Senior Penetration Tester – Onsite Lead (Ashburn)

Cybersecurity Jobs; Ashburn (VA); On-site; USD 143,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

General Dynamics Information Technology in Ashburn, VA is seeking a Senior Penetration Tester to lead advanced testing engagements, emulate adversary behavior, and drive vulnerability discovery, validation, and remediation through clear reporting.

The role requires strong leadership and extensive hands-on experience across network, application, wireless, and enclave targets, with the ability to communicate findings to engineers and executives while maintaining a strict on-site presence.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years of offensive security or penetration testing experience.
• Strong leadership and communication abilities.
• Advanced proficiency with penetration testing tooling and exploitation techniques for network, application, and wireless vectors.
• Strong technical writing and oral presentation skills that meet audit and executive communication standards.
• Ability to collaborate with technical and non-technical stakeholders across federal and enterprise environments.
• U.S. Citizenship Required.
• Less than 10% travel.
• A degree in cybersecurity, computer science, information technology, or a related field is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead complex penetration testing engagements and guide junior testers across scoping, tooling, and reporting.
• Plan test approaches and deliver detailed reporting that supports remediation for critical systems.
• Define objectives and rules of engagement with stakeholders.
• Create tailored test plans aligned with system architecture and compliance requirements.
• Perform hands-on testing across network, application, wireless, and enclave targets.
• Use tools to enumerate, exploit, and confirm vulnerabilities at scale.
• Develop proofs of concept and post-exploitation procedures demonstrating real-world impact.
• Produce comprehensive technical reports with vulnerability details and remediation recommendations.
• Present findings to engineering and leadership and defend methodologies.
• Partner with developers, system engineers, SOC, and risk teams for remediation and retesting.

Skills

Penetration testing

Leadership

Technical writing

Stakeholder collaboration

Security compliance

Education

Cybersecurity/CS/IT degree

Tools

Nmap

Nessus

Metasploit

Burp Suite

CANVAS

Kismet

Job description

General Dynamics Information Technology in Ashburn, VA is seeking a Senior Penetration Tester to lead advanced testing engagements, emulate adversary behavior, and drive vulnerability discovery, validation, and remediation through clear reporting.

The role requires strong leadership and extensive hands-on experience across network, application, wireless, and enclave targets, with the ability to communicate findings to engineers and executives while maintaining a strict on-site presence.