Senior Cloud & Network Defense Analyst (Zero Trust)

NANA Regional Corporation; Alexandria, Northern (VA, KY); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision, life

401(k) and retirement options

Paid Time Off

Job summary

Akima Data Management (ADM) seeks a mission‑driven Senior Computer Network Defense Analyst to lead advanced threat detection, incident response, and Zero Trust‑aligned security engineering across enterprise, hybrid, and classified environments.

The ideal candidate will bring deep expertise in threat detection, incident response, and cloud security monitoring, with a focus on building correlation rules, dashboards, and rapid response workflows.

Qualifications

• Active Top-Secret clearance with SCI eligibility.
• Advanced Splunk experience (search, dashboards, correlation rules, UEBA).
• Strong firewall/IDS/IPS monitoring skills.
• Endpoint detection and response expertise.
• Cloud-security monitoring across Azure cloud and hybrid environments.
• Strong analytical writing skills for incident reports and leadership briefings.
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information systems, cybersecurity, or related field; or 10+ years of relevant experience in lieu of a degree.
• Professional certification (e.g., CISSP, CEH, Azure Certified) required.

Responsibilities

• Perform continuous monitoring across cloud, hybrid, and on-premise environments using Splunk, firewall telemetry, endpoint security tools, and cloud-native logs.
• Lead triage, investigation, containment, and remediation of high‑severity security incidents; coordinate actions across CND, engineering, and mission teams.
• Apply identity-centric security, micro-segmentation, continuous authentication, and least‑privilege controls during investigations and response activities.
• Build, tune, and maintain correlation rules, dashboards, and detection logic to identify anomalous behavior, lateral movement, and cloud‑based threats.
• Monitor firewall logs, IDS/IPS alerts, segmentation policies, and cross‑domain data flows to detect malicious activity and policy violations.
• Use tools such as Microsoft Defender, CrowdStrike, or equivalent to investigate host-based alerts, isolate compromised devices, and validate endpoint compliance.
• Review cloud service inventories, access patterns, and configuration baselines to identify security gaps, misconfigurations, and suspicious activity.
• Monitor API usage, authentication flows, and cross‑domain interactions for anomalies or unauthorized access attempts.
• Produce incident reports, weekly/monthly summaries, decision briefs, and leadership updates on threat trends, response actions, and risk areas.
• Identify monitoring gaps, detection blind spots, and opportunities to enhance automation, resilience, and SOC workflows.
• Work closely with enterprise architects, system owners, developers, and mission stakeholders to ensure secure operations and rapid response.
• Validate security controls within CI/CD pipelines, API usage, and application behavior as part of incident investigations.
• Participate in proof‑of‑concepts for new detection technologies, cloud‑security tools, and Zero Trust monitoring capabilities.
• Maintain incident timelines, evidence artifacts, CND procedures, and version‑controlled monitoring documentation. This role is homeported out of Alexandria, VA, and provides support to cybersecurity as required for CND services to DoW. This role is critical in ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of DoW OIG systems and data.

Skills

Top-Secret clearance

Splunk

Firewall/IDS/IPS monitoring

Endpoint detection & response

Azure cloud security monitoring

Analytical writing

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science / Information Systems / Cybersecurity or 10+ years of experience

Tools

Azure

Job description

Akima Data Management (ADM) seeks a mission‑driven Senior Computer Network Defense Analyst to lead advanced threat detection, incident response, and Zero Trust‑aligned security engineering across enterprise, hybrid, and classified environments.

The ideal candidate will bring deep expertise in threat detection, incident response, and cloud security monitoring, with a focus on building correlation rules, dashboards, and rapid response workflows.