Control Systems Software Engineer

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.

Role

The software team is part of the Control Systems group within the Engineering department based in New Malden. The team provides software design and development expertise for maritime control and instrumentation systems throughout the product lifecycle.

As a key member of the software engineering team, this role will be to deliver software artefacts whilst working to a full software development lifecycle through process and procedural activities.

Key Responsibilities

• Write Functional and Design specification for all aspects of code development

• Implement clear, easy to maintain, high quality code that is optimized for performance.

• Capture, interpret and develop customer requirements.

• Report task status to the Lead Software Engineer and the project management team.

• Assist in the production of robust development lifecycles and suitable workflows and for both Software and Hardware architectures.

• Produce technical documentation in accordance with company/customer procedures.

• Specify, design and de-risk solutions for SCADA control systems.

• Implement data communications with third party equipment.

• Produce detailed design documents and artifacts in line with company procedures.

• Develop and implement SCADA/HCI applications.

• Validate software concept designs through analysis and de-risking test.

• Provide SME support to engineering teams as required.

• Work with subcontractors to investigate and develop solutions.

• Be aware of and comply with company standards of conduct and all relevant statutory requirements.

• Carry out any other reasonable management request.

• Conduct / support Factory Acceptance Tests with sub suppliers and customers.

Essential qualifications / competency requirements 

• Experience with client-server applications and Computing Science fundamentals such as OOP, Data Structures and Algorithms

• Experience with Object oriented programming languages like C++,C#, JAVA

• Design, and development of control / GUI software.

• Experience with unit test frameworks

• Experience of Software Configuration Management and version control

• Production of technical documentation.

• Industrial Ethernet based communication protocols and networking standards.

• 3+ years systems design and programming experience.

• Understanding of commissioning and setting to work.

• Degree, HND, HNC or equivalent in Electrical/Electronic engineering or a related discipline e.g. Control Systems Engineering, Systems Engineering

• Proactive and shows initiative.

• Team player.

• Good communication skills.

• Organized and capable of managing own tasks.

• Problem solver.

• Strong IT skills, in particular with MS Office products.

• British national and citizen. Able to obtain Security Clearance (SC).

Essential personal attributes

• Adept at problem-solving, able to develop solutions to a variety of problems.

• Good attention to detail.

• Organised, adept at workload management and prioritising appropriately to meet deadlines.

• Flexible and responsive to changing priorities.

• Proactive team worker, equally self-motivated and able to work autonomously.

• Good interpersonal skills, able to engage effectively with all audiences/stakeholders.

• Fluent in written and spoken English.

• Strong customer focus.

• Engaging ‘can do’ attitude.

Desirable qualifications / competencies

• Experienced in design and integration of Programmable Logic Controllers – PLCs (Rockwell and Siemens).

• Design and integration of Large scale SCADA systems.

• Specification and analysis of COTS equipment.

• Fieldbus configuration and implementation.

• Siemens WinCC OA (Open Architecture) development experience.

• Understanding of IEC 61131. 

• Understanding of Functional Safety (BS EN 61508, 61511 or 62061).

• Software testing and verification.

• Experience within defence, maritime, aerospace, or a similarly regulated industrial sector.

• Ship’s machinery and control systems.

• An understanding of Systems Engineering practices and philosophies (MBSE)

• Experience with multi-threading applications

• Experienced in the application of Agile methodologies such as XP, Scrum, Kanban

• Experience with Active Directory administration

• Kepware OPC DA/UA Client and Server configuration

• Oracle/SQL Database administration

Other requirements

• Travel requirements: Occasional UK travel may be required to attend team/customer meetings and training activities

• Clearance requirements: Post-holder must hold and maintain UK Government clearances where required

Northrop Grumman is committed to equality and diversity in our workplace. Northrop Grumman provides equal employment opportunity to all employees and applicants without regard to an individual's protected status, including race/ethnic origin, color, nationality, national origin, ancestry, sex/gender, gender identity/expression, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, marriage/civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity, religion or belief, creed, age, disability, genetic information, or any other protected status or characteristic.