Operational Technology (OT) Adversary Emulation Engineer

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Department Summary:

The CI Assessments, Analytics, and Resiliency department (L541) is focused on defending and strengthening our nation’s critical infrastructure. L541 supports a full range of defensive operations and activities including threat-informed risk assessment and mitigation, adversary hunting, adversary emulation, and detection engineering with a special focus on operational technology (OT). It is the expertise in OT and knowledge of threats and security controls and techniques that differentiates the department’s work from traditional information technology cybersecurity.

L541 also brings this specialized knowledge to other domains of security and safety engineering including resilience engineering and infrastructure susceptibility assessments. The department is continuously developing, refining, and tailoring capabilities to meet the needs and special requirements and constraints when working with operational technologies in critical infrastructure. The department moves the state of the art in securing CI by sharing our thought leadership both within and outside of MITRE via TEMs, conferences, presentations, and publications. This is how the CI Assessments, Analytics, and Resiliency department helps create a world with safe and resilient cyber infrastructure.

Job Description:

Do you have a Cyber background and an interest in Operational Technology (OT) or Control Systems? Do you enjoy studying adversary behavior and developing software to emulate it? Do you have an interest in researching, developing, and deploying capabilities within labs and sponsor spaces? MITRE’s Cyber Infrastructure Protection Innovation Center is seeking a cyber security engineer to develop and support its adversary emulation capabilities and efforts. The candidate must have a desire to grow their expertise and explore innovative ideas in the domain of cyber physical security, to include OT / Control Systems / IOT with an interest in adversary emulation, protocol analysis, software development, threat-informed defense, and security operations. Working within MITRE’s labs, you’ll be empowered to keep pace with current and emerging technologies and practices, all while working on cutting edge, impactful solutions to solve some of cybersecurity’s toughest challenges through a variety of government projects and applied research. Our projects support the whole of the US government, and our private sector partners, to improve the state of Cyber Physical / OT cybersecurity globally.

Roles & Responsibilities:

• Applying adversary emulation and protocol analysis expertise in support of sponsors.
• Leading and developing adversary emulation capabilities like Caldera for OT.
• Managing small tasks and projects.
• Work shaping and developing strong sponsor relationships.
• Providing mentorship to junior staff.
• Generating ideas for research to improve cybersecurity for critical infrastructure.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree or higher in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field and:
  • At least 8 years with Bachelor’s; At least 6 years with Master’s; or At least 3 years with PhD of successful experience in OT cybersecurity or related field.
• Experience in OT cybersecurity, adversary emulation, protocol analysis, software development, and/or process control.
• Ability to work with others to solve challenging technical problems.
• Experience managing projects.
• Ability to think critically, work in group settings, and be proactive in pursuing research and problem solving.
• Experience with programming in Python.
• Applicants selected for this position will be subject to a government security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information or applicants who are eligible for security clearances.
• Must be U.S. citizen in order to obtain a Top Secret clearance within one year of hire.
• This position requires a minimum of 50% hybrid on-site.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working with federal departments and agencies or their stakeholders, e.g., state/local/tribal/territorial governments and critical infrastructure organizations.
• Experience with red, blue, and purple teaming using breach and attack simulation tools, especially experience with Caldera.
• Experience working with control systems in a critical infrastructure environment (manufacturing, power plant, water/wastewater, or equivalent) with working knowledge of OT, ICS, SCADA, PLCs, DCS, IEDs, Industrial Firewalls, or DCS and related hardware and software.
• Experience with OT protocols such as Siemens S7, CAN, HART, OPC UA, DLSM/COSEM, MQTT, LonWorks, ICCP, IEC 61850, IEC 60870-5-101/104, DNP3, Profinet, ENIP/CIP, Modbus, and/or BACnet.
• Experience in software engineering and development in Python and other languages. Knowledge of non-SQL databases.
• Experience writing research, work, or funding proposals/statements of work.
• Active Top Secret Clearance.

This requisition requires the candidate to have a minimum of the following clearance(s):

None

This requisition requires the hired candidate to have or obtain, within one year from the date of hire, the following clearance(s):

Top Secret

Salary compensation range and midpoint:

$158,800 - $198,500 - $238,200 Annual

Work Location Type:

Hybrid

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Commitment to Non-Discrimination

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to disability, status as a protected veteran or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, local or international law.

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