Lead Databricks Data Security Engineer

About this role

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: No relocation assistance available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: No

CLEARANCE TYPE: Secret

TRAVEL: No 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 is seeking a Lead Databricks Data Security Engineer to lead the design, implementation, and governance of access control across our Databricks Lakehouse environment. This role will serve as the senior technical owner of the data access control model, defining the architecture,   establishing   engineering standards, and translating security and compliance requirements into scalable technical controls. The selected candidate will play a key role in building the Databricks security function and will work closely with data engineering, platform engineering, and enterprise stakeholders. This is a hands-on   software engineering and   architecture role that requires both strategic leadership and direct technical implementation.  

The primary location of this position will be Falls Church, VA. We will allow for fulltime telework as well.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the design and implementation of RBAC and ABAC within Databricks Unity Catalog, including data structure, access models, and tagging standards.  

• Define the security architecture for data access, including dynamic views, row-level security, and column masking.  

• Develop the identity governance approach for Databricks, including service principals, workload identities, and integration with enterprise identity providers.  

• Translate regulatory, contractual, and compliance requirements into practical technical controls within the platform.  

• Establish and   maintain   data classification standards and tagging structures that support scalable access control.  

• Implement grants, catalogs, tags, and access controls as code using Terraform and/or Databricks Asset Bundles to support version control and audit readiness.  

• Work closely with workspace administrators and platform engineers to align workspace, compute, secrets, and network controls with the broader data access strategy.  

• Create guardrails, templates, and streamlined workflows that allow data engineers to manage access appropriately while   maintaining   strong security controls.  

Basic Qualifications  

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline and at least 8 years   as a Software Engineer or Data Engineer with a heavy focus on data platform security and security automation; Master's degree and at least 6 years of relevant experience.

• At least 2 years   of   hands on   experience implementing Databricks Unity Catalog security features .  

• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing RBAC and ABAC models at scale, including hands on experience with Databricks Unity Catalog , grants, dynamic views, row and column level filtering and masking.   

• Fluency with identity and federation patterns including SCIM, service principals, and integration with enterprise identity providers such as Entra ID.   

• Experience applying infrastructure-as-code practices, preferably Terraform to access, tagging, and policy management in Databricks.   

• Proficiency   in Python and SQL for automation, monitoring, and compliance.   

Preferred Qualifications

• The ability to obtain a government security clearance

• Working onsite full time in Falls Church, VA

• Master's degree

Primary Level Salary Range: $142,200.00 - $213,200.00

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.

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