IHE Cybersecurity Compliance & Incident Response Specialist

Valiant Solutions, LLC • Washington, DC

9d • $135,000 - $150,000 • Remote

About The Position

Valiant Solutions is seeking a senior cybersecurity professional to provide compliance, breach response, incident management, and risk management support for institutions of higher education (IHEs) that handle sensitive federal data. The role supports a government customer responding to incidents at institutions outside its system boundary, including incidents involving Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), Federal Tax Information (FTI), and Personally Identifiable Information (PII). The specialist coordinates response and remediation, manages institutional cybersecurity cases through closure, and evaluates cybersecurity compliance, applying guidance grounded in NIST SP 800-61 Revision 3.

This position is 100% remote, with ad hoc travel to the Washington, DC metropolitan area. The employee must be able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust clearance; U.S. citizenship is required for clearance eligibility. Remote employees are expected to maintain a quiet, distraction-free workspace, adequate internet, availability during working hours, and a schedule aligned with core business hours for colleagues and clients. The anticipated base salary is $135,000–$150,000.

Valiant Solutions delivers cybersecurity and IT services to federal civilian, defense, and national security customers. The company describes itself as employee-centric and offers benefits, certification rewards, and career development opportunities.

Requirements

• More than 10 years of experience in cybersecurity incident response, incident handling, cybersecurity compliance, security assessments, or cyber risk management.
• Bachelor's degree in Cybersecurity, Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Assurance, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• A senior industry professional certification such as CISSP or equivalent.
• Demonstrated experience investigating, coordinating, documenting, and managing cybersecurity incidents through remediation and closure.
• Experience conducting or supporting cybersecurity compliance assessments and evaluating technical, administrative, and physical safeguards.
• Strong knowledge of incident containment, remediation, recovery, corrective action tracking, and cybersecurity risk management.
• Experience evaluating security controls and identifying compliance gaps and remediation requirements.
• Experience working with sensitive or regulated information such as CUI, PII, FTI, or comparable protected data.
• Ability to analyze complex cybersecurity information and translate findings into clear, actionable recommendations.
• Excellent technical writing, analytical, communication, and stakeholder coordination skills.
• Ability to work effectively with government personnel, institutional stakeholders, cybersecurity teams, auditors, technical personnel, and organizational leadership.
• Familiarity with NIST SP 800-61 Revision 3.
• Strong knowledge of applicable cybersecurity regulatory and control frameworks.
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust clearance.
• U.S. citizenship is required to obtain the necessary clearance.
• For remote work, ability to maintain a quiet, distraction-free workspace with adequate internet and availability during core business hours.

Responsibilities

• Provide senior cybersecurity incident response and breach management support for IHEs that handle federal data.
• Provide incident reporting and handling guidance to help institutions contain, remediate, and recover from cybersecurity incidents.
• Coordinate remediation and incident response activities with reporting institutions.
• Categorize, analyze, document, track, and manage IHE cybersecurity cases through closure.
• Coordinate breach response across affected customer offices, contractors, IHEs, and affiliated organizations.
• Analyze incident information and evidence to identify cybersecurity risks, compliance concerns, affected data, and required remediation.
• Track remediation activities and corrective actions through resolution.
• Develop incident reports, technical findings, recommendations, case documentation, and status updates for customer stakeholders.
• Conduct and support cybersecurity compliance assessments for institutions and systems that handle federal data.
• Evaluate administrative, technical, and physical safeguards and identify cybersecurity and compliance gaps.
• Develop assessment plans covering methodology, data collection, sampling, reporting timelines, and risk-rating methodology.
• Evaluate institutional information security programs and implementation of required cybersecurity safeguards.
• Review compliance audit information to determine whether requirements are implemented or addressed through acceptable corrective action plans.
• Assess safeguards across areas including risk assessment, identity and access management, data classification and inventory, encryption, multifactor authentication, change management and secure development, logging and monitoring, incident response, vendor and third-party risk management, and cybersecurity awareness and training.
• Identify cybersecurity risks and control weaknesses affecting protection of federal information.
• Provide actionable remediation recommendations based on assessment and incident findings.
• Support IHE corrective action planning and remediation efforts.
• Provide cybersecurity consulting, threat advisories, and remediation support to participating institutions.
• Work with institutional security teams and customer stakeholders to resolve cybersecurity and compliance issues.
• Ensure assessment and incident response work products meet applicable agency data-handling and CUI protection requirements.
• Serve as a senior cybersecurity resource to the customer and participating institutions on compliance and incident response matters.
• Communicate complex incidents, vulnerabilities, compliance gaps, and remediation requirements clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Coordinate activities across IHE stakeholders, customer offices, contractors, cybersecurity personnel, and other affected organizations.
• Support cybersecurity awareness activities and tabletop exercises with IHEs.
• Provide senior guidance to less-experienced cybersecurity professionals, as assigned.

Benefits

• Choice of medical plans, including an HSA option and PPO, with company contributions.
• Dental and vision coverage for employees and their families.
• Company-paid life, short-term disability, and long-term disability insurance.
• Optional supplemental life, accident, and critical illness coverage.
• 401(k) retirement plan with company match.
• Paid time off that grows with years of service and paid federal holidays.
• Paid certifications, professional development, and access to the Valiant University training portal.
• Flexible spending accounts.
• Wellness and fitness program.
• Referral bonuses.
• Rewards for earning industry certifications.

What This Job Offers

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