Sr Principal Agile Product Owner

Northrop Grumman is seeking a Sr Principal Agile Product Owner to serve as a Chief Product Owner (CPO) for a Ground System product line supporting multiple constellations. In this role, you will lead and enable multiple software feature teams to turn high-level business goals into an integrated, executable plan while representing Product Management as the customer voice on Agile delivery teams.

This position is based in Linthicum Heights, MD and requires an active U.S. Government DoD Top Secret/SCI clearance. The CPO will collaborate across Product Owners, engineering, and program stakeholders to manage priorities, dependencies, and blockers across teams and capabilities.

What you will do

• Own and maintain the Integrated Capability Roadmap.
• Partner with Project Leads to prioritize features and capabilities.
• Collaborate with the Chief Engineer to keep capability and technical roadmaps aligned.
• Ensure priorities reflect customer needs and the program strategy.
• Communicate with Project Leads to support customer satisfaction and priority clarity.
• Work with Feature Team Product Owners, Architects, and Project Leads to break down capabilities into features teams can execute.
• Partner with SEIT, POs, Architects, and Project Leads to confirm features and capabilities are complete.
• Ensure features include stories needed to complete all work required for the Definition of Done.
• Ensure acceptance criteria defined by Project Leads are adequately defined, understood, and testable.
• Work directly with POs to maintain compliance with the roadmap and communicate the roadmap effectively.
• Ensure consistency across PO work, including feature/story/acceptance criteria definition and feature acceptance processes.
• Present the contents going into the Joint Release at the Gate Review, providing context and purpose for each JR item.
• Participate in Gate Reviews as a joint effort between the CPO and the I&T Lead.
• Attend the weekly tag-up with the customer, Joint Working Group meetings, and product line customer-facing meetings.
• Note: this role is not expected to be the voice of the product line.

Requirements

• Active U.S. Government DoD Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) security clearance.
• Bachelor’s degree completed.
• Relevant experience: 8 years with a Bachelor’s in Science, 6 years with a Master’s, or 4 years with a PhD.
• Experience with big-picture priorities and operating within a product line, or managing multiple customer priorities within a single baseline.
• Experience translating high-level business goals into roadmaps, Gantt charts, and/or integrated roadmaps.
• Agile framework mastery, including SAFe, LeSS, or Scrum@Scale.
• Proficiency with Atlassian tools, especially JIRA.
• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Good interpersonal skills and leadership experience.

Preferred qualifications

• Strong technical background in software development or systems engineering within an Agile software development program.
• Industry-recognized credentials such as CSPO, SAFe PO/PM, or CPrO-C (Chief Product Officer – Certified).
• Strong data analysis and visualization skills.
• Proven track record managing, mentoring, and scaling cross-functional product and engineering teams.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze performance metrics of feature teams to identify trends and course-correct or implement process changes.

Tools and technologies

• JIRA and the Atlassian tool suite
• SAFe
• LeSS
• Scrum@Scale
• Gantt charts

Travel

• Yes, up to 10% of the time.

Compensation and benefits

• Salary range: USD 135,800 - 213,400 per year
• Health insurance coverage
• Life and disability insurance
• Savings plan
• Company paid holidays
• Paid time off (PTO) for vacation and/or personal business
• Annual bonuses
• Employees in Vice President or Director positions may be eligible for Long Term Incentives

Relocation assistance may be available. The estimated application period is 20 days from the job posting date.