Warden joined Northrop Grumman in 2008, initially as vice president and general manager of the company's cybersecurity business.[10] In 2015, while president of Northrop Grumman Information Systems,[11] she was included in Federal Computer Week's "Federal 100" list; the magazine credited her for increasing Northrop Grumman's participation in the CyberPatriot program and creation of the Advanced Cyber Technology Center, and for overseeing $1.5 billion in contracts for the 2014 fiscal year.[12] Warden began her tenure as president of the Mission Systems sector in January 2016, when the company merged its Information Systems and Electronics Systems sectors.[6][13][14] She was president and COO of Northrop Grumman since September 2017,[14] and her tenure as CEO started on January 1, 2019.[6]
She joined James Madison University's board of visitors in October 2018.[3] Previously, Warden was on the board of the university's College of Business, starting in 2016.[3] She received a Business Achievement Award from James Madison University's Beta Gamma Sigma chapter in 2018.[17]
Warden was included in Washingtonian's 2017 list of the "most powerful women" in Washington, D.C.,[18] as well as the magazine's 2018 list of "Washington's Top Tech Leaders".[19] She has ranked number 22 and number 80 on Fortune's and CEOWORLD magazine's lists of "most powerful women", respectively.[6][20][21] In 2023, she ranked 38th in Forbes list of "World's 100 most powerful women".[22] Warden was ranked 20th on Fortune's list of Most Powerful Women in 2023.[23]
On May 22, 2024, she was sanctioned by the Chinese government due to arm sales to Taiwan.[24]