Cybersecurity SME

Position Overview 

The Cybersecurity Subject Matter Expert serves as a senior technical advisor responsible for guiding the design, implementation, modernization, and continuous improvement of enterprise cyber defense capabilities. This role provides expert-level support across cybersecurity strategy, architecture, operations, risk management, compliance, incident response, and emerging technology adoption.  The Cybersecurity SME will place strong emphasis on innovative approaches to implementing cyber defenses, ensuring the organization is not only compliant with security requirements but also forward-looking, adaptive, and resilient against evolving threats. 

Responsibilities 

• Provide expert cybersecurity guidance across enterprise systems, cloud environments, applications, networks, and mission platforms.  

• Lead the development and implementation of innovative cyber defense strategies that improve detection, prevention, response, and recovery capabilities.  

• Assess current cyber defense posture and recommend practical, scalable improvements aligned with mission, business, and regulatory requirements.  

• Design and support implementation of layered defense models, including Zero Trust, endpoint protection, identity-based security, network segmentation, encryption, threat monitoring, and secure cloud controls.  

• Evaluate emerging cybersecurity technologies, tools, and methodologies to determine applicability, maturity, risk, and operational value.  

• Support development of cybersecurity roadmaps, implementation plans, maturity models, and modernization strategies.  

• Advise leadership on cyber risk, threat trends, security gaps, mitigation strategies, and investment priorities.  

• Collaborate with technical teams, program managers, architects, engineers, system owners, and business stakeholders to integrate security into planning, development, operations, and sustainment activities.  

• Support security assessments, risk assessments, authorization activities, audits, and compliance reviews.  

• Provide expertise in federal cybersecurity frameworks and standards, including NIST, RMF, FISMA, FedRAMP, CMMC, CIS Controls, and Zero Trust guidance.  

• Recommend automation, analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and security orchestration approaches to improve cyber defense effectiveness.  

• Support incident response planning, tabletop exercises, root cause analysis, and lessons-learned activities.  

• Develop cybersecurity policies, procedures, playbooks, technical guidance, briefings, and executive-level decision materials.  

• Mentor junior and mid-level cybersecurity staff and promote knowledge sharing across technical teams.  

• Identify opportunities to reduce risk, improve efficiency, strengthen resilience, and advance the organization’s cyber maturity.  

• This position may perform other duties as assigned. The responsibilities listed above are representative and not intended to be all-inclusive. 

Innovation-Focused Cyber Defense Responsibilities 

• Develop creative, mission-aligned approaches to implementing cybersecurity controls without unnecessarily slowing business operations.  

• Promote proactive defense concepts such as threat-informed defense, continuous monitoring, attack surface reduction, deception technology, behavioral analytics, and purple-team collaboration.  

• Recommend ways to use automation and orchestration to reduce manual cyber response actions and improve response time.  

• Integrate cyber threat intelligence into defensive planning, vulnerability prioritization, and operational decision-making.  

• Identify opportunities to improve security through secure-by-design, privacy-by-design, and resilience-by-design principles.  

• Support pilot programs, proofs of concept, and technology evaluations for new cyber defense capabilities.  

• Translate emerging cyber risks into actionable defense strategies that are understandable to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.  

 

Requirements 

• Master’s degree in Cybersecurity, Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or related field. Additional relevant experience may be considered in lieu of degree.  

• 10+ years of cybersecurity experience, including experience supporting enterprise-level security programs.  

• Demonstrated experience advising senior leaders, program managers, and technical teams on cybersecurity risk and defense strategies.  

• Strong knowledge of cybersecurity architecture, security engineering, vulnerability management, incident response, identity and access management, cloud security, and continuous monitoring.  

• Experience implementing or advising on cybersecurity frameworks such as NIST 800-53, NIST 800-37, NIST 800-207, FISMA, FedRAMP, CMMC, CIS Controls, or ISO 27001.  

• Experience developing cybersecurity strategies, roadmaps, risk assessments, policies, procedures, and executive briefings.  

• Experience with tools such as Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, Tenable, Qualys, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto, ServiceNow GRC/IRM, Security Hub, Azure Security Center/Microsoft Defender for Cloud, or similar platforms 

• Ability to evaluate technical risks and translate them into business or mission impacts.  

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.  

• Ability to work across multiple teams and influence decisions without direct authority.  

• Possess and maintain at least one of the below certifications” 

• CISSP 

• GIAC Certified Detection Analyst 

• GIAC Certified Forensic Analyst 

• GIAC Certified Intrusion Analyst 

• GIAC Network Forensic Analyst 

• GIAC Penetration Tester (GPEN) 

• GIAC Reverse Engineering Malware (GREM) 

• GIAC Security Expert (GSE) 

• ISC2 Certified Information System Security 

Preferred / Desired 

• Experience with Zero Trust architecture, cloud security, DevSecOps, security automation, cyber analytics, SIEM/SOAR, and threat-informed defense.  

• Experience supporting Authority to Operate, RMF packages, security control assessments, POA&Ms, and continuous monitoring.  

• Experience leading cyber modernization initiatives or enterprise security transformation efforts.  

• Familiarity with AI-enabled cybersecurity, machine learning-based detection, automated response, and advanced threat analytics 

Location 

This position is remote with periodic travel based upon customer, business development, and operational requirements. Occasional travel to headquarters in Ashburn, Virginia and customer locations is expected.