2026 Graduate - Engineer/Researcher - Cyber Warfare Systems

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory•Laurel, MD

7d•Onsite

About The Position

The Cyber Warfare Systems Group (QCR) is seeking intellectually curious individuals to apply their skills to real-world problems and gain experience with cyber operations. QCR team members focus on offensive cyber operations and non-kinetic mission defeat, developing advanced cyber capabilities to support U.S. military efforts in joint operations. The team utilizes systems engineering principles and conducts research in areas such as analysis & targeting, cyber layer modeling, cybersecurity, and human systems modeling. As a member of the team, your primary responsibility will be providing technical support to projects related to cyber operations. This may include designing, developing, and fielding capabilities, partnering with government and contractor staff, conducting research and analysis to support capability development, and analyzing publicly available data sources, mission vulnerability assessments, and cyber mission management.

Requirements

Graduating with or have recently completed a Bachelor's or Master's degree in: Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Mathematics, Cybersecurity, or a related field.
Classroom or professional experience working closely in skills including, but not limited to: networking, penetration testing, reverse engineering, open-source intelligence, data science, agentic systems, modeling and simulation, cyber threat intelligence, AI/ML, or similar technical fields.
Enjoy creating and building (and the follow-through to finish) projects that pose a challenge
Passion for applying analytical and technical expertise to develop innovative solutions by prototyping
Ability to effectively communicate information, concepts or ideas to technical and non-technical audiences
Able to acquire Interim Top Secret level security clearance by your start date and can ultimately acquire Top Secret with SCI level clearance.
U.S. citizenship is required for security clearance eligibility.

Nice To Haves

Demonstrated leadership of small or large teams to achieve excellence.
Projects using LLM-based agents to automate complex tasks, and understanding the risks and benefits of operationalizing AI in mission-critical applications.
Understanding of Department of Defense operations, or DoD processes like acquisition, sustainment, risk management, or test and evaluation.
Proficiency in defense-critical foreign languages.

Responsibilities

Designing, developing, and fielding capabilities in support of cyber operations missions
Partnering with teams of government and/or contractor staff as they develop & deploy capabilities
Conducting research and analysis that supports capability development
Conducting analysis of novel publicly available data sources, mission vulnerability assessments, and/or cyber mission management