2026 Associate Cost Engineer ​/ Cost Engineer

Associate Cost Engineer/Cost 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.

Northrop Grumman is seeking an Associate Cost Engineer/Cost Engineer. This position will be located at our Aeronautics Systems sector in El Segundo, CA.

The Cost Engineering position applies engineering economic analysis to support technical decision-making across the entire system lifecycle, from early concept development through design, production, operations, and sustainment. Cost Engineering represents a unique sub-discipline of Systems Engineering that integrates cost considerations into system architecture, design trades, and lifecycle planning of a program.

This role collaborates with engineering and program teams to develop cost- and value-informed insights that influence system design and execution. This position requires a balance of technical understanding, analytical rigor, and business acumen to ensure engineering decisions are informed by both system performance and lifecycle affordability considerations. Candidate will grow a foundational understanding of Systems Engineering and acquire knowledge of the following analyses:
Cost-Effectiveness, Life Cycle Cost (LCC), Cost as an Independent Variable (CAIV), Design to Cost (DTC), and Cost Reduction Initiatives (CRI).

Key Responsibilities

• Support engineering economic analyses, affordability studies, and cost/performance trade studies to support architecture and design decisions (e.g., alternatives evaluation, design-to-cost, life cycle cost drivers)
• Translate system requirements, architectures, interfaces, and design concepts into cost drivers and analytical models that support informed engineering and program decisions
• Apply business acumen and programmatic context to engineering analyses to assess affordability, sustainability, and lifecycle implications of technical decisions

• Support the development of cost estimates using appropriate methods (analogous, parametric/CER-based, bottom-up), including data normalization and documentation of assumptions, ground rules, and basis-of-estimate
• Build, maintain, and improve cost models and estimating relationships; incorporate historical actuals, learning/improvement curves, and technical/production data
• Collect and synthesize cost inputs from engineering, manufacturing, subcontractors, and vendors; maintain historical cost data for reuse

• Brief results to program leadership, engineering leadership, proposal teams, and external stakeholders; tailor communication to technical and executive audiences
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure analyses are technically sound, traceable, and decision-focused

This requisition may be filled at either an Associate Cost Engineer (level
1) or Cost Engineer (level
2)

Basic Qualifications for an Associate Engineer Systems (T01)

A candidate, regardless of age and hiring source, must meet ALL of the below criteria. The candidate must:

• Be completing or has completed their Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution by August 2026
• Be majoring in or having majored in Industrial Engineering, Systems Engineering, Mathematics or a similar a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Math) degree.
• Be able to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance (U.S. citizenship is a pre-requisite) as well as Program Special access within a reasonable period of time, as determined by the company to meet its business needs (U.S. citizenship is a…