Penetration Tester, Cyber Operations | Mid-Level

General Dynamics IT; Ashburn (VA); On-site; USD 108,000 - 129,000; Full time

Job summary

General Dynamics IT is seeking a Penetration Tester to support CBP's Cyber Security Directorate. The role involves hands-on testing across networks, apps, endpoints, and cloud workloads, emulating adversaries to identify vulnerabilities and drive remediation.

You will work in a high-stakes, collaborative environment to strengthen defensive capabilities and protect critical operations. The position requires 3+ years of penetration testing, strong exploit knowledge, and relevant certifications.

Qualifications

• Three+ years of penetration testing or offensive security experience.
• Strong understanding of exploit development concepts, offensive tooling, and common security control weaknesses.
• Experience performing network, application, and wireless assessments using modern red-team methodologies.
• Ability to develop structured documentation, perform technical writing, and communicate with technical and non-technical audiences.
• Preferred certifications: PenTest+, eJPT, eCPPT, OSCP (valued), GPEN.

Responsibilities

• Conduct hands-on penetration testing of networks, applications, endpoints, cloud workloads, and mission systems to uncover security weaknesses.
• Use industry-standard tools to identify misconfigurations, privilege escalation paths, insecure protocols, and exploitable application flaws.
• Perform credentialed and non-credentialed testing, including reconnaissance, enumeration, exploitation, post-exploitation analysis, and vulnerability validation.
• Evaluate discovered vulnerabilities to determine exploitability and risk.
• Analyze complex environments to identify cross-domain security issues.
• Produce detailed technical assessment reports with remediation recommendations.
• Participate in follow-up assessments and retesting to ensure risk reduction.

Skills

Cyber Operations

Cybersecurity Strategies

Cyber Threat Intelligence

Security Operations

Education

Bachelor's degree in IT / CS / cybersecurity

Tools

Nmap

NESSUS

Metasploit

Burp Suite

CANVAS

Kismet

Job description

General Dynamics IT is seeking a Penetration Tester to support CBP's Cyber Security Directorate. The role involves hands-on testing across networks, apps, endpoints, and cloud workloads, emulating adversaries to identify vulnerabilities and drive remediation.

You will work in a high-stakes, collaborative environment to strengthen defensive capabilities and protect critical operations. The position requires 3+ years of penetration testing, strong exploit knowledge, and relevant certifications.