Security Engineer - Washington DC

Military Spouse Corporate Career Network•Washington, DC

1d•Onsite

About The Position

VIATEQ is looking for a Security Engineer to support enterprise cybersecurity operations and IT administrative and operational support services for a federal government client. This position requires an active security clearance or the ability to obtain and maintain a government background investigation and all requisite IT access authorizations prior to performing work. Primary work will be performed at the client site in Washington, DC, and approved remote/telework locations. This role serves as a critical technical function responsible for the design, implementation, administration, and continuous improvement of enterprise security controls, security architecture, and cybersecurity capabilities across a complex, geographically distributed federal IT environment spanning on-premises infrastructure, cloud platforms, and enterprise applications. The ideal candidate is a technically proficient and security-focused engineer with deep expertise in enterprise security architecture, security control implementation, vulnerability management, identity and access management, network security, cloud security, and Federal cybersecurity compliance frameworks. This individual must possess the technical depth, analytical rigor, and operational discipline required to design and sustain robust, defensible security capabilities that protect Government data, systems, and mission operations in a highly regulated federal IT environment.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Information Technology, Information Systems, or a related field from an accredited college or university. Equivalent combination of education and directly relevant experience may be considered.
Minimum of 5 years of hands-on experience in security engineering, cybersecurity operations, or a closely related discipline within a federal government IT contracting or enterprise security environment.
Demonstrated hands-on experience implementing and administering enterprise security controls across endpoint, network, application, and cloud environments.
Experience supporting ATO activities, including NIST SP 800-53 security control implementation, SSP development, POA&M management, and continuous monitoring.
Experience with enterprise vulnerability management, including vulnerability scanning, risk-based prioritization, remediation tracking, and reporting.
Active security clearance or the ability to obtain and maintain a government background investigation and all requisite IT access authorizations.
Exceptional technical problem-solving skills with demonstrated ability to design, implement, and maintain robust, defensible security architectures and security controls across complex, multi-platform federal IT environments.
Deep knowledge of Federal cybersecurity frameworks and compliance requirements, including NIST SP 800-53, FISMA, FedRAMP, HSPD-12/FIPS 201, NIST SP 800-207 Zero Trust Architecture, OMB M-22-09, applicable DISA STIGs, and CIS Benchmarks.
Demonstrated experience administering and tuning enterprise security platforms, including SIEM, EDR, DLP, PAM, WAF, IDS/IPS, and network security monitoring tools.
Strong proficiency in vulnerability management, including enterprise vulnerability scanning platform administration, risk-based vulnerability prioritization, and remediation tracking and reporting.
Experience implementing and maintaining cloud security controls across AWS and/or Microsoft Azure Government environments, including IAM, network security, encryption, logging, and cloud security posture management.
Knowledge of Zero Trust Architecture principles and demonstrated experience implementing Zero Trust controls, including micro-segmentation, identity-based access control, least-privilege enforcement, and continuous validation.
Experience supporting ATO activities, including NIST SP 800-53 security control implementation and documentation, SSP development and maintenance, POA&M management, and continuous monitoring program execution.
Proficiency with at least one scripting or programming language, including Python, PowerShell, Bash, or equivalent, for security automation, tool integration, and operational scripting.
Experience developing and maintaining SIEM detection rules, correlation queries, and dashboards aligned with the MITRE ATT&CK framework.
Strong understanding of identity and access management security principles, including MFA, PAM, RBAC, identity federation, and enterprise directory services (Microsoft Entra ID / Active Directory).
Excellent written and verbal communication skills with demonstrated ability to develop clear, accurate security documentation and present complex security information to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Familiarity with supply chain risk management (SCRM) requirements and practices as applied to third-party software, cloud services, and vendor technologies in a federal IT context.

