Senior Cloud Security Engineer

Peraton; Reston (VA); Remote; USD 135,000 - 216,000; Full time

Job summary

Peraton is seeking a Senior Cloud Security Engineer to lead proactive threat hunting, vulnerability analysis, and remediation across multiple cloud platforms in a 70+ tenant environment. You will work with Qualys/Tenable, SIEMs, and Patching teams to drive verified remediation and detect advanced threats.

The role emphasizes collaboration with customers, engineering, and ISSOs/ISSMs; requires strong communication, investigative mindset, and hands-on cloud security experience.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher with 10+ years of relevant experience or 12+ years with alternate education.
• U.S. Citizenship with ability to obtain DHS Public Trust.
• 8+ years in information security incl. 5+ years cloud security engineering.
• Hands-on cloud experience across 3+ platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP/OCI).
• Experience with Qualys and Tenable for vulnerability scanning, analysis, reporting.
• Experience conducting threat hunts using MITRE ATT&CK framework.
• Proficient in SIEM/log analysis (Splunk, Sentinel, Elastic).
• Experience remediating vulnerabilities and misconfigurations on Windows/Linux, containers, and cloud services.
• Knowledge of cloud IAM, network security, encryption, and logging architecture.
• Scripting or automation in Python/PowerShell/Bash; IaC (Terraform/Ansible).
• Familiar with STIGs, CIS Benchmarks, and NIST 800-53 controls.

Responsibilities

• Plan and conduct hypothesis-driven threat hunts across multi-cloud environments (AWS/Azure/GCP/OCI).
• Analyze cloud telemetry and SIEM data to investigate suspicious activity.
• Administer and optimize Qualys and Tenable scans across cloud tenants; manage policies and deployments.
• Prioritize remediation by exploitability, asset criticality, and exposure; include KEV considerations.
• Lead remediation with engineering and patching teams and verify closure via rescans.
• Identify and remediate misconfigurations, excessive IAM permissions, exposed services, and STIG/CIS deviations.
• Develop and tune detection rules, queries, and automated hunt playbooks for repeatable detections.
• Support incident response with scoping, containment, and root-cause analysis.
• Produce hunt reports, remediation tracking, and POA&M inputs; brief leadership on findings.
• Mentor junior security engineers in threat hunting techniques and tool usage.

Skills

Threat hunting

Vulnerability analysis

Cloud security engineering

Qualys

Tenable

MITRE ATT&CK

SIEM/log analysis

Scripting (Python/PowerShell/Bash)

IAM security

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

Associates degree

High School diploma

Tools

Qualys VMDR

Tenable.io/Tenable.sc/Nessus

Splunk

Microsoft Sentinel

Elastic

Terraform

Ansible

Job description

Senior Cloud Security Engineer

Job Locations: US

Requisition ID: 2026-173164

Position Category: Information Technology

Clearance: Public Trust

Peraton Overview

Peraton is a next-generation national security company that drives missions of consequence spanning the globe and extending to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. As the world's leading mission capability integrator and transformative enterprise IT provider, we deliver trusted, highly differentiated solutions and technologies to protect our nation and allies. Peraton operates at the critical nexus between traditional and nontraditional threats across all domains: land, sea, space, air, and cyberspace. The company serves as a valued partner to essential government agencies and supports every branch of the U.S. armed forces. Each day, our employees do the can't be done by solving the most daunting challenges facing our customers. Visit peraton.com to learn how we're keeping people around the world safe and secure.

Responsibilities

Peraton is looking for a Senior Cloud Security Engineer to lead proactive threat hunting, vulnerability analysis, and remediation in support of a multi-cloud environment with 70+ customer tenants and growing. Aside from technical qualifications, the applicant should have effective communication skills, both written and verbal.

The applicant must have hands‑on security experience across multiple cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI) and expertise with Qualys and Tenable for vulnerability management. This role goes beyond scanning: the engineer will form and test threat hypotheses, correlate vulnerability, configuration, and log data to find active or likely compromise, and drive findings through to verified remediation. An investigative mindset, strong analytical skills, and attention to detail are prerequisites for this position.

