Common Criteria Product Tester at Leidos Columbia, MD

Leidos; Columbia (MD); On-site; USD 87,000 - 157,000; Full time

Job summary

Leidos seeks a highly motivated product tester to support Common Criteria evaluation efforts in Columbia, MD. The role involves conducting COTS IT security tests, devising test procedures, and configuring software and hardware to enable testing, with minimal supervision.

You will interact with developers and technical staff, analyze network traffic, security controls, and PKI concepts, and help maintain lab infrastructure.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree (or equivalent) and 4+ years of related experience.
• Experience with network traffic and protocol analysis using Wireshark/TShark/tcpdump to validate product compliance.
• Familiarity with IT security products and their operation (routers/switches, firewalls, IDS/IPS, OS, apps, mobile devices).
• Knowledge of IT security concepts and cryptography (TLS, PKI, X.509).
• Experience with software development lifecycle methods (e.g., agile) and tools (GitLab, Subversion, Confluence, JIRA).
• Strong customer-facing oral and written communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Work with IT product vendors to determine applicability of IT product security standards to products.
• Interpret IT product security standards to assess compliance of product design based on documentation and interviews.
• Devise, execute, and document security functional testing to justify compliance.
• Conduct product troubleshooting and provide recommendations when noncompliant findings.
• Conduct vulnerability research to ensure mitigations are appropriate.
• Produce documentation describing how IT products conform to security requirements.
• Develop user guidance for secure configurations of products.
• Assist in maintaining the laboratory infrastructure and server administration.

Skills

Wireshark/TShark/tcpdump

Network analysis

IT security fundamentals

DevOps tools (JIRA, GitLab, SVN)

Strong communication

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

GitLab

Subversion

JIRA

Confluence

Job description

Leidos is searching for a highly motivated product tester to support Common Criteria evaluation efforts with Leidos’ Accredited Testing & Evaluation (AT&E) Laboratory. The ideal candidate is an independent performer who can perform commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) IT product security tests with minimal supervision, including devising product‑specific test procedures and performing any configuration procedures necessary to enable the execution of tests. The candidate is also expected to interact with product developers and other technical staff to develop necessary product knowledge and assist in troubleshooting when tests cannot be successfully executed. General IT product knowledge such as networking, operating systems, communications security, identity and access management, and PKI is essential. This is a fast‑paced position requiring time management skills to perform multiple product certification efforts in parallel and a thorough understanding of how product security requirements may apply to a wide variety of hardware and software products. The ideal candidate is also able to assist with setup and maintenance of laboratory infrastructure. This position will be based in Columbia, MD. Part‑time telework is acceptable but the selected candidate will be expected to be in‑office for regular periods as needed to support efforts that must be performed locally. Therefore, only local candidates will be considered.

Primary Responsibilities

• Work with IT product vendors to determine applicability of IT product security standards to products
• Interpret IT product security standards to determine the compliance or noncompliance of product design based on research of product documentation and interviews with technical personnel
• Devise, execute, and document security functional testing to justify how tested products are compliant with IT security standards
• Conduct product troubleshooting and provide recommendations when noncompliant findings are made
• Conduct vulnerability research to determine if documented security vulnerabilities are adequately mitigated by product configuration and patch level
• Produce documentation that describes how IT products conform to security requirements
• Develop user guidance for instructions on placing products into secure configurations
• Justify completeness, consistency, accuracy, and sufficiency of product test result to third‑party quality reviewers
• Assist in maintenance of the physical and digital infrastructure of the laboratory, including physical setup, server administration, backups, and patching

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree (or equivalent) and 4+ years of related experience
• Must have experience with network traffic and protocol analysis using products like Wireshark, TShark, or tcpdump to validate product compliance
• Familiarity with general IT security products and their operation (e.g., routers/switches, firewalls, intrusion detection/prevention systems, operating systems, software applications, mobile devices)
• General knowledge of the role that various IT products and concepts serve in information security (e.g., full disk encryption, mobile device management, remote access/VPN, etc.)
• Experience with software development lifecycle methods (e.g., agile) and tools (e.g., Subversion, GitLab, Confluence, JIRA)
• Strong applied knowledge of network, transport, and application layer communications and security (e.g., TCP/IP, TLS, IPsec, SSH, LDAP)
• Working knowledge of applied cryptography (e.g., X.509, PKI, post‑quantum standards)
• Strong customer‑facing oral and written communication skills

Preferred Qualifications

• Previous experience with Common Criteria certification or related standards (FIPS 140, FedRAMP, NIST SP 800‑53) is desirable
• Software development or DevOps experience a plus
• Experience with administration of Windows/Linux systems and version control/ticketing systems (e.g., JIRA, GitLab, Subversion)
• One or more technical professional certifications related to information technology communications or security (e.g., CEH, CCNA, CISSP)
• Knowledge of scripting/programming (e.g., Python) and familiarity with machine‑readable data exchange methods (e.g., JSON, REST)

Please note: while the salary range is wide, the specific salary range for this position is going to be around $120,000.

At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo - because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 - and moving faster than anyone else dares.

Pay Range: $87,100.00 - $157,450.00

SummaryLocation: Columbia, MDType: Full time