Cyber Security Analyst

Makoa; Arlington, Northern (VA, KY); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Makoa in Arlington, VA is seeking a cybersecurity engineer to implement and manage Splunk infrastructure, monitor threats and ensure compliance in a federal context. The role includes patching servers, maintaining Linux environments, and enforcing security policies while coordinating with PMO and vendor teams.

The ideal candidate will have hands-on experience with Splunk/ELK, strong Linux skills, and active security certifications, enabling effective incident response and documentation across

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience working with complex system implementations and organizational processes to include maintaining system documentation.
• Strong understanding, proficiency and experience with Linux and ability to effectively manage, secure and troubleshoot Linux-based environments.
• CompTIA Linux+ or LPIC-1/LPIC-2 certification or Red Hat Certified System Administrator.
• Familiarity with Splunk, Elastic Stack (ELK) or similar.
• Active CompTIA Security+ certification.

Responsibilities

• Facilitate and implement Splunk infrastructure to ingest, analyze and visualize machine generated data.
• Create dashboards, alerts and reports for threat detection.
• Patch and maintain servers to meet security compliance standards.
• Ensure that the Linux servers are operational and reporting properly.
• Administer and manage security posture via deployment of security policies and threat monitoring.
• Troubleshoot application and server issues and respond to federal customer service requests.
• Interface with PMO and vendor support groups to support Cyberspace Task Order efforts.
• Create/Update documentation to support Splunk team requirements and maintenance.
• Engage in weekly Splunk engineering meetings for agency mitigation and compliance.

Skills

Linux administration

Splunk

Security incident response

Documentation

Communication with customers

Education

BS/BA in Computer Science, MIS, or related IT discipline

Tools

Splunk

Elastic Stack (ELK)

Job description

Job Details

Job Location: Arlington, VA 22201

Position Type: Full Time

• Facilitate and implement Splunk infrastructure to ingest, analyze and visualize machine generated data and deploy, configure and maintain Splunk Enterprise components such as indexers, Search Heads and Forwarders.


• Create dashboards, alerts and reports for threat detection.


• Patch and maintain servers continuously to meet security compliance standards.


• Ensure that the Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers are operational and reporting properly.


• Administer and manage the organization’s security posture via deployment of security policies (Microsoft Intune), threat monitoring & response (Microsoft Defender/Sentinel), data governance-Data Loss Prevention (Microsoft Purview), configuring log analytics-develop detection rules & playbooks (Microsoft Sentinel) and ensure compliance.


• Troubleshooting application and server issues and responding to federal customer service requests.


• Utilizes software and hardware tools and identifies and diagnoses complex problems and factors affecting performance.


• Support incident response efforts by identifying vulnerabilities related to emerging threats and zero-day exploits.


• Interfaces with PMO and vendor support service groups to support Cyberspace Task Order efforts and ensure proper escalation during outages or periods of degraded system performance.


• Create/Update documentation needed to support the Splunk team requirements, taskings, deliverables, and maintenance of the tool.


• Engage in weekly Splunk engineering meetings in support of the agency’s mitigation, compliance, assessment efforts and initiatives.


• Monitor and track vulnerabilities, End-of-Life and priority action items.


• Design, build, and implement network systems.


• Perform cyber investigations and analysis.


• Research and analyze a variety of commodity and APT based malware and techniques.


• Search our existing infrastructure for signs of malware and malicious events not detected by our existing security controls.


• Administer Assured Compliance Assessment Solution (ACAS) system comprised of Security Center, Nessus Scanner and the Nessus Network Monitor.


• Administer Trellix ESS, including ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO), Solidcore, and DLP.


• The ability to work independently as well as collectively within a team, apply critical thinking techniques, and effectively communicate with federal customers and other team members, both orally and in writing.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience working with complex system implementations and organizational processes to include maintaining system documentation.


• Strong understanding, proficiency and experience with Linux and ability to effectively manage, secure and troubleshoot Linux-based environments.


• CompTIA Linux+ or Linux Professional Institute (LPIC-1/LPIC-2) certification or Red Hat Certified System Administrator


• Familiarity with Splunk, Elastic Stack (ELK) or similar.


• Active CompTIA Security+ certification

Preferred but not required

• Splunk Enterprise Certified Administrator or Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect


• Microsoft Certified: Security Operations Analyst Associate (SC-200)


• Microsoft Certified: Cybersecurity Architect (SC-100)


• Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)


• CompTIA CySA+

Minimum Education Required

• BS/BA degree in Computer Science, Management Information Systems, or related IT discipline.


• ALLOWABLE SUBSTITUTION: An additional four (4) years of experience can be substituted for a BS or BA degree.


• Ability to pass a high-level background investigation