Cyber Exercise Planner — HSEEP Design & Execution

Leidos; United States; Remote; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Leidos is seeking a Mid-Level Exercise Planner to join the exercise support team for CISA’s National Cybersecurity Exercise Program. You will lead and support design, development, conduct, and evaluation across multiple exercises nationwide, coordinating with senior planners and stakeholders to ensure timely materials and execution.

The role requires 5+ years in HSEEP exercise design, ability to analyze cyber scenarios, strong writing skills for EXPLAN/SITMAN/MSEL, and experience with

Qualifications

• Ability to obtain DHS Suitability / CISA EOD.
• 5+ years experience in HSEEP exercise design, development, conduct, and evaluation.
• Experience coordinating with multiple stakeholders across technical, operational, government, and private‑sector environments.
• Ability to analyze complex cyber scenarios and identify technical, operational, procedural, communications, and information‑sharing gaps.
• FEMA HSEEP Certification or ability to achieve HSEEP certification within 30 days of contract start.
• Strong writing skills to develop polished exercise materials and documents (such as EXPLANs, SITMANs, MSELs, and controller/observer instructions) and post‑exercise products (including AAR drafting support).
• Demonstrated ability to manage time, meet deadlines and milestones.

Responsibilities

• Support and lead aspects of exercise design, development, conduct, and evaluation on a team working concurrently on multiple exercises across the country.
• Communicate and coordinate regularly across exercise support team, with Senior Exercise Planners, Exercise Leads, and with exercise stakeholders.
• Participate in meetings with Senior Exercise Planners and Regional Exercise Leads regularly to ensure timely production of materials and exercise execution.
• Support and participate in planning meetings (as appropriate), such as C&O, IP, MPM, MSEL Meeting, and FPM, and in developing all supporting documentation, including agendas, presentations, and notes/meeting minutes.
• Support the development of core exercise documentation and artifacts (e.g., CONOPS, EXPLAN, SITMAN, MSEL, COSIN, evaluation forms, invitations/sign-in sheets).
• Support end-to‑end exercise execution: concept and scope, execution support, evaluation approach, and post‑exercise reporting (AAR and assigned reports).
• Support creation and maintenance of exercise documentation packages (e.g., invitations, sign‑in sheets, meeting notes, and other administrative documents).
• Support participant registration and tracking activities using technical tools provided/used by the program.
• Support collection and organization of findings, recommendations, and lessons learned for post‑exercise products.
• Report regularly to Exercise Leads and across exercise support team according to communications plan.
• Attend and participate in each exercise within assigned region, as required.
• Support development of new CISA Tabletop Exercise Packages (CTEPs) and maintenance of the CTEP scenario library.
• Support internal training activities to improve facilitation and planning skills across NCEP staff.
• Support program operations tasks as directed (e.g., maintaining an exercise calendar, assisting with content organization on CISA.gov/other platforms, supporting all‑hands coordination).
• Ability to work on Eastern time zone hours; ability to be on camera on Microsoft Teams for meetings where required.

Skills

HSEEP design

Stakeholder coordination

Cyber exercise planning

Writing and documentation

Time management

Education

FEMA HSEEP Certification

Tools

Microsoft Teams

Job description

Leidos is seeking a Mid-Level Exercise Planner to join the exercise support team for CISA’s National Cybersecurity Exercise Program. You will lead and support design, development, conduct, and evaluation across multiple exercises nationwide, coordinating with senior planners and stakeholders to ensure timely materials and execution.

The role requires 5+ years in HSEEP exercise design, ability to analyze cyber scenarios, strong writing skills for EXPLAN/SITMAN/MSEL, and experience with