Defensive Cybersecurity Engineer/Incident Response

The Mitre Corporation•Tampa, FL

14h•$158,800 - $238,200•Onsite

About The Position

MITRE’s Defensive Cyber Operations department seeks a cybersecurity engineer to support government sponsors in defensive cyber operations, threat hunting, detection engineering, cyber deception, and adversary engagement, with increasing emphasis on artificial intelligence. The role provides subject matter expertise and practical support for security operations centers (SOCs) and incident response, tailored to sponsor missions, network topologies, staffing, funding, and technical resources. The engineer develops and delivers hands-on cybersecurity training, improves incident response plans and workflows, applies MITRE ATT&CK to investigations and defensive improvements, and designs detections, analytics, dashboards, and SIEM integrations. The role also analyzes endpoint, network, and cloud telemetry, assesses operational capabilities, supports post-incident reviews and exercises, and researches practical AI applications for SOC operations and incident response. The position requires at least three days per week on-site and travel up to 25%, including possible international travel. The hired candidate must obtain a Top Secret clearance within one year of hire; U.S. citizenship is required for security-clearance eligibility.

Requirements

Typically requires at least 8 years of related experience with a bachelor’s degree, 6 years with a master’s degree, or 3 years with a Ph.D., or an equivalent combination of related education and work experience.
At least 3 years of operational experience.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Data Science, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, or a related field.
Knowledge of incident response operations, principles, and their application.
Demonstrated knowledge of and hands-on experience with generative AI or AI-enabled technologies, with the ability to apply them to cybersecurity investigation, incident response, threat analysis, or security automation.
Experience developing technical training content, curriculum, courseware, or other learning materials for cybersecurity audiences.
Strong technical writing, presentation, and facilitation skills.
Ability and willingness to travel up to 25% to deliver training at customer locations, including international locations.
Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a Top Secret U.S. government-issued security clearance; U.S. citizenship is required for security-clearance eligibility.
Must work on-site at least 3 days per week.

Nice To Haves

Comfort presenting to non-English-speaking audiences with translation support.
Experience applying MITRE ATT&CK to support cybersecurity operations.
Experience leading incident response efforts and teams within a SOC, incident response organization, or fly-away team.
Experience developing incident response playbooks, tabletop exercises, or operational training scenarios.
Experience leading technical training sessions for government, partner, or other technical audiences.
Experience creating hands-on cybersecurity labs, exercises, or scenario-based learning materials.
Experience with Splunk or Elastic/ELK.
Experience integrating AI-enabled workflows with cybersecurity platforms such as SIEM, SOAR, EDR/XDR, threat-intelligence, case-management, or cloud-security platforms.

Responsibilities

Provide government sponsors with subject matter expertise on enterprise SOC operations, governance, and process improvement.
Translate defensive cybersecurity concepts into practical training tailored to sponsors’ network topologies, staffing, funding, and technical resources.
Develop hands-on training scenarios and exercises reflecting real-world incident response challenges and sponsor mission needs.
Help sponsors develop, assess, and improve incident response plans, playbooks, and workflows for investigating, containing, and recovering from cyber incidents.
Apply MITRE ATT&CK to characterize adversary behavior, support incident investigations, and identify opportunities to strengthen defenses.
Design, develop, and refine security detections, analytics, and dashboards, and integrate data sources into SIEM platforms.
Analyze and correlate endpoint, network, and cloud telemetry to determine incident scope, assess impact, and inform containment and remediation recommendations.
Assess SOC and incident response capabilities, identify operational and technical gaps, and recommend improvements aligned with mission priorities and available resources.
Support post-incident reviews and exercises and translate lessons learned into improvements to response procedures, detection coverage, and operational readiness.
Research and evaluate emerging AI techniques, including machine learning and generative AI, for practical, cost-effective applications to SOC operations and incident response.