RAPID CITY - In a former life, Kelly Commet was a chocolatier.

She sold her Rapid City business, Mostly Chocolates, in 1992, and later went back to school. She earned a degree in computer science from South Dakota School of Mines & Technology in 2000.

She worked for a software firm in Rapid City. She also thought seriously about leaving South Dakota for more opportunities in her field. "But I have family in town, and I just didn't want to leave," she said.

Now, Commet doesn't have to. She is among the first technical workers to join the new Rapid City office of Northrop Grumman Information Technology, a subsidiary of the giant defense contractor Northrop Grumman.

"This is truly a chance at a career in my field. … It's like winning the lottery," she said during a ribbon-cutting and open house at the company's new office, 1241 Concourse Drive.

Northrop Grumman hopes to hire 50 to 60 full-time software engineers, database architects and others with related technical skills for the new office. So far, 10 people have signed up. Eventually, as many as 75 people could be working for Northrop Grumman in Rapid City. Commet believes the company will have no trouble filling the remaining positions.

"A week doesn't go by that one of my friends doesn't call me because they've heard about this (new office), friends from all over the country," she said.

The Rapid City office is one of several National Workforce Centers that Northrop Grumman is opening, most of them in small towns scattered throughout the country.

Michael C. Springman, vice president and chief information officer for Northrop Grumman's mission systems sector, was in Rapid City for Thursday's open house. He said the company is developing the National Workforce Centers for a couple of reasons.

For one thing, technology and customer demands increasingly require and allow a far-flung workforce. "What we're finding that as the business evolves into less highly concentrated big campuses with thousands of employees, we need to be closer to our customer facilities," he said. "We found we were able to work collaboratively on the network. We've expanded that concept into National Workforce Centers."

In addition, he said, Northrop Grumman is struggling to find enough skilled workers who are willing to live in cities such as Los Angeles and Washington. In those cities, the cost of living is high, and the competition for people with technical skills is keen.

By spreading out to cities such as Rapid City, Corsicana, Texas, Helena, Mont., Johnstown, Pa., or Lebanon, Va., the company can tap a home-grown work force without outsourcing jobs overseas.

He said the applicants for jobs at the Rapid City National Workforce Center have included local residents, returning South Dakotans and recent graduates of South Dakota School of Mines & Technology.

One recent graduate who joined Northrop Grumman is Nathan Bahr, originally from Estelline. The computer science major went through graduation ceremonies at Tech in May and finished up final classes this summer.

He was looking for jobs in the Midwest area when he found out that Northrop Grumman was coming to town.

"This was timed perfectly," he said.

Northrop Grumman is a $30 billion global defense and technology company, ranked 73rd on the Fortune 500 list. The company, based in Los Angeles, employs more than 120,000 people in fields such as information and services, aerospace, electronics and shipbuilding.

The IT division, based in McLean, Va., does systems engineering work and systems integration for the Pentagon and other federal agencies, as well as state and local governments and private companies. It's one of the world's largest providers of 911 computer-aided emergency dispatch systems.

During Thursday's ribbon-cutting ceremony, Rapid City Mayor Alan Hanks welcomed Northrop Grumman. "With the quality of engineering graduates, I'm sure this will be a first step," he told Springman. "You will not be disappointed."

Contact Dan Daly at 394-8421 or at dan.daly@rapidcityjournal.com