The Senior Security Engineer will collaborate closely with our customers, internal engineering and patching teams, and ISSOs/ISSMs to ensure threats are identified early, risk is prioritized accurately, and remediation is completed and documented.

Location: Remote (but must reside and perform all work within the United States)

Work hours: This position requires working online from 8:00 AM Eastern to 5:00 PM Eastern

Day to Day Roles and Responsibilities:

• Plan and conduct hypothesis-driven threat hunts across AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI environments, using threat intelligence and the MITRE ATT&CK framework to identify adversary activity that automated tools have not detected
• Analyze cloud-native telemetry (AWS CloudTrail and GuardDuty, Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Azure Monitor, Google Security Command Center, OCI Cloud Guard and Audit logs) alongside SIEM data to investigate suspicious activity
• Administer and optimize Qualys and Tenable (Tenable.io/Tenable.sc/Nessus) scanning across all cloud tenants, including scan policies, agent and connector deployment, asset coverage, and credentialed scanning
• Analyze vulnerability and configuration findings, eliminate false positives, and prioritize remediation by exploitability, asset criticality, and exposure, including CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV)
• Lead remediation of identified threats and vulnerabilities, working with engineering and patching teams to patch, harden, or apply compensating controls, and verify closure through rescanning
• Identify and remediate cloud misconfigurations, excessive IAM permissions, exposed services, and STIG/CIS benchmark deviations
• Develop and tune detection rules, queries, and automated hunt playbooks so successful hunts become repeatable detections
• Support incident response as a senior technical resource, including scoping, containment recommendations, and root cause analysis
• Produce hunt reports, remediation tracking, and POA&M inputs, and brief findings and risk to customers, ISSOs/ISSMs, and leadership
• Mentor junior security engineers in threat hunting techniques, vulnerability analysis, and tool usage

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelors degree and 12 years of experience or a Masters degree and 10 years of experience or an Associates degree and 14 years of experience or a High School diploma/eqivalent and 16 years of experience.
• Must be a U.S. Citizen with the ability to obtain/maintain a DHS Public Trust.
• 8+ years of experience in information security, including 5+ years in cloud security engineering
• Hands-on security experience in at least three of the following cloud platforms: AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI
• Expertise with Qualys (VMDR, Cloud Agent, Policy Compliance) and Tenable (Tenable.io, Tenable.sc, Nessus) for vulnerability scanning, analysis, and reporting
• Demonstrated experience conducting threat hunts and investigations using the MITRE ATT&CK framework
• Proficiency writing queries and analyzing logs in a SIEM or log platform (Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, Elastic, or equivalent)
• Experience remediating vulnerabilities and misconfigurations on Windows and Linux systems, containers, and cloud-native services
• In-depth understanding of cloud identity and access management, network security, encryption, and logging architecture
• Scripting or automation experience in Python, PowerShell, or Bash, and familiarity with infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Ansible)
• Working knowledge of STIGs, CIS Benchmarks, and NIST 800-53 controls

Preferred Qualifications:

• One or more relevant certifications such as CISSP, CCSP, GCIH, GCTI, GCFA, AWS Certified Security - Specialty, Microsoft AZ-500, or Google Professional Cloud Security Engineer

Target Salary Range

$135,000 - $216,000. This represents the typical salary range for this position. Salary is determined by various factors, including but not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the position, the individual's experience, education, knowledge, skills, and competencies, as well as geographic location and business and contract considerations. Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay.

Benefits Statement

Peraton offers eligible employees a variety of benefits including medical, dental, vision, life, health savings account, short/long term disability, EAP, parental leave, 401(k), paid time off (PTO) for vacation, and company paid holidays. A full listing of available benefits can be viewed at https://www.careers.peraton.com/benefits.

EEO

EEO: Equal opportunity employer, including disability and protected veterans, or other characteristics protected by law.