Project Management Lead Jobs in California

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: No relocation assistance available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes

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.

Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems has an opening for a Staff Project Manager to join our team of qualified, diverse individuals in our Systems Engineering organization. This role is located onsite in Rancho Bernardo. CA, El Segundo, CA or Palmdale, CA.

In this role, you will be responsible for many aspects of staffing, noted categorically below. To be successful in this position, you would consider yourself a self-starter with a familiarity with technical operations and staffing.

Program Workforce Planning

• Maintain an integrated staffing plan for assigned programs/IPTs aligned to contract scope, WBS, budgets, and key milestones (e.g., PDR, CDR, TRR).
• Consolidate 6–12 month staffing demand from CAMs/IPT leads and functional managers by skill set, labor category, grade, and clearance.
• Regularly update staffing demand based on changes in scope, schedule, or funding and highlight gaps or surpluses to program and functional leadership.

Staffing Assignments & Onboarding

• Coordinate assignment of internal engineers (transfers, rotations, redeployments) to open positions within the program in partnership with functional managers.
• Track onboarding for new hires and transfers (clearance, equipment, system access, required training) and escalate issues that delay full productivity or impact schedule.
• Ensure position assignments, labor categories, and charge numbers are accurately reflected in staffing tools and trackers.

Skills Mix & Labor Category Compliance

• Monitor program staffing mix (skills, grades, labor categories) against baseline plans and contractual requirements.
• Identify over/under-qualification or misaligned labor category usage and coordinate corrective actions with functional leadership and program finance.
• Support optimization of skill mix to balance technical capability, cost, and schedule performance.

Clearance & Access Coordination

• Maintain position-level visibility of clearance and access requirements for the assigned program/IPTs.
• Coordinate with Security on investigations, upgrades, and visit/access needs; track status against required need dates.
• Identify clearance-driven risks and communicate potential impacts to program leadership.

Metrics, Reporting, and Risk Management

• Maintain program-level staffing trackers and dashboards (open reqs, fill status, clearance pipeline, utilization or coverage risks).
• Prepare and present staffing status, trends, and risks for program reviews (PPRs, IPRs, EAC reviews) and other leadership forums.
• Identify staffing-related risks and issues (skills gaps, single points of failure, aging vacancies, clearance delays); document them in the risk/issue registers and track mitigation actions such as cross-training and backfill plans.

Process Execution & Improvement

• Execute established staffing processes, trackers, and templates defined by the engineering organization and sector.
• Recommend and implement local improvements to reduce cycle time, improve data quality, and enhance coordination across CAMs/IPT leads, functional managers, and Talent Acquisition.

Success in this Role Requires

• Strong analytical and Excel/data skills and the ability to develop and maintain staffing trackers and dashboards.
• Effective collaboration and communication with program leadership, functional managers, Talent Acquisition, HR, and Security.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including preparing and presenting status to leadership.
• Strong prioritization and management skills, to meet multiple, often competing, staffing needs in a fast-paced environment.

We offer flexible work arrangements, 9/80 work schedule with every other Friday off, phenomenal learning opportunities, exposure to a wide variety of projects and customers, and a very friendly team environment. We are looking for self-motivated, proactive, and goal-oriented people to help us grow our services and become even better at what we do.

Basic Qualifications

• Must have a Bachelors degree in Business, Engineering, HR, or a related field, and at least 12 years of relevant military / professional experience (e.g., program staffing, workforce planning, project management, or operations), OR a Master's Degree in Business, Engineering, HR, or a related field and at least 10 years of relevant military / professional experience (e.g., program staffing, workforce planning, project management, or operations), OR a Ph.D. in Business, Engineering, HR, or a related field, and at least 8 years of relevant military / professional experience (e.g., program staffing, workforce planning, project management, or operations)
• Must have experience working in a complex engineering or technical environment supporting multiple stakeholders.
• Must have experience with workforce planning, staffing coordination, or resource management (e.g., tracking demand vs supply, managing requisitions, or coordinating assignments).
• Must have an active US Government Secret or higher clearance (with a background investigation completed within the last 6 years or currently enrolled into Continuous Evaluation).
• Must have the ability to obtain and maintain Special Access Program (SAP) / PAR clearance within a reasonable amount of time as determined by business needs.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting staffing in an aerospace/defense or similar highly regulated environment.
• Familiarity with engineering labor categories, WBS structures, BOEs, and program execution concepts (cost, schedule, technical performance).
• Experience with staffing and HRIS/ATS tools (e.g., Workday, staffing trackers, or similar systems).
• Experience managing staffing for programs with classified work, including coordination of clearance and access requirements.
• Demonstrated success driving improvements in staffing processes, metrics, or cycle times.

Primary Level Salary Range: $146,300.00 - $219,500.00

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.