ResumeAdapter
Updated 2026-08-13

Northrop Grumman has four values.
Not five, and the wording quietly changed.

What this page covers

Northrop's rubric is simply Our Values, four of them, quoted from the 2026 proxy. This page maps each value to resume language: the verbatim description, a show-this example, an avoid-this, and the behavioral probe Northrop would map to it. It also covers the two things guides get wrong, the count (it is four, not five) and the wording (Northrop quietly revised it across its SEC filings), plus the five leadership behaviors from Northrop's leadership postings.

Free to scanFour values, verbatimEvidence over adjectives
By the numbers
Official values
4
Not five; Inclusive Innovation is a header
Leadership behaviors
5
On Northrop leadership postings
Interview method
STAR
Named on Interviewing Essentials
Values wording
Revised
DEI clause dropped by FY2025

The quick answer

What are Northrop Grumman's core values, and how many are there?

Northrop Grumman has four values, quoted from its 2026 proxy statement: We Do the Right Thing, We Do What We Promise, We Commit to Shared Success, and We Pioneer. It is four, not five: Inclusive Innovation on Northrop's values page is a section header, not a fifth value, and third-party listicles that count five are miscounting the page. The values are the culture bar, assessed through behavioral rounds, and Northrop names the STAR method on its own Interviewing Essentials page. Two things to get right. One, the wording changed: We Do the Right Thing used to read value diversity and foster safe and inclusive environments, and by the FY2025 10-K that clause was dropped, so quote the current four. Two, on a resume, do not list the values as labels. Embed each one inside an achievement with a metric, a test failure you reported, a milestone you owned end to end, an interface you aligned across teams, so a reviewer reads the value in the work itself. .

Northrop publishes four values, quoted verbatim from its 2026 proxy statement and corroborated in the FY2025 10-K Human Capital section. The source is Northrop's own filings, not a culture blog, which matters because the third-party pages that rank for Northrop's values are frequently out of date on both the count and the wording.

The count first. Northrop's values page opens with a section headed Inclusive Innovation, which several listicles miscount as a fifth value. It is a lead-in header above the four values, not a value itself, so any source claiming Northrop has five values is misreading the page.

The wording second, and this is the dated wedge. Through the FY2023 10-K, We Do the Right Thing read “value diversity and foster safe and inclusive environments”; the FY2024 10-K changed “value diversity” to “value diverse perspectives”; and the FY2025 10-K, filed January 2026, plus the 2026 proxy dropped “and foster safe and inclusive environments” entirely, while We Do What We Promise changed “focused on quality” to “focused on quality outcomes.” Many pages still print the older diversity wording.

The practical takeaway is simple: quote the current four from the 2026 proxy, and read them as a culture bar assessed in behavioral rounds rather than a graded scorecard. The resume reading is the same for all four: a reviewer indexes on the value being visible in the outcome itself, not asserted as an adjective.

What Northrop does not publish

Northrop publishes the four values and, on its leadership postings, five leadership behaviors, but no named interview scorecard and no per-value grading sheet. The values are what Northrop hires against, assessed through behavioral STAR rounds, not a public graded rubric. A separate six leadership characteristics framework from a 2016 report exists, but Northrop has never published its contents, so do not list six characteristics. And do not present the older diversity wording as current: it was revised out by the FY2025 10-K.

The four values, deep-dived

Every value, a worked bullet,
and the probe.

Source for the four values and the verbatim descriptions: Northrop Grumman's 2026 proxy statement, corroborated in the FY2025 Form 10-K. The descriptions below are quoted exactly as Northrop publishes them. The what-it-means, resume examples, and interview probes are ResumeAdapter's mapping, illustrative templates rather than Northrop-supplied.

01
Northrop value 01

We Do the Right Thing

“We earn trust, act with ethics, integrity and transparency, treat everyone with respect and value diverse perspectives.”

The official Northrop description, verbatim

In a cleared, export-controlled environment, doing the right thing is integrity under compliance pressure: honest reporting on cost, schedule, and test results, and treating classified, ITAR, and safety obligations as non-negotiable. It reads as ethics you can audit, not a values statement.

