Associate Solutions Engineer

Carnegie Mellon University • Pittsburgh, PA

1d

About The Position

The Associate Solutions Engineer will work within the CERT Division of Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute (SEI). The CERT Situational Awareness team helps organizations—particularly in the Department of War, federal government, and critical infrastructure sectors—understand and maintain awareness of cyber hybrid environments, identify risks, and make informed cybersecurity, cyber resiliency, and cyber survivability decisions. The team applies cybersecurity, systems engineering, and operational analysis to understand complex architectures and the relationships among systems, missions, workflows, data, and stakeholders.

The role provides technical support for security architecture development, mission engineering, systems-of-systems architecture, requirements development, engineering analysis, technology evaluation, and deployment guidance. The engineer will contribute to cybersecurity research and architecture, develop and evaluate advanced analytical techniques—including AI, machine learning, behavioral analytics, and data-driven approaches—and support Zero Trust and cyber resilience planning and implementation. The work also includes documenting architectures, identifying gaps, evaluating integration strategies, recommending security solutions, developing mission threads and workflows, and piloting and transitioning technologies into operational environments.

The position supports government program offices across strategy, processes and policies, requirements elicitation, design and architecture, operations, outreach, and training. It also contributes to the transition of situational-awareness analysis and engineering approaches and tools, and to the design and prototyping of tactical analysis studies and tools. The role involves collaboration with colleagues, customers, and subject matter experts. Locations are Arlington, Virginia, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Moderate travel (20%) to SEI and CMU community locations, sponsor sites, conferences, and offsite meetings is expected. The employee will be subject to a background check and must be eligible to obtain and maintain a Department of War security clearance.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree with three years of experience, master’s degree with one year of experience, or an equivalent combination of training and experience.
• Willingness to travel to various locations in support of SEI’s mission; moderate travel (20%) is specified.
• Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a Department of War security clearance and undergo a background check.
• Ability to present technical topics to audiences ranging from senior leadership to technical experts.
• Ability to work with multiple stakeholders to promote practical solutions to challenging security problems.
• Strong understanding of networking, security, systems administration, programming, and/or cloud.
• Ability to work at the systems-of-systems architecture level and identify and understand tradeoffs among approaches.
• Strong research and writing skills.

Nice To Haves

• Degree in Computer Science and Engineering or Systems Engineering, with two years of experience in cybersecurity/network operations, Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), or workflow/process analysis; or an equivalent combination of training and experience.
• Experience in enterprise, system-of-systems, system, or security architecture.
• Experience in security operations.
• Experience in security research.
• Experience in programming or software engineering.
• Experience in networking.
• Experience in testing.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical support as a team member in developing security architectures, particularly for cybersecurity operations and cybersecurity systems.
• Support mission engineering, systems-of-systems architectures, systems requirements development, engineering, analysis, technology evaluation, and deployment guidance.
• Advance cybersecurity and cybersecurity architectures.
• Develop and evaluate advanced analytical techniques, including AI, machine learning, behavioral analytics, and data-driven approaches for cyber operations.
• Document current-state architectures, identify capability and coverage gaps, evaluate technology integration strategies, recommend security solutions, and develop mission threads and workflows.
• Support organizations in planning, assessing, and implementing Zero Trust and cyber resilience strategies.
• Evaluate, pilot, and transition new technologies into operational environments.
• Contribute to diverse teams of colleagues, customers, and subject matter experts to deliver projects.
• Support government program offices in strategy, processes and policies, requirements elicitation, design and architecture, operations, outreach, and training.
• Enable the transition and appropriate focus of situational-awareness analysis and engineering approaches and tools into operational environments.
• Design, prototype, and transition tactical analysis studies and tools appropriate for operational use in situational awareness.

Benefits

• Employee benefits are referenced, with a link provided, but specific benefits are not listed in the posting.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level