Senior Solutions Engineer

Carnegie Mellon University • Pittsburgh, PA

1d • Onsite

About The Position

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

The CERT Situational Awareness team helps organizations—particularly those in the Department of War, federal government, and critical infrastructure sectors—develop and maintain awareness of cyber hybrid environments, including cloud, on-premises, and mobile environments. The team identifies risks and supports informed decisions about cybersecurity, cyber resiliency, and cyber survivability. It applies cybersecurity, systems engineering, and operational analysis techniques to understand complex architectures and relationships among systems, missions, workflows, data, and stakeholders.

In this role, you will provide strategic technical support to senior decision makers and lead teams developing security architectures. You will work on mission engineering and system-of-systems (SoS) architectures, requirements development, engineering, analysis, technology evaluation, and deployment guidance. The position also involves developing and evaluating advanced analytical techniques, including AI, machine learning, behavioral analytics, and data-driven approaches for cyber operations; documenting current-state architectures; identifying capability and coverage gaps; evaluating integration strategies; recommending security solutions; and developing mission threads and workflows.

You will support organizations planning, assessing, and implementing Zero Trust and cyber resilience strategies; evaluate, pilot, and transition technologies into operational environments; develop cybersecurity, technology, and architecture roadmaps aligned with mission and business objectives; and assess organizational capabilities, security architectures, operational processes, and cyber resilience. The role may involve leading, mentoring, and motivating less-senior staff, overseeing multiple projects, and acting independently with general direction and limited guidance from SEI senior management, including when requirements are not well defined.

The position is full-time and regular, based in Arlington, Virginia, or Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Moderate travel (20%) is expected to support the SEI’s mission, including visits within the SEI and CMU community, sponsor sites, conferences, and offsite meetings. Candidates must undergo a background check and be eligible to obtain and maintain a Department of War security clearance.

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 in support of the SEI’s mission; moderate travel (20%).
• Must undergo a background check and be eligible to obtain and maintain a Department of War security clearance.
• 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 challenging security problems.
• Strong understanding of networking, security, systems administration, programming, and cloud.
• Ability to work at the system-of-systems architecture level to 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 an equivalent combination of training and experience.
• Experience working with the 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 consisting of 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 and work on system-of-systems architectures, systems requirements development, engineering, analysis, technology evaluation, and deployment guidance.
• Develop and evaluate advanced analytical techniques, including AI, machine learning, behavioral analytics, and data-driven approaches for cyber operations.
• 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 opportunities for improvement.
• Lead, mentor, and motivate less-senior staff when needed, and oversee multiple projects.
• Lead support to government program offices in strategy, processes and policies, requirements elicitation, design and architecture, operations, outreach, and training.
• Enable the 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 appropriate for operational use in situational awareness.

Benefits

• Employee benefits are referenced, with further information available through Carnegie Mellon University’s employee benefits listing; specific benefits are not detailed in the posting.

What This Job Offers

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