What it means in practice
Show this on your resume

Show integrity you can audit: a discrepancy you reported, a compliance or safety call you made, a transparent status you gave even when it was slower or costlier. Attach the counterparty and the number.

Flagged a test-data gap to the program office before a design review rather than let it slide, then rebuilt the verification checklist that closed it, taking late-stage documentation defects to zero across 30 subsequent deliverables.

Avoid this anti-pattern

High-integrity or ethical asserted as an adjective with no situation and no auditable outcome. Integrity claimed as a trait is filler.

High-integrity, ethical professional committed to transparency and always doing the right thing.

Behavioral STAR probe

“Tell me about a time you reported a problem, a test failure, or a compliance concern under schedule pressure. What did you do, and what was the outcome?”

02
Northrop value 02

We Do What We Promise

“We own the delivery of results, focused on quality outcomes.”

The official Northrop description, verbatim

Owning the delivery of results on programs where a missed milestone or a quality escape carries safety, contractual, and national-security consequences. It reads as a commitment you owned end to end, with a quality bar met, not diffused across a group.

What it means in practice
Show this on your resume

Show a commitment you owned and delivered against a hard bar: a milestone you hit, a cost or schedule variance you closed, a first-pass yield or escape rate you drove, a program you took from red to green. Lead with the delta.

Took ownership of a behind-schedule integration milestone, replanned the sequence, and delivered on the contractual date while holding first-pass yield above 97 percent and closing a 5 percent cost overrun.

Avoid this anti-pattern

Results-driven and accountable as an adjective stack with no commitment named and no number. Ownership claimed without an artifact is filler.

Results-driven professional who consistently delivers on commitments with a strong focus on quality.

Behavioral STAR probe

“Tell me about a commitment you owned that was at risk of slipping. What did you decide, and what was the measured result?”

03
Northrop value 03

We Commit to Shared Success

“We work together to focus on the mission and take accountability for the sustainable success of our people, customers, shareholders, suppliers and communities.”

The official Northrop description, verbatim

Working across teams, suppliers, and customers toward the mission, and taking accountability for the whole outcome, not just your piece. It reads as how you aligned people who did not report to you to reach a program result.

What it means in practice
Show this on your resume

Show a specific instance where you aligned two teams, a supplier, or a customer to an outcome no single group owned. Name the mechanism and the result, not a collaborative label.

Aligned two engineering teams and a supplier on one interface definition, reconciling the message and timing assumptions into a single interface control document and recovering three weeks on the integration schedule.

Avoid this anti-pattern

Collaborative team player as a trait with no situation and no result. A belief statement is not evidence.

Collaborative team player who works well across functions to drive shared success for the mission.

Behavioral STAR probe

“Tell me about a time you had to align people who did not report to you, across teams or with a supplier, to hit a program milestone. How did you do it, and what came of it?”

04
Northrop value 04

We Pioneer

“With fierce curiosity, dedication and innovation, we seek to solve the world's most challenging problems.”

The official Northrop description, verbatim

Solving hard problems with curiosity and innovation, in an environment where novelty still has to clear certification, safety, and mission assurance. It reads as a specific thing you invented or improved and the measured delta, inside real constraints, not a sweeping claim.

What it means in practice
Show this on your resume

Name the approach you prototyped or the process you transformed and the measurable improvement. In a mission-assurance environment, a qualified innovation with a metric beats a visionary label.

Prototyped a model-based systems-engineering workflow for a sensor subsystem, cutting requirements-to-test cycle time 33 percent while keeping full MIL-STD traceability.

Avoid this anti-pattern

Innovative and cutting-edge with no artifact and no delta. A buzzword is not an innovation.

Innovative, forward-thinking engineer passionate about pioneering next-generation defense technology.

Behavioral STAR probe

“Tell me about something you built or a process you changed to solve a hard problem inside real mission or certification constraints. What was it, and what did it improve?”

