Lead Cybersecurity Engineer

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

Job summary

MITRE in McLean, VA is seeking a Cybersecurity and Privacy Strategy & Policy Principal Cybersecurity Engineer to lead cybersecurity strategy, policy, and risk management initiatives for sponsor programs. The role emphasizes RMF, NIST frameworks, privacy protection, and collaboration with MITRE teams and government partners.

The ideal candidate will have strong technical leadership, policy development experience, and a background in safeguarding national security systems.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree with 10+ years of relevant experience or equivalent mix of education and experience.
• Experience with RMF, NIST SP-800 series, Zero Trust, and Security Controls analysis.
• Active Secret U.S. Government security clearance and eligibility for Top Secret; U.S. Citizenship required.
• Minimum of 4 days on-site work per week.

Responsibilities

• Lead cybersecurity technical, policy, and strategy efforts for government sponsors.
• Develop and implement security strategies for MITRE sponsors and programs.
• Provide mentorship to junior professionals.
• Lead Cybersecurity Risk Management using RMF and related methodologies.
• Conduct Security Controls analyses, workshops, and audits for internal and partner teams.
• Contribute technically to Sponsor tasks and collaborate across MITRE and government entities.
• Promote collaboration across organizational elements within the department.

Skills

Cybersecurity strategy

Policy development

RMF

NIST SP-800

Zero Trust

Security controls

Technical writing

Mentoring

Federal program experience

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Information Systems

Master's degree preferred

Tools

Splunk

QRadar

Tenable

Cloud platforms (AWS/Azure)

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’re 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.

The Cyber Strategy, Policy, Privacy, and Risk Department (L526) is seeking a Cybersecurity and Privacy Strategy & Policy Principal Cybersecurity Engineer. This department features leaders and staff who work with our sponsors to position sponsor programs for the future. The department leads MITRE’s technical capability areas in Cybersecurity Strategy and Policy and Privacy and Data Protection. Our team of cybersecurity professionals apply leading edge thinking to develop effective sponsor cybersecurity and privacy strategies and policies implemented through appropriate cybersecurity and privacy-enhancing technologies, tools, practices, and frameworks. Through collaborative work with our sponsors, we provide expertise to ensure information and cybersecurity programs meet organizational and business mission requirements, and we establish mechanisms that gauge operational security effectiveness. Through partnerships, we leverage MITRE's cyber expertise to raise cybersecurity maturity nationally and internationally by engaging with traditional and non-traditional partners and sponsors to address broad reaching cyber security challenges, with a focus on risk frameworks, privacy, cyber supply chain risk management, strategic assessments, threat collaboration, and cyber workforce. The ideal candidate for this position has a blend of strong technical and people leadership competencies and is highly motivated to work collaboratively to address our sponsor’s biggest technical challenges and realize broad-based impact.

The department is part of MITRE Technology & Engineering, driving mission impact by delivering nation-leading, differentiated capabilities to a rich set of consequential national programs across the six Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) that MITRE leads. Our goal is to develop solutions and deliver outcomes for our sponsors, to ensure the security, health, and prosperity of the American public. MITRE Technology & Engineering applies the expertise of technical staff and subject matter experts across our programs by fostering and developing technical talent, stewarding technical depth, conceiving and executing research, and ensuring MITRE’s capabilities—people, methods, labs, platforms, and environments—remain on the leading edge.

This role will be executed from McLean, VA.

Roles & Responsibilities

• Lead cybersecurity technical, policy, and strategy, assessments and workshops for government agencies.
• Develop and implement security strategies for MITRE sponsors and programs
• Provide mentorship to junior professionals.
• Lead Cybersecurity Risk Management by demonstrating expert knowledge of cybersecurity risk management frameworks (RMF) and methodologies.
• Conduct Security Controls analysis, workshops, and audits for internal teams and partner organizations.
• Contribute technically to one or more Sponsor tasks.
• Collaborate effectively with MITRE, government, and contractors; effectively communicate in writing, presentations, and collaborative discussions; and interface with peers, managers, and sponsors.
• Promote collaboration and integration with other organizational elements within the department and across MITRE.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science in Computer Science/Information Systems/ or related field with ten years of relevant experience.
• 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.
• Demonstrated experience creating or analyzing policy at Federal Department/ Agency level.
• Experience with RMF, NIST SP-800 series, Zero Trust, and Security Controls analysis.
• Experience in cybersecurity frameworks and application, including requirements analysis and technical writing.
• Familiarity with risks and risk frameworks applied to Windows, Linux, macOS/Open BSD, or other operating systems.
• Must have an active Secret U.S Government issued Security Clearance and must be eligible to obtain and maintain a Top-Secret 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 requires a minimum of 4 days a week on-site.

Preferred Qualifications

• Graduate-level degree in a technical discipline (Cybersecurity, Information Assurance, etc.) or 15 years of relevant experience.
• Familiarity with both Information Technology (IT), operational technology (OT), and National Security Systems (NSS).
• 7 years related experience as a cybersecurity analyst or systems/ network security engineer.
• Experience with various Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) platforms (Splunk, QRadar, Tenable products, etc.)
• Familiarity with cloud architectures such as AWS, Azure, or others
• Familiarity with defensive cybersecurity and DoW Information Network operations
• Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).
• GIAC Penetration Tester (GPEN), GIAC Certified Intrusion Analyst (GCIA)
• CompTIA Security+, CompTIA Network+, CompTIA Linux+

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

Secret

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

Top Secret

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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