Defensive Cyber Engineer & SOC SME - Top Secret Eligible

The MITRE Corporation; Fort Meade (MD); On-site; USD 159,000 - 238,000; Full time

Job summary

MITRE is seeking experienced cybersecurity professionals to join the Defensive Cyber Operations team in our MITRE facility. You will collaborate with engineers to deliver training, threat hunting, and defense design that supports government sponsors across enterprise SOC operations.

The role emphasizes practical, hands-on labs and real-world TTPs to improve detection and response. Ideal candidates bring strong writing and presentation skills, experience creating curriculum, and readiness to

Qualifications

• Strong technical writing, presentation, and facilitation skills.
• Ability and willingness to travel up to 25% to deliver training.
• Experience developing technical training content, curriculum, or other learning materials.

Responsibilities

• Provide subject matter expertise to government sponsors on enterprise security operations centers (SOCs), including daily operations, governance, and process improvement.
• Translate complex defensive cybersecurity concepts into practical training tailored to sponsors’ network topologies, staffing, funding, and resources.
• Develop hands‑on training scenarios and exercises that reflect real‑world defensive cyber challenges and sponsor mission needs.
• Apply MITRE ATT&CK to guide threat hunting and develop defenses aligned with adversary TTPs.
• Design, develop, and refine security detections, analytics, and dashboards, integrating new data sources into SIEM platforms.
• Develop, evaluate, and improve threat hunting methodologies to identify adversary activity and strengthen cyber capabilities.
• Research and evaluate AI techniques (ML, deep learning, generative AI, RL) for practical SOC use.
• Assess SOC capabilities, identify gaps, and recommend improvements aligned with sponsor priorities.

Job description

MITRE is seeking experienced cybersecurity professionals to join the Defensive Cyber Operations team in our MITRE facility. You will collaborate with engineers to deliver training, threat hunting, and defense design that supports government sponsors across enterprise SOC operations.

The role emphasizes practical, hands-on labs and real-world TTPs to improve detection and response. Ideal candidates bring strong writing and presentation skills, experience creating curriculum, and readiness to