Value names and descriptions quoted verbatim from Northrop Grumman's 2026 proxy statement and FY2025 10-K. Resume examples and interview probes are ResumeAdapter's mapping, illustrative templates.

  1. Behavior 01
    Sets a vision
  2. Behavior 02
    Builds a high performing team
  3. Behavior 03
    Takes ownership
  4. Behavior 04
    Leads with courage
  5. Behavior 05
    Responds to challenges with resilience

  6. Evidence each with a quantified example the same way you would a value: a team you built, a call you made under pressure, a setback you recovered.

The five leadership behaviors are quoted from Northrop's leadership job descriptions; the resume framing is editorial. The older six leadership characteristics (2016 report) are not listed because Northrop has never published their contents.

Northrop's candidate AI policy is unusually clear, and it draws exactly the line ResumeAdapter draws. Northrop explicitly permits using AI to edit or format your resume, practice interview questions, and analyze job descriptions. It prohibits fabrication: generating experience beyond your actual background in an application or resume, and generating real-time answers or recording an interview.

That is the honest line. ResumeAdapter maps your real experience to the job description and the four values, surfaces the missing keywords and the scope language, and rewrites your bullets, without inventing experience you do not have. Run your resume against a Northrop job description and evidence the values with what you actually did.

FAQ

Northrop Grumman values FAQ

The questions most candidates surface when they map their resume to Northrop's values. Answers are byte-identical to the FAQPage JSON-LD, because AI engines that extract HTML and AI engines that extract JSON-LD should not see different text.

What are Northrop Grumman's core values?

Four, quoted from Northrop's 2026 proxy statement and FY2025 10-K: We Do the Right Thing, We Do What We Promise, We Commit to Shared Success, and We Pioneer. They are the culture bar, and Northrop's own interviewing guidance tells candidates to answer in STAR form. Note that Inclusive Innovation on Northrop's values page is a section header, not a fifth value.

How many values does Northrop Grumman have, four or five?

Four. Some third-party listicles count five because Northrop's values page opens with a section headed Inclusive Innovation, but that is a lead-in header above the four values (We Do the Right Thing, We Do What We Promise, We Commit to Shared Success, We Pioneer), not a value itself. Anything claiming Northrop has five values is miscounting the page.

Did Northrop Grumman change its values?

The wording, yes. Across its SEC filings, We Do the Right Thing read value diversity and foster safe and inclusive environments through the FY2023 10-K; the FY2024 10-K changed value diversity to value diverse perspectives; and the FY2025 10-K and 2026 proxy dropped and foster safe and inclusive environments entirely, while We Do What We Promise changed focused on quality to focused on quality outcomes. Many third-party pages still print the older diversity wording, so quote the current four from the 2026 proxy.

What are Northrop Grumman's leadership behaviors?

Northrop's leadership job postings list five leadership behaviors: sets a vision, builds a high performing team, takes ownership, leads with courage, and responds to challenges with resilience. They are most relevant on a management or lead resume and are separate from the four company values. An older six leadership characteristics framework exists from a 2016 report, but Northrop has never published its contents, so it should not be listed as a current rubric.

How do you demonstrate Northrop Grumman's values in an interview?

With STAR stories (Situation, Task, Action, Result) mapped to a specific value. Northrop names the STAR method on its Interviewing Essentials page and tells candidates to connect the job description to the abilities on their resume. For example, a time you reported a test failure under schedule pressure maps to We Do the Right Thing, and a milestone you owned end to end maps to We Do What We Promise.

Does Northrop Grumman allow AI-written resumes?

Northrop's candidate AI policy explicitly permits using AI to edit or format your resume, practice interview questions, and analyze job descriptions, and it prohibits fabrication, such as generating experience beyond your actual background or generating real-time answers during an interview. That is exactly how ResumeAdapter works: it maps your real experience to the job description and the values, and never invents experience you do not have.

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Evidence the values, do not assert them

Show the values in the work,
not in the adjectives.

Upload your resume and a Northrop job description to see which values your bullets already prove, which are missing, and a rewrite plan that embeds each one in a quantified achievement. Free to scan; no signup to see the score.