Subject Matter Expert

Nightwing•Sterling, VA

1d•$122,000 - $253,000

About The Position

Nightwing is seeking a Subject Matter Expert with deep expertise in one or more edge device technologies, including Cisco, Ivanti, Palo Alto, Ciena, or Juniper, to support the DHS Hunt and Incident Response Team (HIRT). HIRT provides front-line response to cyber incidents and proactively hunts for malicious cyber activity affecting government agencies and critical infrastructure owners. Nightwing supports onsite and remote incident response, technical assistance, investigations, and mitigation and remediation planning. The SME applies advanced network-centric incident response expertise to investigate and reconstruct intrusions, assess network architectures and edge-device configurations, and recommend effective mitigations. The role also evaluates and integrates new network forensic and monitoring capabilities, supports high-level incident response teams, and produces CND guidance, incident reports, executive summaries, and standardized knowledge-base documentation. The position requires independent technical judgment and may involve onsite and remote engagements.

Requirements

U.S. citizenship.
Active TS/SCI clearance.
Ability to obtain DHS Suitability.
At least 10 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 Cisco, Ivanti, Palo Alto, Ciena, and 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 applicable to U.S. government or similar environments.
Ability to characterize and analyze network traffic and identify anomalous activity and potential threats.
Ability to identify and analyze network anomalies using metadata such as flow, DNS, and proxy data.
Ability to reconstruct malicious activity using 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 systems 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 conducting 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.
A BS in Computer Science, Cyber Security, Computer Engineering, or a related degree; alternatively, a high school diploma/GED and at least 22 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 ranging from non-nation-state to nation-state actors.
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 overflow, 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 skills in 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 multiple organizational levels, including technical staff, management, and senior leadership.
Field diagnostics and cyber forensics skills, including running preloaded analysis stacks, using 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 desired certifications: IASAE II, CSSP Analyst, GCIA, GCIH, CSSP Incident Responder, or CEH.
SANS GIAC GCIA or GNFA certification, preferred for network forensics.
SANS GRID, GICSP, or GCIP certification.
Highly desired vendor or network certifications, such as Cisco CCNA or higher (CCNP Security or CCNP Enterprise), or 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, particularly for network-centric and edge-device compromises.
Evaluate and integrate new network forensic and monitoring capabilities as part of a technology insertion team.
Assist the Government lead in coordinating preliminary incident response investigations, including onsite and remote engagements.
Interface with customers onsite and clearly communicate status, findings, and recommendations.
Analyze network traffic, including PCAP, flow data, metadata, and device logs, to identify anomalous activity and potential threats.
Reconstruct 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 hunt and response activities.
Assess network topologies and device configurations, identify security concerns, and recommend security best practices, particularly for Cisco, Ivanti, Palo Alto, Ciena, and Juniper platforms.
Determine response actions for anomalous network activity, including containment, eradication, and hardening.
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, and serve as a technical expert on high-level incident response teams.
Independently determine technical objectives and develop solutions to complex problems.
Recommend targeted mitigations based on incident data and victim environments, 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 containment and eradication missions for internal stakeholders, onsite and remotely.
Preserve evidence integrity in accordance with standard operating procedures or national standards when collecting network data, device artifacts, and logs.
Assist with 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.