Principal Cyber Engineer

Looking for an opportunity to make an impact?

At Leidos, we deliver innovative solutions through the efforts of our diverse and talented people who are dedicated to our customers’ success. We empower our teams, contribute to our communities, and operate sustainably. Everything we do is built on a commitment to do the right thing for our customers, our people, and our community. The Leidos National Security Sector (NSS) combines technology-enabled services and mission software capabilities in the areas of cyber, logistics, security operations, and decision analytics to support our defense and intel customers’ mission to defend against evolving threats around the world.

Your greatest work is ahead!

The Multi-domain Solutions Division (MDS) within the Leidos National Security Sector is seeking a skilled Principal Cyber Engineer to join a new cyber security program and play a key role in supporting government-critical systems. You will be part of a program that oversees development, integration, delivery, and operations and maintenance of IT managed security services, which encompasses support to monitor the cybersecurity threat and security posture situational awareness for the enterprise. This opportunity is in anticipation of a future contract award!

What you’ll be doing:

• Lead the design, implementation, and management of advanced cybersecurity solutions that protect critical systems and sensitive data. 
• Serve as a technical authority, providing strategic direction and hands-on expertise in securing enterprise infrastructure, applications, and cloud environments.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to develop, deploy, and maintain cybersecurity frameworks, ensuring compliance with industry standards and regulatory requirements. 
• Play a pivotal role in evaluating emerging threats, driving innovation, and mentoring junior cybersecurity engineers to foster a culture of continuous improvement and operational excellence.
• Development of software and hardware for solutions in support of offensive and defensive security, researching cyber technology domains for trends, vulnerabilities or known flaws to ensure that critical missions are resilient to cyber exploits and attacks. 
• Implement coding foundation in various languages to create tools and techniques, perform code analysis, conduct code manipulation and develop coding solutions tailored to the area of need. 
• Offensive development responsibilities include vulnerability research and analysis, reversing engineering threats to determine methods of exploitation, malware research, researching innovative tools and techniques, developing malicious payloads, and manipulating code execution. 
• Defensive development responsibilities include protection of data, networks and net-centric capabilities, as well as detection of, identification of and response to attacks. 
• Securing development environments and software through application security architecture software evaluations web application vulnerability assessment penetration testing and fuzzing, malware research and vulnerability mitigation.  
• Work to achieve key project/program objectives and deliverables. 
• Responsible for entire projects or processes spanning multiple technical areas. 
• Manage large projects or processes with moderate impact on the achievement of sub-family results.
• Design, implement, and maintain secure architectures for on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.
• Develop and enforce security standards, policies, and procedures based on industry best practices such as NIST, CIS, and ISO 27001.
• Evaluate and integrate security technologies such as firewalls, SIEMs, EDR, IDS/IPS, WAFs, and DLP to enhance the organization’s security posture.
• Design and implement secure network architectures, ensuring segmentation and zero-trust principles.
• Develop and manage advanced threat detection and response strategies to protect against evolving cyber threats.
• Lead security incident investigations, root cause analysis (RCA), and implement corrective and preventive actions (CAPA).
• Monitor and analyze security events using Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools and other threat intelligence platforms.
• Develop and test incident response plans (IRPs) and disaster recovery processes to ensure business continuity.
• Implement and maintain Identity and Access Management (IAM) systems, enforcing least privilege and role-based access controls (RBAC).
• Manage Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions to prevent unauthorized access.
• Conduct regular access audits and enforce policy-based identity governance.
• Design and manage secure cloud architectures in AWS, Azure, and/or Google Cloud (GCP), ensuring compliance with security standards.
• Integrate security into DevOps/CI/CD pipelines to enable secure development practices (DevSecOps).
• Leverage Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to automate security configurations and reduce misconfigurations.
• Develop and manage vulnerability management programs, ensuring timely remediation of discovered vulnerabilities.
• Conduct penetration testing, red team/blue team exercises, and security audits to assess and enhance system resilience.
• Collaborate with system administrators and developers to prioritize and remediate identified vulnerabilities.
• Ensure compliance with regulatory standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, SOC 2, and FedRAMP.
• Develop and maintain risk management processes, including conducting risk assessments and defining mitigation strategies.
• Collaborate with legal, compliance, and internal audit teams to ensure alignment with regulatory requirements.
• Collaborate with IT, engineering, and development teams to integrate security best practices into all stages of the system lifecycle.
• Lead security architecture reviews, risk assessments, and compliance audits.
• Mentor and provide technical leadership to junior security engineers, promoting knowledge sharing and professional growth.
• Advocate for a “security-first” mindset across the organization.

What does Leidos need from me?

• Active Top Secret/SCI (TS/SCI) with Polygraph security clearance required. Must be U.S. Citizen.
• Bachelor's degree and 8 to 12 years of prior relevant experience. Experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
• Understanding of DoD IT security protocols and requirements
• Knowledge of security frameworks, standards, and best practices (NIST, CIS, ISO 27001, OWASP).
• Extensive experience in configuring and managing security tools such as SIEM, EDR, IDS/IPS, firewalls, and vulnerability management platforms.
• Expertise in secure cloud architecture and cloud security practices (AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Strong understanding of network security protocols, encryption technologies, and authentication methods.
• Hands-on experience with scripting and automation (e.g., Python, PowerShell, Bash) to enhance security processes.
• Familiarity with DevSecOps principles and tools such as Git, Jenkins, Terraform, or Ansible.

Favorable if you have:

• Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).
• GIAC Security Expert (GSE) or other GIAC certifications.
• Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) or Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP).
• AWS Certified Security – Specialty, Azure Security Engineer Associate, or Google Professional Cloud Security Engineer.
• Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP).
• Experience conducting penetration testing, red team/blue team exercises, and vulnerability assessments.
• Knowledge of Zero Trust security models and micro-segmentation principles.

Original Posting:

For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.

Pay Range:

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.