[Remote] Lead Databricks Data Security Engineer
Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Northrop Grumman is an aerospace and defense company seeking a Lead Databricks Data Security Engineer to own the design, implementation, and governance of access controls across its Databricks Lakehouse environment. The role combines strategic security architecture and hands-on software engineering, including identity governance, compliance controls, data classification, and infrastructure-as-code automation.
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
Skills
- 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
- The ability to obtain a government security clearance
- Working onsite full time in Falls Church, VA
- Master's degree
Benefits
- Overtime
- Shift differential
- A discretionary bonus
- Annual bonuses designed to reward individual contributions as well as allow employees to share in company results
- Long Term Incentives for employees in Vice President or Director positions
- Health insurance coverage
- Life and disability insurance
- Savings plan
- Company paid holidays
- Paid time off (PTO) for vacation and/or personal business
- Fulltime telework
Company Overview