Subject Matter Expert

NewGen Technologies•Arlington, VA

About The Position

NewGen Technologies is seeking a Subject Matter Expert to support hunt and incident response for government agencies and critical infrastructure owners affected by cyber-attacks. The role focuses on network-centric and edge-device compromises and requires deep expertise in one or more technologies from Cisco, Ivanti, Palo Alto, Ciena, and Juniper. The SME provides advanced technical assistance, proactive hunting, rapid onsite and remote incident response, and investigations to characterize breaches and develop mitigation and remediation plans. The SME serves as a technical expert on incident response teams and supports a technology insertion team evaluating and integrating new network forensic and monitoring capabilities. The role includes coordinating investigations with the Government lead, communicating findings and recommendations to customers, analyzing network traffic and device telemetry, reconstructing attacks, assessing network architectures and device configurations, and recommending containment, eradication, hardening, and other mitigations. The position also includes preserving evidence, advising on countermeasures, preparing technical and executive reports, and documenting procedures and findings for shared knowledge bases.

Requirements

U.S. citizenship.
Active TS/SCI clearance.
Ability to obtain DHS Suitability.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Cyber Security, Computer Engineering, or a related field; alternatively, a high school diploma/GED and 22 or more years of technical experience in the area of expertise.
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 these vendors: 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 Computer Network Defense policies, procedures, and regulations relevant to U.S. government or similar environments.
Ability to characterize and analyze network traffic to identify anomalous activity and potential threats.
Ability to identify and analyze network traffic 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, including reconnaissance, initial access, lateral movement, and exfiltration, and how they appear 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 performing 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.
Superior 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 unmanaged or managed switches without disrupting live production or air-gapped traffic.

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 adversaries 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, such as buffer overflows, 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 host/network intrusion detection and event correlation across telemetry sources such as firewalls, IDS/IPS, endpoint tools, and SIEM.
Experience analyzing malicious activity, including network beaconing, command and control, and data exfiltration.
Experience with Identity and Access Management 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 technical, management, and senior leadership levels.
Field diagnostics and cyber forensics skills, including use of preloaded analysis stacks, 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.
Vendor or network certifications, highly desired, including 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.
Support a technology insertion team by evaluating and integrating new network forensic and monitoring capabilities.
Assist the Government lead in coordinating preliminary incident response investigations, including onsite and remote engagements.
Interface with customers onsite and communicate status, findings, and recommendations.
Analyze network traffic, including PCAP, flow data, and device logs, to identify anomalous activity and potential threats.
Use metadata such as flow records, DNS logs, and proxy logs to detect and scope malicious activity.
Reconstruct attacks 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 topology and device configurations, identify security concerns, and recommend security best practices, especially for Cisco, Ivanti, Palo Alto, Ciena, and Juniper platforms.
Determine and recommend responses to 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 state, detect unauthorized modifications, and recommend remediation using network device integrity concepts and methodologies.
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 with broad direction.
Provide technical direction, interpretation, and alternatives for network-centric incidents on high-level incident response teams.
Independently develop technical solutions to complex problems and exercise latitude in determining technical objectives.
Analyze incident data and victim environments to recommend targeted mitigations, including network segmentation, policy updates, and device hardening.
Advise technical personnel on implementation and customization of 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 according to standard operating procedures or national standards when collecting network data, device artifacts, and logs.
Assist in writing and publishing Computer Network Defense guidance and detailed incident findings reports.
Prepare executive summaries and in-depth technical reports for leadership and technical audiences.
Document analysis, TTPs, and device-specific incident handling procedures in a standardized knowledge base for sharing and publication.
Assist in maintaining branch process and procedure documentation and guide completion of hunt and incident response activities.