Information Systems Security Engineer (ISSE)

Leidos Inc; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 108,000 - 195,000; Full time

Job summary

Leidos seeks an experienced Information Systems Security Engineer (ISSE) to support NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) systems and HPC environments from its Mountain View location. The ISSE will develop, document, implement, and maintain SSPs across NAS clusters, storage, and data resources, ensuring compliance with NPR 2810.1F, NIST SP 800-53, and related guidance.

The role emphasizes balancing security with performance, delivering regular data analytics and reports to NAS leadership,

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and 8 years of prior relevant experience.
• Experience managing project work.
• Possess in-depth technical knowledge of Cybersecurity principles.
• Ability to delegate and track multiple projects at the same time.
• Ability to develop, motivate, and effectively manage the workforce.
• Strong work ethic and willingness to work as a team.

Responsibilities

• Ensure SSPs and artifacts comply with NASA and government security requirements.
• Provide expert technical consultation on HPC security issues and hardening.
• Identify solutions balancing HPC usability with robust security.
• Provide HPC-specific data analytics and reporting to leadership.
• Coordinate POA&M development, tracking, and remediation across HPC teams.
• Coordinate security assessments and A&A activities for large HPC systems.

Skills

Project management

Cybersecurity principles

Leadership / workforce management

Delegation

Team collaboration

Strong work ethic

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

Description

The AEGIS program at Leidos is seeking an experienced Information Systems Security Engineer (ISSE) to support the security and protection of NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) systems and High Performance Computing (HPC) environments. The ISSE will support the development, documentation, implementation, enhancement, operation, and maintenance of comprehensive System Security Plans (SSPs) across NAS systems, clusters, interconnects, storage platforms, and data resources. This role will help ensure security documentation, configuration baselines, security checklists, and system hardening guidelines align with applicable security requirements while addressing the unique performance, throughput, and operational demands of HPC environments.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Ensure that the SSP and related artifacts comply with NASA and U.S. Government security requirements, including NPR 2810.1F, NIST 800-53/53B, FISMA, and the NIST HPC Security Overlay guidance.
• Provide expert technical consultation for internal and external stakeholders on HPC-specific security issues, including system hardening for MPI-based workloads, GPU/accelerator nodes, high-speed fabrics (InfiniBand, Slingshot), and performance-critical parallel filesystems.
• Identify solutions that balance high-performance computing usability with robust security ensuring that protective measures do not inhibit large-scale simulation workflows, mission operations, or research productivity.
• Provide regular HPC-specific data analytics and reporting - including vulnerability summaries, risk evaluations, security telemetry, and compliance findings - to Division and Branch leadership.
• Support Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M) development, tracking, updating, and remediation for all HPC systems. Coordinate POA&M resolution activities across HPC systems engineering, networking, storage, and operations teams.
• Conduct targeted compliance assessments for large-scale HPC environments and report findings to NAS leadership. Assessments may include HPCc-cspecific topics such as high-speed interconnect configurations, MPI-node exposure risks, GPU driver-level vulnerabilities, and specialized HPC authentication/authorization workflows.
• Coordinate with other subtasks to implement, enforce, and maintain compliance with Government cybersecurity policies, including - but not limited to - NPR 2810.1F, NIST 800-53/800-53B, NIST SP 800-234 (HPC Security Overlay), DHS directives, FIPS standards, OMB guidance, and FISMA requirements.
• Coordinate participation in NASA Assessment & Authorization (A&A) activities for large-scale HPC systems, including data calls, technical evaluations, security control inheritance definitions, and documentation updates.
• Conduct credentialed and performance-aware vulnerability scans across HPC assets, ensuring scanning methods accommodate specialized hardware (GPU nodes, high-speed fabrics, parallel filesystems) without degrading mission workloads. Report results to NAS leadership and Information System Security Officials (ISSOs).
• Report potential or actual HPC security incidents to the appropriate NAS or Agency personnel. Support investigations in partnership with NASA SOC, Incident Response Teams, and NAS Management.
• Support Root Cause Analysis (RCA) investigations and remediation actions related to HPC security issues - especially those involving system performance anomalies, distributed job failures, and parallel-environment attack surfaces.
• Assist in the development of policies, procedures, and guidelines ensuring that HPC computational, storage, networking, and data-analysis systems comply with all applicable NASA and government security requirements.
• Maintain expertise in HPC security by monitoring NASA, NIST, DOE, and industry HPC security advisories. Communicate emerging HPC-specific threats - such as accelerator-specific vulnerabilities, MPI/RDMA protocol risks, and job-scheduler exploitation vectors - to facility staff.
• Coordinate security compliance activities related to Section 508, Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM), IPv6 adoption, and cybersecurity reviews for all HPC IT acquisitions, including compute clusters, interconnects, accelerators, and data-storage hardware.
• Supports vulnerability assessment and design of intrusion detection tools for complex network architecture.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree and 8 years of prior relevant experience.
• Experience managing project work.
• Possess in-depth technical knowledge of Cybersecurity principles.
• Ability to delegate and track multiple projects at the same time.
• Ability to develop, motivate, and effectively manage the workforce.
• Strong work ethic and willingness to work as a team.

CLEARANCE REQUIREMENTS:

• U.S. Citizenship is required.
• Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance ranging from a Public Trust, at minimum, up to a Top Secret clearance, as required.

If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. 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

Pay Range $107,900.00 - $195,050.00

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline onlyand not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.

About Leidos

Leidos is an industry and technology leader serving government and commercial customers with smarter, more efficient digital and mission innovations. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with 47,000 global employees, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $16.7 billion for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2025. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com.

Pay and Benefits

Pay and benefits are fundamental to any career decision. That's why we craft compensation packages that reflect the importance of the work we do for our customers. Employment benefits include competitive compensation, Health and Wellness programs, Income Protection, Paid Leave and Retirement. More details are available at www.leidos.com/careers/pay-benefits.

Securing Your Data

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Commitment to Non-Discrimination

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, ethnicity, age, national origin, citizenship, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, pregnancy, family structure, marital status, ancestry, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Leidos will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with relevant laws.