Senior Solutions Engineer

Carnegie Mellon University • Pittsburgh, PA

48d

About The Position

The Senior Solutions Engineer will work within the CERT Division of Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute (SEI). SEI researches complex software engineering, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence problems, develops and tests innovative technologies, and transitions mature solutions into practice for the Department of War and federal government.

The role supports CERT Situational Awareness, which helps organizations—particularly the Department of War, federal government, and critical infrastructure sectors—understand cyber hybrid environments, identify risks, and make informed cybersecurity, cyber resiliency, and cyber survivability decisions. The team applies cybersecurity, systems engineering, and operational analysis to examine complex architectures and the relationships among systems, missions, workflows, data, and stakeholders.

The engineer provides strategic technical support to senior decision makers, leads teams developing security architectures, and guides system-of-systems architecture, requirements, engineering, analysis, technology evaluation, and deployment. The role develops and evaluates analytical approaches for cyber operations, documents architectures and capability gaps, recommends security solutions, supports Zero Trust and cyber resilience strategies, and helps transition technologies into operational environments. It also develops roadmaps and assesses organizational capabilities, architectures, processes, risks, and opportunities for improvement.

The position may include managerial responsibilities such as leading, mentoring, and motivating less-senior staff, and overseeing multiple projects. The engineer works independently with general direction and limited guidance from SEI senior management, including in situations where requirements are not well defined. The role involves moderate travel (20%) to SEI and CMU locations, sponsor sites, conferences, and offsite meetings. The position is based in Arlington, Virginia, or Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree with 10 years of experience, master’s degree with 8 years of experience, or an equivalent combination of training and experience.
• Willingness to travel to various locations to support SEI’s mission; moderate travel (20%).
• Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a Department of War security clearance and pass a background check.
• Ability to present technical topics to audiences ranging from senior leadership to technical experts.
• Ability to work with multiple stakeholders to promote practical solutions to difficult security problems.
• Strong understanding of networking, security, systems administration, programming, and cloud.
• Ability to work at the system-of-systems architecture level and identify and understand tradeoffs.
• Strong research and writing skills.

Nice To Haves

• PhD in Computer Science and Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related discipline, with 2 years of experience in cybersecurity/network operations, Model-Based Systems Engineering, or workflow/process analysis; or equivalent combination of training and experience.
• Experience working with government or within a critical infrastructure sector.
• Experience in one or more of the following areas: security or enterprise architecture; security operations deploying or supporting large-scale network security monitoring infrastructures; security research; programming or software engineering; networking; or testing.
• Prior responsibility for leading a body of work involving numerous large-scale projects and multiple customers or external sponsors.
• History of contributions to the broader industry or research community and experience in a variety of network security areas.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic technical support to senior decision makers.
• Lead teams in developing security architectures.
• Perform mission engineering, system-of-systems architecture work, systems requirements development, engineering and analysis, technology evaluation, and deployment guidance.
• Develop and evaluate advanced analytical techniques for cyber operations, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, behavioral analytics, and data-driven approaches.
• Document current-state architectures, identify capability and coverage gaps, evaluate technology integration strategies, recommend security solutions, and develop mission threads and workflows.
• Support organizations in planning, assessing, and implementing Zero Trust and cyber resilience strategies.
• Evaluate, pilot, and transition new technologies into operational environments.
• Develop cybersecurity, technology, and architecture roadmaps aligned with mission and business objectives.
• Assess organizational capabilities, security architectures, operational processes, and cyber resilience to identify strengths, weaknesses, risks, and improvement opportunities.
• Lead, mentor, and motivate less-senior staff when acting in a managerial capacity.
• Oversee multiple projects.
• Lead support to government program offices in strategy, process and policies, requirements elicitation, design and architecture, operations, outreach, and training.
• Enable transition and appropriate focus of situational awareness analysis and engineering approaches and tools into operational environments.
• Design, prototype, and transition tactical analysis studies and tools suitable for operational use in situational awareness.
• Travel to SEI and CMU locations, sponsor sites, conferences, and offsite meetings as needed; travel is moderate (20%).

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical insurance
• Prescription insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• Retirement savings program with employer contributions
• Tuition benefits
• Paid time off
• Observed holidays
• Life insurance
• Accidental death and disability insurance
• Free Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus pass
• Family Concierge Team to help navigate childcare needs
• Fitness center access

What This Job Offers

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