Remote Principal Cyber Engineer - Zero Trust & AI Security

SAIC; Reston (VA); Remote; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

SAIC is seeking a highly hands-on Principal Cyber Engineer who thrives on building, breaking, and learning. This role combines security research with real-world deployments, in Zero Trust, AI platforms, and data engineering for security telemetry.

Remote role, but candidates must live within commuting range of Reston, VA. Occasional travel to VA/DC spaces and proposal centers is expected; active Top Secret clearance with SCI eligibility is required.

Qualifications

• U.S. citizen with an active Top Secret clearance and SCI eligibility.
• Typically 8+ years hands-on cyber engineering, SOC/SIEM architecture, or equivalent at Senior Principal depth.
• Ability to drive a team and advise contract cyber leads.
• Experience in RMF, CMMC, ICD-705 and incident response in live spaces.
• Strong knowledge of Zero Trust, AI platforms and security telemetry data engineering.

Responsibilities

• Enter customer spaces on short cycle; learn stack and people quickly; leave usable artifacts.
• Drive cyber team when spaces are new, thin or stuck; hand back runnable solutions.
• Assess cyber programs against frameworks; recommend modernization, automation, and next steps.
• Work in Zero Trust, AI platform security, data engineering for security telemetry, and SIEM/SOC architecture.
• Tackle RMF, CMMC, ICD-705 in live environments; support incident response.

Skills

Zero Trust

AI platforms

Data engineering

SIEM

Splunk

RMF

CMMC

ICD-705

PowerShell

Bash

AWS CLI

Windows

Linux

IAM

CloudWatch

S3

GuardDuty

Education

Bachelor's degree and 9 years of experience

Master's degree and 7 years of experience

Tools

Splunk

AWS CLI

PowerShell

Bash

Windows

Linux

IAM

CloudTrail

GuardDuty

VPC

Job description

SAIC is seeking a highly hands-on Principal Cyber Engineer who thrives on building, breaking, and learning. This role combines security research with real-world deployments, in Zero Trust, AI platforms, and data engineering for security telemetry.

Remote role, but candidates must live within commuting range of Reston, VA. Occasional travel to VA/DC spaces and proposal centers is expected; active Top Secret clearance with SCI eligibility is required.