Penetration Tester

General Dynamics Information Technology•USA DC Home Office (DCHOME), DC

7d•$123,250 - $166,750•Remote

About The Position

The Penetration Tester supports the Case Management Modernization (CMM) Program for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO) by conducting security, penetration, and vulnerability assessments required prior to Application ATO (Authority to Operate). This role ensures that CMM applications—built using React, NodeJS, AWS cloud services, and microservices—meet federal security standards and demonstrate resilience against real‑world cyber threats. Working within Agile DevSecOps teams, the Penetration Tester performs hands‑on exploitation, validates security controls, identifies weaknesses, and collaborates with engineering teams to remediate findings. This role is critical to ensure that CMM systems comply with NIST 800‑53, RMF, and AO security requirements before production authorization.

Requirements

8+ years of experience in penetration testing, application security, or ethical hacking security roles.
Experience documenting test plans, test procedures, and detailed security findings.
Experience supporting federal security assessments or enterprise-scale security testing.
Hands-on experience performing penetration tests on web applications, APIs, microservices, and cloud environments.
Strong proficiency with tools such as Burp Suite, OWASP ZAP, Metasploit, Nmap, Nessus, Nikto, K6 Security, or custom scripts.
Experience testing applications built with NodeJS, ReactJS, REST APIs, and microservices.
Strong understanding of AWS security, including IAM, VPC, S3, Lambda, API Gateway, ECS/EKS, CloudTrail, and CloudWatch.
Experience with NIST 800‑53, RMF, FedRAMP, or federal ATO processes.
Ability to interpret logs, metrics, and security telemetry to identify attack paths.
Familiarity with SIEM and monitoring tools such as Datadog, ELK, CloudWatch, Grafana.
Experience with container security (Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift).
Understanding of network security, distributed tracing, and adversarial testing techniques.
Strong analytical, communication, and documentation skills.
8+ years of general experience in information systems with BS/BA Degree, or 6+ years with MA/MS Degree
6+ years experience with in integration, regression, and system testing using automated testing tools in web-based applications
Experience in writing test cases, test plans, executing test scripts, reporting defects and preparing test results reports
Experience in the entire QA Life Cycle, to include designing, developing and execution on the entire QA process and documentation of test plans, test cases, test procedures and test scripts
Experience may be considered in lieu of degree

Nice To Haves

AWS Security Specialty
SAFe, DevSecOps, or Agile certifications beneficial.

Responsibilities

Perform application, API, and cloud penetration tests on CMM systems prior to ATO submission.
Conduct web, mobile, API, and microservices security testing using industry‑standard tools and manual exploitation techniques.
Execute AWS cloud penetration testing within approved boundaries (IAM, S3, Lambda, API Gateway, ECS/EKS, networking).
Perform static and dynamic analysis, including code review for security vulnerabilities.
Conduct credentialed and uncredentialed scans, privilege escalation testing, and lateral movement analysis.
Validate implementation of NIST 800‑53 controls, including AC, AU, IA, SC, SI, and CM families.
Support RMF Step 3 (Security Assessment) activities and provide evidence for ATO packages.
Identify vulnerabilities across application layers, cloud infrastructure, and CI/CD pipelines.
Work with developers, cloud engineers, and DevSecOps teams to validate fixes and retest vulnerabilities.
Provide detailed remediation guidance aligned with secure coding and cloud security best practices.
Track findings in Jira or equivalent tools and ensure closure prior to ATO milestones.
Prepare Security Assessment Reports (SAR), penetration test summaries, and risk findings for AO stakeholders.
Document exploitation steps, proof‑of‑concepts, and risk severity aligned with federal scoring methodologies.
Contribute to System Security Plans (SSP), POA&Ms, and ATO evidence packages.
Support pre‑ATO readiness reviews, including control validation and security walkthroughs.
Participate in tabletop exercises, threat modeling sessions, and architecture reviews.
Validate system resilience through stress, failover, and adversarial resilience testing.
Ensure compliance with federal security standards, including NIST, FISMA, and AO-specific guidelines.
Work closely with development teams to integrate security testing into Agile sprints.
Provide security insights during sprint planning, backlog refinement, and release readiness reviews.
Support secure CI/CD pipeline enhancements, including automated security scanning.

Benefits

Variety of medical plan options, some with Health Savings Accounts
Dental plan options
Vision plan
401(k) plan offering the ability to contribute both pre and post-tax dollars up to the IRS annual limits and receive a company match
Full flex work weeks where possible
Variety of paid time off plans, including vacation, sick and personal time, holidays, paid parental, military, bereavement and jury duty leave
15 days of paid leave per calendar year to be used for vacations, personal business, and illness
10 paid holidays per year
Paid Family Leave program provides a total of up to 160 hours of paid leave in a rolling 12 month period for eligible employees
Short and long-term disability benefits
Life, accidental death and dismemberment, personal accident, critical illness and business travel and accident insurance