Nice To Haves

Prior experience serving as a Security Engineer on a federal IT O&M program of comparable scale and complexity.
Experience supporting FedRAMP authorization activities and implementing cloud security controls within AWS GovCloud and/or Microsoft Azure Government environments.
Experience with Zero Trust Architecture implementation within a federal enterprise IT environment.
Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) or equivalent senior cybersecurity certification.
GIAC Security Essentials (GSEC), GIAC Certified Enterprise Defender (GCED), GIAC Certified Incident Handler (GCIH), or equivalent GIAC cybersecurity certification.
CompTIA Security+, CompTIA CySA+, or CompTIA CASP+ certification.
AWS Certified Security – Specialty or Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate certification, or equivalent cloud security certification.
Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) or equivalent security management certification.
Experience with Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) platform development and administration, including playbook development and automated response workflow implementation.
Experience with penetration testing methodologies and tools, including scoping, execution coordination, and remediation tracking for authorized penetration tests and red team exercises.
Familiarity with threat intelligence platforms and the practical application of threat intelligence to detection engineering, threat hunting, and security control improvement activities.
Experience with deception technology platforms, including honeypots and honeytokens, as supplementary detection and early warning capabilities within enterprise security environments.
Familiarity with privacy engineering principles and the practical application of privacy-by-design concepts to security architecture and control implementation activities.
Experience developing and delivering security awareness training materials for program personnel and Government stakeholders in a federal IT environment.
Knowledge of enterprise application security principles, including OWASP Top 10, secure coding practices, and web application security testing methodologies.
Familiarity with Section 508 compliance requirements for security tools, dashboards, and reporting products delivered under federal contracts.
Experience with FedRAMP continuous monitoring program execution, including automated evidence collection, control assessment scheduling, and monthly reporting requirements.
MITRE ATT&CK Defender (MAD) certification or demonstrated equivalent expertise applying the MITRE ATT&CK framework to detection engineering, threat hunting, and security architecture activities.

