IT Systems Technical Specialist

State of Maryland•Anne Arundel, MD

1d•Onsite

About The Position

A Senior Security Engineer for the State Board of Elections, is the full performance level of hands-on technical work administering, configuring, and maintaining security tools and systems across an area of specialization in host-based security, network security, vulnerability management, web application security, and domain security technology. The Senior Security Engineer administers EDR, host-based security, firewalls, IDS/IPS, and vulnerability scanning tools daily, and provides architecture recommendations aligned with NIST, CIS, and Federal and State standards. The Senior Security Engineer acts as first technical responder to security incidents, personally investigating alerts, collecting technical evidence, and executing containment, eradication, and recovery actions. THIS POSITION WILL BE REQUIRED TO WORK EXTENDED HOURS DURING CRITICAL ELECTION TIMES.

Requirements

Seven years of experience designing, developing, testing, implementing and maintaining application, communication, database or operating systems software.
Graduation from an accredited high school or possession of a high school equivalency certificate and thirty credit hours from an accredited college or university in Computer Science, Computer Technology, Management Information Systems or other information technology-related field to include coursework in application, communication, database or operating systems software technology.
Graduation from an accredited high school or possession of a high school equivalency certificate and one year of experience designing, developing, testing, implementing and maintaining application, communication, database or operating systems software.
Experience operating computer systems; or scheduling, controlling input and output to process data on computer systems; or evaluating, implementing and maintaining computer hardware and software; or converting data from project specifications by developing program code using generally accepted computer programming languages.
Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in Computer Science, Computer Information Technology, Management Information Systems or other information technology-related field to include coursework in application, communication, database or operating systems software technology and three years of experience designing, developing, testing, implementing and maintaining application, communication, database or operating systems software.
U.S. Armed Forces military service experience as a commissioned officer in the Computer Systems Operations classifications or Computer Systems Operations specialty codes in the Information Technology field of work.
Employees in this classification, at the State Board of Elections, are required to be registered voters in the State of Maryland in accordance with the Election Law Article, Section 2-207(d), Annotated Code of Maryland.
Employees in this classification may not hold or be a candidate for any elective public or political party office or any other office created under the Constitution or laws of this State in accordance with the Election Law Article, Section 2-301(b).

Nice To Haves

Experience administering and tuning enterprise EDR or endpoint protection platforms such as CrowdStrike Falcon, Trellix, or equivalent.
Experience performing vulnerability scans using tools such as Tenable, Qualys, Rapid7 InsightVM, or equivalent platforms.
Experience with firewall rule review, network segmentation, and IDS/IPS or other perimeter security technologies, particularly Palo Alto Networks, Cisco ASA, or equivalent.
Experience in state or local government, critical infrastructure, or election security environments.
Experience administering domain security or DNS filtering tools such as Cisco Umbrella, Zscaler, Cloudflare, or Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense.
Experience with web application security scanning and remediation (e.g., Burp Suite, OWASP ZAP, Qualys WAS, or Invicti).
Certification in one of the following: SANS/GIAC (GCIH, GPEN, GCIA), CEH, or vendor-specific certifications (e.g., Splunk, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto, Cisco).

Responsibilities

Plans, designs and develops improvements and new or advanced systems or applications across an entire area of specialization in application, communication, database or operating systems software technology.
Performs in-depth analysis of various information technology alternatives to include consideration of technical matters, costs and compatibility with existing hardware or software, and prepares related narrative reports and technical documents.
Develops the structure, methodology and use for major elements of an information technology discipline for use across hardware and software such as data element dictionary, operating system customization user screen definition and use, program development tools and program generators.
Monitors the use of the particular information technology discipline in order to determine advances and changes necessary to achieve desired goals.
Provides expert technical advice and guidance to information technology staff such as IT Programmers, Systems Analysts, Operators, Technical Support Specialists, Network Specialists, Database Specialists, vendors and supervisory personnel and to departmental management regarding future directions, customization, software or hardware enhancements and software or hardware purchase recommendations in designated area of specialization.
Advises management in matters related to designated area of specialization to maintain efficient and effective information support functions by recommending solutions or alternatives to problems, new projects and changes in objectives in consideration of factors such as availability of resources, cost effectiveness and overall program policies and objectives.
Analyzes, designs and models broad projects and studies requiring critical resolution of difficult information technology issues in designated area of specialization.
Performs special assignments such as feasibility studies which involve long-range planning and an understanding and evaluation of diverse technical options in designated area of specialization to determine the course of current and future information technology solutions, methods and standards.
Keeps abreast of the state-of-the-art in the specific information technology discipline by reviewing technical journals, attending technical classes, conferences and user groups and maintaining regular communication with hardware and software vendors.
Performs other related duties.