Senior Cybersecurity Engineer, Cloud Automation & Security Controls

Socket.dev; Arlington (VA); On-site; USD 155,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Dark Wolf in the Washington DC metro area is seeking a Senior Cybersecurity Engineer, Cloud Automation & Security Controls to assess cloud security configurations and drive secure design practices. The role is onsite at customer locations with a focus on advanced evaluations and rapid remediation guidance.

Responsibilities include evaluating containerized apps and cloud architectures, validating policies, and developing automated monitoring for risk and compliance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, cybersecurity, or related field.
• 5+ years in cybersecurity with a focus on control assessment, testing, or QA.
• Active IAT Level 2 certification (Security+ CE, CySA+, CND, CCNA Security).
• Experience evaluating systems, containers, and cloud architectures.
• Clear written communication and ability to brief on technical topics.

Responsibilities

• Develop remediation recommendations for cybersecurity program gaps.
• Evaluate information systems design, containerized apps, and cloud architecture.
• Validate effectiveness of cybersecurity policies and procedures.
• Create automated methods to monitor risk and compliance.
• Use cloud security tools to monitor AWS configuration drift.
• Leverage IaC tools to identify cybersecurity gaps from infrastructure docs.
• Draft statements of residual cybersecurity risks for operations.
• Assess security controls and document additional controls for requirements.

Skills

Cybersecurity control assessment

Technical evaluations

Written communication

Client-facing

Risk & compliance monitoring

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in CS/Cybersecurity

Tools

Terraform

OpenTofu

Kubernetes

Docker

IaC tooling

Job description

Dark Wolf is seeking a Senior Cybersecurity Engineer, Cloud Automation & Security Controls to join a collaborative team to assess and validate cybersecurity configurations and best practices of complex, cloud-based systems. The successful candidate will support both the Dark Wolf team and customer through advanced technical evaluations of cloud cybersecurity architecture best practices, ensuring high engineering standards of security and compliance. This position will be based out of the Washington DC Metro area and is onsite at customer locations. Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Develop recommendations to remediate cybersecurity program deficiencies and improve client cybersecurity processes, technologies, and configurations.
• Conduct technical evaluations of information systems design, containerized applications, and cloud architecture, ensuring security and operational requirements align with NIST and CNSS controls.
• Validate the efficacy of information system cybersecurity policies and procedures.
• Develop automated methods to monitor and measure risk and security compliance efforts.
• Utilize automated cloud security posture assessment tools to continuously monitor the AWS environment for configuration drift, ensuring strict adherence to the Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide.
• Leverage AI-assisted tools to ingest infrastructure-as-code (e.g., Terraform) and system documentation to rapidly identify cybersecurity and compliance gaps.
• Draft and brief statements of preliminary or residual cybersecurity risks for system operation.
• Assess the design and effectiveness of existing security controls and work with solution and product development teams to identify, define, and document additional controls based on solution-specific or product-specific requirements.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, or a related field.
• 5+ years of relevant Cybersecurity experience focusing on cybersecurity control assessment or implementation, penetration testing, or quality assurance testing.
• Active IAT Level 2 certification (i.e., Security+ CE, CySA+, CND, CCNA Security)
• Demonstrated experience conducting technical evaluations of information systems design, containerized applications, and cloud architecture.
• Ability to communicate on technical subjects using clear, concise, non-technical language to include strong written communications, ability to provide written feedback on documents, and ability to prepare briefings.

US Citizenship and an active Top Secret security clearance.

Desired Qualifications

• IAT Level 3 or higher certifications (e.g., CISSP, SecurityX, CCNP, CISA).
• Experience with Terraform, OpenTofu, or other declarative IaC tools.
• Understanding of container security (e.g., Kubernetes, Docker) and securing DevSecOps pipelines.
• Demonstrated experience giving technical guidance to cloud engineers and system administrators.

The salary range for this position is estimated to be between $155,000.00 - $180,000.00, commensurate on experience and technical skillset. We will consider candidates at a Principal or Senior Principal (or equivalent level).