Cyber Countermeasures Engineer

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Security Operations Center (SOC) is a U.S. Government program responsible to prevent, identify, contain and eradicate cyber threats to CBP networks through monitoring, intrusion detection and protective security services to CBP information systems including local area networks/wide area networks (LAN/WAN), commercial internet connection, public facing websites, wireless, mobile/cellular, cloud, security devices, servers and workstations.  The CBP SOC is responsible for the overall security of CBP enterprise-wide information systems, and collects, investigates, and reports any suspected and confirmed security violations. 

Leidos is seeking an experienced Cyber Countermeasures Engineer to join our team. As a member of this highly technical team supporting U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), you will play a crucial role in defending against cyber threats and will perform in-depth technical analysis of network and endpoint logs & activity, direct and track enterprise countermeasure actions, implement countermeasures across a broad spectrum of network and host based tools, and assess/validate the efficacy of countermeasure deployment in support of the protection of the customers’ systems, networks, and assets.    

Primary Responsibilities: 

• Directing, tracking, and implementing enterprise wide countermeasures across a wide spectrum of endpoint, network, and cloud based tools.  

• Assessing, validating, and ensuring deployment and continuous efficacy of deployed countermeasures in the environment.  

• Create, recommend, and assist with development of new security content as the result of coordination with other teams, to include signatures, alerts, workflows, and automation. 

• Develop new processes, procedures, and playbooks for countermeasure implementation as new technologies are deployed in the environment.  

• Understand intrusion sets, TTPs, and threat actors to better tailor countermeasure deployment across the enterprise.  

• Responsible for maintaining a comprehensive understanding of the cyber threat landscape, including identifying and analyzing new tools and processes for countermeasure deployment to enhance cybersecurity posture of the organization’s IT operating environment. 

• Coordinate with various other teams and stakeholders to maintain their situational awareness of countermeasure deployment. 

• Collect and report metrics surrounding countermeasure deployment on a weekly, monthly, and annual basis. 

• Assess, analyze, and effectively communicate risks associated with various types of countermeasures and their deployment in the environment.  

• Coordinate with different teams to improve threat detection, response, and improve overall security posture of the Enterprise.  

• Proactively and iteratively search through systems and networks to detect advanced threats and escalate as necessary, or recommend countermeasures for implementation. 

• Analyze host, network, and application logs in addition to malware and code. 

• Will be responsible for developing scripts to support cyber threat detection that outputs results in a variety of formats, such as VB scripts, Python, C++, HTML, XML or other type most appropriate for the task.  

• Produce high quality technical and non-technical reports with minimal supervision and emphasis on effective/accurate reporting.  

 Will be responsible for: 

• Implementing countermeasure recommendations from various teams across a wide array of EDR, DLP, mobile, and network based tools. 

• Maintain leadership situational awareness of current countermeasures, metrics, and capabilities/risks of various countermeasures.  

• Develop new processes, procedures, and playbooks surrounding the implementation of new techologies as they are deployed in the environment and the capabilities/limitations of the tools.  

• Create daily, weekly, and monthly reports and metrics for products and briefings. 

• Process technical data from various sources and recommend countermeasures for implementation on various tools.  

• Responsible for the maintaining and actioning the full lifecycle of countermeasures across a broad array of endpoint, network, and cloud based technologies/tools. 

Basic Qualifications: 

• Possess a minimum of four (4) years of professional experience in incident detection and response, malware analysis, or cyber forensics.  

• Have a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, Cybersecurity, or related field with three (3) years of experience in incident detection and response, malware analysis, or cyber forensics. 

• Experience with various host, network, cloud, email, and mobile based technologies and tools related to detections and countermeasures.  

• Have 2+ years recent experience with host-based and network-based security monitoring using cybersecurity capabilities.  

• Must be experienced developing scripts to support cyber threat detection that outputs results in a variety of formats, such as VB scripts, Python, C++, HTML, XML or other. 

• Established experience with incident response and SIEM tools, host-based logs, network-based logs, and regex.  

• Ability to work independently with minimal direction; self-starter/self-motivated. 

Required certifications: 

The candidate should have at minimum ONE of the following certifications: 

• CompTIA Cyber Security Analyst (CySA+) 

• CompTIA Linux Network Professional (CLNP) 

• CompTIA Pentest+ 

• CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CySA+) 

• GPEN – Penetration Tester 

• GWAPT – Web Application Penetration Tester 

• GSNA – System and Network Auditor 

• GISF – Security Fundamentals 

• GXPN – Exploit Researcher and Advanced Penetration Tester 

• GWEB – Web Application Defender 

• GNFA – Network Forensic Analyst 

• GMON – Continuous Monitoring Certification 

• GCTI – Cyber Threat Intelligence 

• GOSI – Open Source Intelligence 

• OSCP (Certified Professional) 

• OSCE (Certified Expert) 

• OSWP (Wireless Professional) 

• OSEE (Exploitation Expert) 

• CCFP – Certified Cyber Forensics Professional 

• CISSP – Certified Information Systems Security 

• CEH – Certified Ethical Hacker 

• CHFI – Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator 

• LPT – Licensed Penetration Tester 

• CSA – EC Council Certified SOC Analyst (Previously ECSA – EC-Council Certified Security Analyst) 

• ENSA – EC-Council Network Security Administrator 

• ECIH – EC-Council Certified Incident Handler 

• ECSS – EC-Council Certified Security Specialist 

• ECES – EC-Council Certified Encryption Specialist 

Preferred Qualifications:  

• A minimum of five (5) years of hands-on experience with experience in the last two (2) years that includes host-based and network-based security monitoring using cybersecurity capabilities.  

• Previous DOD, IC or Law Enforcement Intelligence or Counterintelligence Training/Experience 

• Demonstrated experience implementing countermeasures across a broad array of endpoint, network, and cloud based technologies/tools. 

• Understanding of complex Enterprise networks to include routing, switching, firewalls, proxies, load balancers, and tools such as EDR, DLP, and Mobile Threat Detection. 

• Working knowledge of common (HTTP, DNS, SMB, etc) networking protocols 

• Familiarity with operation of both Windows and Linux based systems.  

• Proficient with scripting languages such as Python or PowerShell 

• Familiarity with Splunk Search Processing Language (SPL) and/or Elastic Domain Specific Language (DSL) 

Clearance:  

• All Department of Homeland Security CBP SOC employees are required to favorably pass a 5-year (BI) Background Investigation.

Original Posting Date:

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.