strong track record of supporting successful hardware integration and test outcomes on complex systems.
- High proficiency in technical problem-solving, including data-driven root cause analysis, defect resolution, and development of robust, hardware-informed solutions.
- Active Government Secret clearance.
- Ability to work onsite full-time in San Diego, CA.
Preferred Qualifications
- Advanced degree in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, or related fields.
- Previous IPT leadership experience with responsibility for hardware scope, schedules, risks, and deliverables.
- Proven success in leading organizations with ~25 or more employees, including hardware and cross-discipline engineering teams, and influencing functional direction across a portfolio of programs.
- Prior experience in engineering functional leadership with a focus on hardware / electrical engineering practices, lab operations, and continuous process improvement.
- Demonstrated technical experience across multiple program life cycles, such as advanced development, development/production, fielding, and sustainment, with clear application of hardware design, integration, and test practices in each.
- Experience with Communications, Navigation, and Identification (CNI) hardware or related mission systems, including planning and executing hardware development, integration, and test activities for CNI subsystems and their integration into platform or mission systems.
- Hands-on experience with hardware and system-level integration and test of complex, multi-domain systems (e.g., avionics, C4ISR, EW, sensors)
- Familiarity with model-based approaches that support hardware design, integration planning, verification modeling, and requirements traceability.
- Experience establishing and refining hardware engineering processes, metrics, and best practices across a portfolio of programs, and mentoring others in those practices.
- Recognized internally as a senior hardware / electrical engineering practitioner or subject matter expert (e.g., through key program roles, major technical reviews, sector/division-level hardware leadership, or internal technical forums).
- Active Top Secret/SCI clearance.
Primary Level Salary Range: $193,000.00 - $289,600.00 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.
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 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.
Job Description
Northrop Grumman Mission Systems is a trusted provider of mission-enabling solutions for global security. Our Engineering and Sciences (E&S) organization pushes the boundaries of innovation, redefines engineering capabilities, and drives advances in various sciences. Our team is chartered with providing the skills and innovative technologies to develop, design, produce, integrate, test, and sustain optimized product lines across the sector while providing a decisive advantage to the warfighter. Come be a part of our mission!
Position Overview
Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, Navigation Intelligence Connectivity (NIC), Engineering and Sciences is seeking a Hardware Department Manager for an onsite position in San Diego, CA. This role combines the full Department Manager leadership skillset—people leadership, workforce planning, functional strategy, process ownership, and budget management—with deep hardware / electrical engineering experience.
The successful candidate will have personally executed hardware and electrical engineering activities as an engineer and led teams of hardware engineers, while operating as a department-level leader responsible for staff development, staffing, performance management, and functional excellence. The role leads the Hardware Engineering – Electrical / RF & Digital organization, reporting directly to the San Diego E&S Discipline Director, and oversees a dynamic team of hardware engineers supporting NGMS San Diego programs.
Key Responsibilities
Department Manager Leadership
- Provide people leadership for a hardware/electrical engineering-focused organization of approximately 50 team members, including performance management, career development, and succession planning.
- Own workforce planning for the hardware discipline: forecast demand, manage staffing levels, balance workloads across programs, and ensure appropriate skill mix to meet business needs.
- Lead talent development for the department by defining development paths, sponsoring training, enabling mentoring, and growing future technical and functional leaders.
- Support hiring goals through networking, interviewing, and intern placements; drive effective onboarding and integration of new team members.
- Conduct performance evaluations, provide regular feedback and coaching, and manage recognition and corrective actions as needed.
- Oversee budgets and indirect spending for the hardware organization, including labor, equipment, labs, and departmental investments, ensuring alignment with financial goals.
- Drive department-level strategic initiatives and continuous improvement efforts aligned to sector and division priorities.
- Establish and maintain a culture that emphasizes ethics, integrity, safety, inclusion, and high engagement while achieving results within cost, schedule, and quality parameters.
- Coordinate resource sharing and collaboration across multiple business areas and locations, working closely with other department managers and program leadership.
Hardware / Electrical Engineering Discipline Leadership
- Provide leadership for hardware and electrical engineering across the San Diego site, shaping design, development, integration, and test practices, standards, and tools in collaboration with program chief engineers and IPT leads.
- Serve as a resident expert in hardware / electrical engineering, drawing on prior hands-on experience in circuit design, RF/digital hardware, and electronics integration to coach engineers and review hardware approaches and architectures.
- Own and evolve the vision and roadmap for hardware capabilities (labs, tools, and methods); champion the adoption of modern hardware design practices, test automation, and data-driven decision making while aligning with sector standards.
- Define, tailor, and enforce hardware engineering processes and best practices, including design reviews, configuration management of hardware baselines, hardware test planning, defect tracking, and regression testing.
- Drive functional initiatives to enhance hardware capabilities and competitiveness, including training, communities of practice, best-practice sharing, and lessons-learned forums.
- Focus on retention and engagement by building a strong technical community of practice in hardware/electrical engineering, promoting mentoring, technical coaching, knowledge sharing, and recognition of technical excellence.
- Foster engineering rigor, build consensus, and resolve conflicts, collaborating with cross-discipline engineering teams (systems, software, mechanical, RF, test).
- Partner with program leadership to address issues promptly and help teams meet program commitments across hardware design, lab integration, hardware test, and formal sell-off events.
- Manage team assignments across programs and maintain staffing projections, with particular attention to key hardware design milestones, integration events, and hardware verification activities.
- Ensure quality and credibility of hardware work products and independent technical reviews for division programs, including hardware design artifacts, schematics, bills of material, layout reviews, hardware test procedures, test reports, and verification evidence.
