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SALT LAKE CITY — One of Utah’s largest private employers is looking to expand its local workforce as aerospace and defense contractor Northrop Grumman aims to fill more than 600 positions.
The company currently has 91,000 employees worldwide, including more than 5,100 in Utah — and growing, according to Katie Qian, director of Air Force programs at Northrop Grumman.
“We’re on track to actually add a lot more over the next few months, and that trend is expected to continue over the next few years,” she said. “Being a technical company, we are looking for lots of engineers, but on top of that, just all sorts of positions. Everything from entry level technicians and engineers to experienced managers to contracts and finance, administration — all kinds of positions as part of the immense growth that we’re experiencing right now.”
She said the companywide expansion is fueled by new projects that are now under contract.
“We are building facilities to support these new projects that are coming on,” she said. “For example, we just opened a brand-new facility at Hill Air Force Base to support the ground-based strategic deterrent program. (It) is a large program that supports the Air Force.”
Qian noted that program is envisioned to create jobs through 2075.
“We’re talking long-term careers, lifetime careers, if not generations of careers that are definitely fueling our need for people,” she added.
“Being the director of Air Force programs and propulsion systems, we are responsible for designing, manufacturing, testing, sustaining solid rocket motors for various Air Force applications — everything from satellite launch vehicles and missiles for strategic deterrence,” she said. “We are looking at our teams to staff up in multiple positions and we’re going to be hiring like crazy through the rest of the year.”
Outside of the defense sector, she said the company is looking to ramp up its civil contract with NASA on the Space Launch System. With missile defense and other customers expanding right now, the company will be adding support across the board in multiple business sectors.
“We’re expanding and anticipating hiring for several years to come,” Qian said. ”That’s kind of the horizon we’re looking at right now.”
Interested individuals can visit the company website for more information on what positions are available.
Meanwhile, as major a defense contractor, Qian noted that the work the company is doing is considered essential so their production has been maintained throughout the time of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“In the COVID environment, we continue to operate, but Northrop Grumman does make the health, the safety and the well-being of our employees the highest priority. We internally are frequently communicating the most current information and guidance to our employees to ensure that they are informed,” she. said. ”We’re taking a lot of proactive actions to help our employees through this difficult time, things like limiting business travel, maintaining social distancing when we are together and cleaning our workplaces on a daily basis. So we’re doing everything we can to keep our employees as safe and informed as possible during this time.”
