Defensive Cybersecurity Engineer/Blue Team

The MITRE Corporation; McLean (VA); On-site; USD 159,000 - 238,000; Full time

Job summary

MITRE is seeking a highly experienced cybersecurity professional to join the Defensive Cyber Operations team in McLean, VA. The role blends hands-on defense with AI-enabled research to design, implement, and evaluate next-generation capabilities using ML, large language models, autonomous systems, and advanced analytics to protect national infrastructure.

The position requires active Top Secret/SCI with polygraph clearance, five days on-site, and collaboration with government sponsors to advance

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS, Cybersecurity, Data Science, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, or related field.
• Significant experience with Splunk and cloud computing.
• Knowledge of cybersecurity operations and principles.
• Experience in at least one: SOCs, threat hunting, detection engineering, malware analysis, or cyber deception.
• Must have active Top Secret/SCI with polygraph clearance and U.S. citizenship.

Responsibilities

• Combining cybersecurity domain expertise and contemporary data science skills to enhance adversary detection, network defense, and Security Operations Center (SOC) process improvement.
• Developing AI-enabled cybersecurity tools for anomaly detection, behavioral analytics, malware analysis, and adversary emulation.
• Researching emerging AI techniques (e.g., machine learning, deep learning, generative AI, reinforcement learning) and assessing their applicability to defensive cyber missions.
• Using MITRE ATT&CK to hunt the adversary and build TTP-based defenses.
• Using detection engineering to create security analytics and dashboards in Splunk or Elastic and integrating new data feeds
• Automating container environments via CI/CD
• Acting as a trusted advisor to the Federal Government

Skills

SOC operations

Threat hunting

Detection engineering

Malware analysis

Cyber deception

Cybersecurity principles

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Data Science, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, or related field

Tools

Splunk

Cloud computing

MITRE ATTACK

Job description

At MITRE, your passion fuels work that impacts our nation and improves lives. This is where your skills strengthen national security, cybersecurity, health, transportation, and citizen services. We are a nonprofit engineering, applied research, and advanced technology organization working in the public interest. With objectivity and integrity at our core, we lead federally funded research and development centers for U.S. government agencies – collaborating with industry and academia to deliver integrated, high-impact solutions that advance our nation's health, security, and prosperity. Our people tackle the toughest technical challenges, supported by competitive benefits, meaningful career development, and a culture of innovation, collaboration, and technical excellence. Choose MITRE for a career with purpose - and help shape the future.

Department Summary:

MITRE's Defensive Cyber Operations department is seeking creative people to work collaboratively with our staff of cybersecurity engineers in the fields of defensive cyber operations, threat hunt, detection engineering, and cyber deception and adversary engagement with increasing emphasis in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support mission-driven cybersecurity initiatives for government sponsors.

This role blends hands-on defensive operations with advanced research and applied development in AI-enabled cybersecurity. The successful candidate will help design, implement, and evaluate next-generation defensive capabilities that leverage machine learning, large language models, autonomous systems, and advanced analytics to protect mission-critical systems and national infrastructure

Roles & Responsibilities:

Our work responsibilities vary, but could include:

• Combining cybersecurity domain expertise and contemporary data science skills to enhance adversary detection, network defense, and Security Operations Center (SOC) process improvement.

• Developing AI-enabled cybersecurity tools for anomaly detection, behavioral analytics, malware analysis, and adversary emulation.

• Researching emerging AI techniques (e.g., machine learning, deep learning, generative AI, reinforcement learning) and assessing their applicability to defensive cyber missions.

• Using MITRE ATT&CK to hunt the adversary and build TTP-based defenses.

• Using detection engineering to create security analytics and dashboards in Splunk or Elastic and integrating new data feeds

• Automating container environments via continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD)

• Acting as a trusted advisor to the Federal Government

Basic Qualifications:

• Typically requires a minimum of 8 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 6 years and a Master’s degree; or a PhD with 3 years’ experience; or equivalent combination of related education and work experience.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Data Science, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, or a related field

• Significant experience with Splunk and cloud computing

• Knowledge of cyber security operations and cyber security principles and their application

• Experience in at least one of: Security Operations Centers (SOCs), threat hunting, detection engineering, malware analysis, or cyber deception

• Applicants selected for this position will be subject to a government clearance security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information.

• Must have an active Top Secret/SCI with polygraph U.S Government issued Security Clearance. Per the U.S. Government’s eligibility requirements, you must be a U.S Citizen to be considered for a security clearance.

• This position has an on-site requirement of 5 days a week on-site.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with Elastic/ELK

• Experience using MITRE ATT&CK

• Experience using or developing AI tools and techniques for defensive cyber operations

This requisition requires the candidate to have a minimum of the following clearance(s):

Top Secret/SCI/Polygraph

This requisition requires the hired candidate to have or obtain, within one year from the date of hire, the following clearance(s):

Top Secret/SCI/Polygraph

Salary compensation range and midpoint:

$158,800 - $198,500 - $238,200 Annual

Work Location Type:

Onsite

Commitment to Non-Discrimination

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to disability, status as a protected veteran or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, local or international law.

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