Basic Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, or related fields, with 8 years of experience; or a Master’s degree with 6 years of experience.
- 8+ years of professional experience in the defense or aerospace industries.
- Demonstrated senior-level hands-on hardware / electrical engineering experience, including experience in at least one of the following domains and familiarity with several others: Designed, implemented, and integrated complex, multi-discipline hardware subsystems (e.g., RF, digital, mixed-signal, or power electronics). Planned and executed hardware integration and test at card, unit, subsystem, and/or system levels in lab and/or field environments.
- Developed hardware test concepts, test plans, and detailed test procedures tied directly to hardware and system requirements.
- Performed hardware-level and system-level verification and validation, including requirements traceability and coverage assessment.
- Analyzed hardware test results, identifying defects, leading or heavily contributing to root cause investigations, and driving corrective actions to closure.
- Proven Department Manager / leadership experience, including: Managed technical teams of hardware/electrical engineers, including performance management and career development.
- Led teams of hardware engineers through major design, integration, and test activities across multiple programs.
- Executed workforce planning (forecasting, staffing, and allocation) across a portfolio of programs or business areas.
- Managed budgets or indirect spending and aligned departmental resources to financial and business objectives.
- Experience managing multiple technical teams, preferably including hardware engineering and cross-discipline engineering teams, in a matrixed environment.
- Proven technical management experience in program IPT, R&D, Advanced Systems, technology development, and/or functional environments, with direct oversight of hardware design, integration, and test activities.
- Working knowledge of program execution, staffing, engineering metrics, lab/test asset management, and training resources, processes, and tools associated with hardware/electrical engineering.
- Deep familiarity with hardware and electrical engineering processes and tailoring, including requirements decomposition into hardware requirements, hardware architecture and design strategies, and verification planning and test traceability for hardware.
- Demonstrated experience leading large and diverse technical teams, with a strong track record of supporting successful hardware integration and test outcomes on complex systems.
- High proficiency in technical problem-solving, including data-driven root cause analysis, defect resolution, and development of robust, hardware-informed solutions.
- Active Government Secret clearance.
- Ability to work onsite full-time in San Diego, CA.
Preferred Qualifications
- Advanced degree in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, or related fields.
- Previous IPT leadership experience with responsibility for hardware scope, schedules, risks, and deliverables.
- Proven success in leading organizations with ~25 or more employees, including hardware and cross-discipline engineering teams, and influencing functional direction across a portfolio of programs.
- Prior experience in engineering functional leadership with a focus on hardware / electrical engineering practices, lab operations, and continuous process improvement.
- Demonstrated technical experience across multiple program life cycles, such as advanced development, development/production, fielding, and sustainment, with clear application of hardware design, integration, and test practices in each.
- Experience with Communications, Navigation, and Identification (CNI) hardware or related mission systems, including planning and executing hardware development, integration, and test activities for CNI subsystems and their integration into platform or mission systems.
- Hands-on experience with hardware and system-level integration and test of complex, multi-domain systems (e.g., avionics, C4ISR, EW, sensors)
- Familiarity with model-based approaches that support hardware design, integration planning, verification modeling, and requirements traceability.
- Experience establishing and refining hardware engineering processes, metrics, and best practices across a portfolio of programs, and mentoring others in those practices.
- Recognized internally as a senior hardware / electrical engineering practitioner or subject matter expert (e.g., through key program roles, major technical reviews, sector/division-level hardware leadership, or internal technical forums).
- Active Top Secret/SCI clearance.
Primary Level Salary Range: $193,000.00 - $289,600.00 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.
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Find Engineering Manager JobsEngineering Manager Job Market in San Diego
Who's Hiring
- Apple260
- Northrop Grumman87
- NV543
- SYNCHRON43
- Insulet Corporation43
Top Industries Hiring
- Electronics & Hardware
- Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals
Engineering Manager Jobs in San Diego: Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get a engineering manager job in San Diego?
The strongest path into an engineering manager role in San Diego runs through the city's defense contractors, life sciences companies, and software firms, which consistently hire at the manager level. Candidates who can show experience leading cross-functional teams, managing delivery timelines, and working alongside hardware or regulated-product pipelines stand out locally. Networking through San Diego's active tech and biotech communities in Sorrento Valley and UTC adds real advantage.
Which companies hire engineering managers in San Diego?
San Diego engineering manager roles are posted by Apple, Northrop Grumman, and NV5 and others right now, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. The local market is anchored by large defense contractors and aerospace primes alongside a dense cluster of biotech and medtech firms, with a growing layer of mid-size software companies in the downtown and Sorrento Mesa corridors.
Are there remote engineering manager jobs in San Diego?
Yes, though remote availability depends heavily on the employer, since many San Diego engineering manager roles involve hands-on oversight of hardware, lab, or defense programs that require on-site presence. About 83% of engineering manager openings tied to San Diego are remote or hybrid as of November 2026, with remote options most common in software-focused companies rather than defense or biotech.
How can I get a engineering manager job in San Diego with little or no experience?
The most realistic entry path is moving up from a senior individual-contributor role within a San Diego defense, biotech, or software company, where internal promotions to engineering lead or team lead are common stepping stones. San Diego's large primes and mid-size medtech firms often hire first-time managers into program or technical lead roles before a formal manager title. Strong project ownership and mentorship experience within those organizations accelerates the transition.
Which industries hire the most engineering managers in San Diego?
The sectors hiring the most engineering managers in San Diego are Electronics & Hardware and Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. San Diego's concentration of defense contractors along the I-15 corridor, its world-class biotech and genomics cluster in Torrey Pines, and a maturing software ecosystem together drive sustained local demand for engineering management talent.
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