I will be getting the offer in next couple days. Need to find out what is the level/salary range associated at Principal/Sr.Principal/Staff Engineering. The position is in SoCal. Recruiter said offer is for Sr. Principal level Does NG offer different Salary range for NorCAl and SoCal locations? TC:139k (Masters Degree) YOE: 9
Sr Principal is The highest individual contributor level possible at Lockheed Martin. What does it mean at Northrop?
We have a Sr Principal as our development lead. Seems like he rarely writes code and is more involved in attending meetings, putting metrics together, and collating design docs.
NG tech/eng has 6 levels Eng1 to Eng6. Sr Principal is an Eng4 In case anyone cares there at 2 steps at eng5 (5 and 5a) and again 2 steps at eng6 (6 and fellow)
Sr principal is like 4 levels off the top. You'll be lucky to get 150k is my guess.
Ok. Sounds like a level 3 or 4 then at LM. 150 sounds about right.
I was at Lockheed and now I am at Northrop. Sr (Lockheed) is a level three, as is Principal (Northrop).
Did you eventually take the offer?
No i ended up declining the offer. Are you in process of interviewing?
For defense glassdoor is very accurate. Bands there are based purely only yoe and degree. The range is just how much you negotiated (Levels.fyi for other industries if you're interested).
Op any updates? Looks like you’re with General Atomics? How do you like it there? Do you have a “chill” work and good WLB?
WLB good as expected with defense contractors. But future is not promising. I would look into bigger Aero/Defense companies.
Why do you think their future is not promising? Did they pay you well?
At northrop is sr principal systems the same band as sr staff systems?
No. T4= SR. Principal T5= staff T6= sr. Staff
but seriously why
Lol. Fair question. I was in tech, working 65+ hours for years and got burned out. Exploring Aero/defense for couple years for wlb and possibly jump back in tech.
Burnout at NG also, I’ve been at 50+ hrs/wk for 9 of the last 12 months. Switched off my last program after going over 5weeks without a single day off. 9/80 is advertised as a benefit to everyone but in realty is a privilege if your program allows you to take it off. I haven’t had the 9/80 day off since March