Responsibilities

Design, implement, and maintain enterprise security architectures and security control frameworks across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid IT environments, ensuring alignment with NIST SP 800-53, NIST SP 800-207 Zero Trust Architecture, applicable DISA STIGs, CIS Benchmarks, and client-specific security requirements.
Conduct security architecture reviews for new and existing systems, applications, and infrastructure changes, identifying security risks, recommending compensating controls, and ensuring security requirements are addressed prior to deployment.
Develop and maintain security architecture documentation, including security architecture diagrams, data flow diagrams, network security diagrams, and security control implementation narratives, ensuring documentation is current and accurately reflects the operational environment.
Support the design and implementation of Zero Trust Architecture principles across the enterprise environment, including micro-segmentation, identity-based access controls, continuous validation, least-privilege enforcement, and encrypted communications.
Provide expert security engineering guidance to infrastructure engineers, cloud operations teams, application developers, and DevSecOps engineers, ensuring security requirements are accurately translated into technical implementations across all program workstreams.
Evaluate emerging security technologies, tools, and capabilities, providing recommendations to program leadership and Government stakeholders on opportunities to enhance the enterprise security posture.
Implement, configure, and maintain enterprise security controls across endpoint, network, application, cloud, and identity layers, ensuring controls are properly configured, continuously monitored, and aligned with applicable security baselines and compliance requirements.
Administer and maintain enterprise security platforms and tools, including Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems, Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) platforms, Data Loss Prevention (DLP) tools, Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions, Web Application Firewalls (WAF), and network security monitoring platforms.
Implement and maintain endpoint security controls, including EDR configuration and tuning, application whitelisting, host-based intrusion detection, and endpoint hardening in accordance with applicable DISA STIGs and CIS Benchmarks.
Implement and maintain network security controls, including firewall rule management, intrusion detection and prevention system (IDS/IPS) configuration and tuning, network segmentation, and network access control (NAC) policies.
Implement and maintain cloud security controls across AWS (commercial and GovCloud) and Microsoft Azure Government environments, including identity and access management (IAM), network security groups, encryption at rest and in transit, security logging and monitoring, and cloud security posture management (CSPM) capabilities.
Implement and maintain identity and access management security controls, including multi-factor authentication (MFA), privileged access management (PAM), role-based access control (RBAC), and identity federation configurations, in coordination with the Microsoft infrastructure and cloud operations teams.
Develop and maintain security baseline configurations and hardening standards for all major platform types, including Windows Server, Linux, network devices, cloud workloads, and enterprise applications, ensuring baselines are current and consistently applied across the environment.
Own and manage the enterprise vulnerability management program, ensuring vulnerabilities are continuously identified, accurately assessed, prioritized, tracked, and remediated in accordance with defined timelines and risk-based prioritization criteria.
Conduct and oversee regular vulnerability scanning activities across all in-scope systems, applications, and cloud environments using industry-standard scanning platforms, ensuring scan coverage is comprehensive and scan results are accurate and current.
Analyze vulnerability scan results, applying contextual risk assessment to prioritize remediation activities based on exploitability, asset criticality, exposure, and potential business impact.
Develop and maintain the vulnerability remediation tracking register, ensuring all open vulnerabilities are assigned, tracked to resolution, and reported accurately in program status reports and compliance documentation.
Coordinate with infrastructure engineers, cloud operations teams, application developers, and system administrators to ensure timely and effective vulnerability remediation, providing technical guidance and remediation recommendations as needed.
Develop and maintain vulnerability management reporting capabilities, producing regular vulnerability status reports and trend analyses for program leadership and Government stakeholders.
Support penetration testing activities, including scoping, coordination, and remediation tracking for findings identified during authorized penetration tests and red team exercises.
Support the configuration, tuning, and maintenance of the enterprise SIEM platform, developing and refining detection rules, correlation queries, dashboards, and alerting configurations to improve threat detection coverage and reduce false positive rates.
Monitor security event feeds and SIEM alerts, triaging security events and escalating confirmed or suspected security incidents to the incident response team in accordance with defined escalation procedures and SLA requirements.
Develop and maintain security monitoring use cases and detection logic aligned with the MITRE ATT&CK framework, ensuring detection coverage is continuously improved as the threat landscape evolves.
Support cybersecurity incident response activities, providing security engineering expertise to containment, eradication, and recovery efforts, and implementing security control improvements to prevent recurrence.
Conduct threat hunting activities, proactively searching for indicators of compromise, adversarial TTPs, and undetected threats within the enterprise environment using available log sources, endpoint telemetry, and threat intelligence.
Support digital forensics activities as needed, providing security engineering context and technical analysis to support forensic investigation efforts.
Support Authority to Operate (ATO) activities, including the implementation, documentation, and continuous monitoring of required NIST SP 800-53 security controls, system security plan (SSP) development and maintenance, security assessment support, and plan of action and milestones (POA&M) management.
Develop and maintain security assessment and authorization documentation, including system security plans, security control implementation statements, risk assessment reports, and continuous monitoring plans.
Manage the program's POA&M, ensuring all identified security weaknesses are accurately documented, assigned, tracked, and remediated in accordance with defined timelines and risk acceptance decisions.
Conduct continuous monitoring activities, including regular security control assessments, configuration compliance scanning, and security posture reporting, ensuring the Government maintains current and accurate visibility into the security state of all in-scope systems.
Support compliance with applicable Federal cybersecurity frameworks and requirements, including FISMA, NIST SP 800-53, FedRAMP, HSPD-12/FIPS 201, NIST SP 800-207 Zero Trust Architecture, OMB M-22-09, applicable DISA STIGs, and client-specific cybersecurity policies.
Support supply chain risk management (SCRM) activities, ensuring third-party software components, cloud services, and vendor technologies are assessed for supply chain risk in accordance with applicable Federal requirements.
Ensure all security engineering activities involving personally identifiable information (PII), CUI, or other sensitive data categories are conducted in accordance with applicable privacy protection requirements and data handling restrictions.
Develop and maintain security automation scripts, playbooks, and tooling to improve the efficiency, consistency, and effectiveness of security operations activities, including vulnerability scanning, compliance checking, alert triage, and incident response.
Integrate security tools and capabilities with SIEM, SOAR, ITSM, and DevSecOps pipeline platforms to enable automated detection, alerting, ticketing, and response workflows.
Develop and maintain security metrics collection and reporting automation, ensuring program leadership and Government stakeholders receive accurate, timely, and actionable security posture data.
Evaluate and recommend security automation opportunities, identifying manual security processes that can be improved through scripting, orchestration, or tool integration.
Develop and maintain comprehensive security engineering documentation, including security architecture diagrams, security control implementation guides, hardening standards, operational runbooks, and standard operating procedures.
Prepare and present security status reports, vulnerability trend analyses, and security posture briefings for program leadership and Government stakeholders, communicating complex security information clearly and actionably.
Contribute security findings, indicators of compromise, and threat intelligence to the program's knowledge management repository, supporting broader detection, prevention, and response capabilities.
Provide technical guidance and mentorship to program personnel on security engineering practices, tools, and Federal compliance requirements.
Support the development and delivery of security awareness training materials for program personnel and Government stakeholders as directed.