Network Forensics Defense Analyst

Argo Cyber Systems•Arlington, VA

1d•$140,000 - $160,000

About The Position

Argo Cyber Systems is seeking a Network Forensics Analyst to support the DHS Hunt and Incident Response Team (HIRT), which provides frontline cyber incident response and proactive hunting for malicious activity affecting national infrastructure. The role supports government agencies and critical infrastructure owners through advanced technical assistance, proactive hunts, rapid onsite incident response, and investigations using host- and network-based cybersecurity analysis. The analyst characterizes breach severity and develops mitigation and remediation plans, with particular expertise in enterprise edge-device technologies such as Cisco, Ivanti, Palo Alto, Ciena, and Juniper. The position serves as a senior technical expert for network-centric hunt and incident response work. It analyzes network traffic, metadata, device logs, configurations, and telemetry to detect and reconstruct intrusions; evaluates network topologies and device integrity; and recommends containment, eradication, recovery, and hardening measures. The analyst may support onsite and remote engagements, coordinate with government leads and customers, advise technical personnel, and produce CND guidance, incident reports, executive summaries, and standardized knowledge-base procedures. Work may be remote or onsite as required, and requires an active TS/SCI clearance and DHS EOD eligibility.

Requirements

U.S. citizenship.
Active TS/SCI clearance.
Ability to obtain DHS Suitability; the posting also states DHS EOD eligibility is required.
At least 8 years of directly relevant experience.
At least 3 years of experience evaluating and implementing new cyber response or network forensic capabilities.
Hands-on incident response or network operations experience involving enterprise edge devices from at least two of these vendors: Cisco, Ivanti, Palo Alto, Ciena, or Juniper.
Strong understanding of network architecture and security, including routing, switching, VPNs, firewalls, segmentation, and defense in depth.
Knowledge of CND policies, procedures, and regulations relevant to U.S. government or similar environments.
Ability to characterize and analyze network traffic to identify anomalous activity and potential threats.
Ability to identify and analyze network anomalies using metadata such as flow, DNS, and proxy information.
Ability to reconstruct malicious activity from network traffic and device logs.
Understanding of general attack stages and how they manifest across networks.
Understanding of system and application security threats and vulnerabilities and how they appear in network traffic.
Understanding of proactive system and network analysis, including establishing trust levels for critical resources and detecting anomalous behavior.
Proficiency with common operating systems, such as Linux/Unix and Windows.
Experience performing cyber incident response, including scoping, containment, eradication, and recovery, in operational environments.
Ability to think independently, make sound decisions under pressure, and work with limited guidance.
Strong written and oral communication skills, including explaining technical issues to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Ability to collaborate across physical locations and within distributed teams.
Skill in identifying attack classes and stages and translating findings into actionable recommendations.
Ability to rapidly configure network TAPs, packet brokers, SPAN ports, and managed or unmanaged switches without disrupting live production or air-gapped traffic.
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Cyber Security, Computer Engineering, or a related field; alternatively, a high school diploma and at least 10 years of technical experience in the area of expertise.

Nice To Haves

Experience leading and mentoring technical teams in incident response, network operations, or security engineering.
Network and system administration experience in large or complex enterprise or service-provider environments.
Strong understanding of adversarial TTPs, including MITRE ATT&CK, and operational threat environments involving different adversary types.
Knowledge of defense-in-depth and zero-trust principles and their application to network and edge-device architectures.
Knowledge of system and application security threats and vulnerabilities, including buffer overflows, mobile code, cross-site scripting, injections, race conditions, covert channels, replay, ROP, and malicious code.
Knowledge of network-device integrity verification and monitoring approaches.
Hands-on host and network intrusion detection and event correlation across telemetry sources such as firewalls, IDS/IPS, endpoints, and SIEM.
Experience analyzing malicious activity, including network beaconing, command-and-control, and data exfiltration.
Experience with IAM tools and their integration into network and edge-security architectures.
Ability to review Enterprise Architecture from a security perspective and recommend architecture-level improvements.
Ability to collaborate with stakeholders at technical, management, and senior leadership levels.
Field diagnostics and cyber forensics skills, including use of preloaded analysis stacks, protocol parsers such as Modbus, DNP3, and OPC UA, vulnerability scanning, and local packet capture at line rate.
Ability to pack, secure, and transport ruggedized cases such as Pelican or Nanuk cases within standard weight and carry-on or air-transport limits.
One or more of the following certifications: IASAE II, CSSP Analyst, GCIA, GCIH, CSSP Incident Responder, or CEH.
SANS GIAC GCIA or GNFA certification is preferred for network forensics.
SANS GRID, GICSP, or GCIP certification.
Vendor or network certifications, highly desired: Cisco CCNA or higher (such as CCNP Security or CCNP Enterprise), or vendor certifications for Palo Alto, Juniper, Ciena, or Ivanti (such as PCNSE or JNCIS/JNCIP).

Responsibilities

Serve as a hunt and incident response subject matter expert, applying knowledge of threat actor tools, techniques, and procedures, especially for network-centric and edge-device compromises.
Evaluate and integrate new network forensic and monitoring capabilities for a technology insertion team.
Assist the Government lead in coordinating preliminary incident response investigations, including onsite and remote engagements.
Interface with customers onsite and communicate status, findings, and recommendations clearly.
Analyze network traffic, including PCAP, flow records, and device logs, to identify anomalous activity and threats to network resources.
Use network metadata such as flow records, DNS logs, and proxy logs to detect and scope malicious activity.
Reconstruct attacks and malicious activity from network traffic, including timelines, attacker paths, and data-exfiltration patterns.
Examine network topologies, data flows, trust boundaries, and potential choke points to inform hunting and response.
Assess network topologies and device configurations, identify security concerns, and recommend best practices, especially for Cisco, Ivanti, Palo Alto, Ciena, and Juniper platforms.
Determine and recommend appropriate responses to anomalous network activity, including containment, eradication, and hardening actions.
Apply defense-in-depth principles and knowledge of attack stages to evaluate and improve network security architecture and edge-device configurations.
Validate network-device integrity, detect unauthorized modifications, and recommend remediation.
Lead analysis of logs, configurations, and telemetry from routers, switches, firewalls, VPNs, and remote access appliances to identify, scope, and reconstruct intrusions.
Provide expert analysis and research on complex hunt and incident response problems with broad direction.
Provide technical direction, interpretation, and alternatives to high-level incident response teams handling network-centric incidents.
Develop technical objectives and solutions independently for complex problems.
Analyze incident data and victim environments and recommend targeted mitigations, including network segmentation, policy updates, and device hardening.
Advise technical personnel on implementing and customizing countermeasures such as firewall rules, IPS signatures, and access control lists.
Support internal stakeholders with onsite and remote containment and eradication missions.
Preserve evidence integrity in accordance with standard operating procedures or national standards when collecting network data, device artifacts, and logs.
Assist in writing and publishing CND guidance and detailed incident findings reports.
Produce executive summaries and detailed technical reports for leadership and technical audiences.
Document analysis, TTPs, and device-specific incident-handling procedures in a standardized knowledge base.
Help maintain branch process and procedure documentation and guide completion of hunt and incident response activities.
Rapidly configure network TAPs, packet brokers, SPAN ports, and managed or unmanaged switches without disrupting live production or air-gapped traffic.