Senior Cybersecurity Engineer Jobs in District of Columbia
Senior Cybersecurity Engineer jobs in District of Columbia represent one of the most active and competitive markets in the country, concentrated heavily in federal government contracting, defense, intelligence, and financial regulation sectors where demand runs from mid-level technical leads to principal architects. Most openings are anchored in Washington DC proper, with additional clusters in the surrounding Northern Virginia corridor and Maryland suburbs, where major employers including Booz Allen Hamilton, Leidos, and Northrop Grumman maintain large presences. The most in-demand specialties are cloud security, zero-trust architecture, and security operations center leadership. Scan the live roles below and apply to whichever ones fit.
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About Bering Straits Professional Services
Paragon offers a wide range of environmental investigation, consulting, compliance, and remediation services as well as IT solutions, Facility O&M, Materiel Support, Supply and Security to both private- and public-sector clients throughout Alaska and the Continental U.S. Paragon’s experienced professional staff is dedicated to producing high-quality documentation and providing safe field execution to support its clients’ projects in line with local, state and federal guidelines and regulations.
About this position: Sr. Cybersecurity Incident Response Specialist
Location – Washington, DC
The Essential Duties and Responsibilities are intended to present a descriptive list of the range of duties performed for this position and are not intended to reflect all duties performed within the job. Other duties may be assigned. To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to satisfactorily perform each essential duty. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the position.
Wage/Salary Range: $100k - $120k
Applicants will be notified via phone or email within ten (10) business days of submittal.
Essential Duties & Responsibilities
- Member of the SOC team which provides 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year monitoring and incident response services for the organization’s Network, Systems, Applications, and Web services.
- Provide senior level cybersecurity incident response expertise in support of the client’s Incident Response processes and procedures.
- Develop operational baselines such data flows and application interactions to enhance SOC’s ability to respond to incidents.
- Prepare and manage playbooks and relevant scenarios in addition to narratives and visual diagrams and review continuously, in compliance with NIST SP 800-61 and Government guidance.
- Follow current guidance from NIST 800-61, Federal Incident Notification Guidelines, CISA’s Incident Response and Vulnerability Playbook, and client guidance.
- Monitor system status and sensor data from deployed sensors and triage for validity from Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) System, email, texts, phone calls and all enterprise managed dashboards.
- Analyze all sources including network traffic, identity, fault, performance, and bandwidth information, alerts and data to augment detection of network anomalies and unauthorized activity.
- Meet regularly with client stakeholders to develop content, analytic rules, alerts, dashboards, automation and identify ways to improve availability and efficiency of client’s incident response program.
- Categorize, Prioritize, and Report on cybersecurity events in accordance with (IAW) SOPs and other relevant policies documents.
- Implement cybersecurity mitigations leveraging client tools and systems.
- Create and escalate cybersecurity-related investigations to both internal and external entities such as DHS or other Government Agencies with client and Federal defined timelines.
- Manage, coordinate, and respond to FOIA, audits, data calls, e-discovery and information requests.
- Schedule and execute incident response tabletop exercises with each client FISMA system on an annual basis.
- Review and handle phishing messages reported by client staff.
Required (Minimum Necessary) Qualifications
- Education Requirements:
- High School or GED-General Educational Development-GED Diploma
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science or equivalent is preferred
- Level of Experience Requirements: Minimum of five years hands-on experience
- Proven experience detecting, triaging, and responding to cyber incidents across enterprise networks and cloud environments.
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Other Characteristics
- Proficiency with SIEM, EDR/XDR platforms, and forensic tools.
- Strong understanding of threat actor TTPs, MITRE ATT&CK framework, and incident containment strategies.
- Ability to analyze network traffic, logs, and endpoint telemetry to identify malicious activity.
- Familiarity with malware analysis, reverse engineering basics, and memory analysis concepts
- Experience developing and tuning detection rules, playbooks, and automated response workflows.
- Working knowledge of incident response frameworks (e.g., NIST SP 800-61, SANS).
- Understanding of vulnerability management, threat intelligence integration, and SOC metrics/reporting.
- Understanding of basic computer and networking technologies.
- Windows and Linux/Unix operating systems
- Networking technologies (routing, switching, VLANs, subnets, firewalls)
- Common networking protocols – SSH, SMB, SMTP, FTP/SFTP, HTTP/HTTPS, DNS, etc.
- Common enterprise technologies – Active Directory, Group Policy, and the Microsoft Azure suite of cloud services.
- Understanding of current system logging technology and retrieving information from a plethora of technology platforms.
- Ability to work well in a team environment.
- Self-starter with ability to work with little supervision.
- Willingness to take on and adapt to new, open-ended tasks for which there is no current standard operating procedure.
- Ability to research independently and self-teach.
- Strong analytical and decision-making skills under pressure.
- Excellent written and verbal communication, including incident documentation and executive briefings.
- Ability to lead investigations, mentor junior analysts, and collaborate with cross-functional teams.
- Applicants selected will be subject to a government security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information. Accordingly, U.S. Citizenship is required.
Preferred
- Interest in security/hacking culture. Ability to “think like an attacker”
- General cybersecurity certifications (one or more of the following preferred):
- CompTIA Security+
- CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CySA+)
- Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)
- GIAC Certified Incident Handler (GCIH)
- Any cloud security certification, especially:
- CompTIA Cloud+
- Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP)
- Cloud Security Alliance Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge (CCSK)
- Any Microsoft 365/Azure cybersecurity certification, especially:
- Microsoft Certified: Security Operations Analyst Associate (SC-200)
- Microsoft Certified: Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals (SC-900)
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate (AZ-500)
- Familiarity with the Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure suite of products, including Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft 365 Defender.
- Knowledge of common enterprise technologies, policies, and concepts such as:
- Microsoft Sentinel SIEM
- Kusto Query Language (KQL)
- Mobile device technologies (iOS, Android)
- Scripting experience (PowerShell, Python, etc.)
- Microsoft Power BI
- Azure DevOps
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) / Machine Learning (ML) expertise
- In-depth knowledge of AI and ML concepts.
- How to practically apply AI/ML technologies to enhance cyber threat hunting and incident response capabilities.
- Experience with specific AI services offered within Microsoft Azure.
Supervisory Responsibilities
- This position will not have supervisory responsibilities.
DOT Covered/Safety-Sensitive Role Requirements
- This position is not subject to federal requirements regarding Department of Transportation “safety-sensitive” functions.
Necessary Physical Requirements
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this role. Employees must always maintain a constant state of mental alertness. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
- Essential and marginal functions may require maintaining physical condition necessary for bending, stooping, sitting, walking or standing for prolonged periods of time; most of time is spent sitting in a comfortable position with frequent opportunity to move about.
Work Environment
The work environmental characteristics described here are representative of those that must be borne by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the role. Employees must always maintain a constant state of situational awareness. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Physical Setting: Washington DC
Schedule and Flexibility: Full Time in Office
Additional Qualifying Factors
As a condition of employment, you will be required to pass a pre-employment drug screening and have acceptable background check results. If applicable to the contract, you must also obtain and maintain the appropriate clearance levels required and must also be able to obtain access to military installations.
Shareholder Preference
BSNC gives hiring, promotion, training, and retention preference to BSNC shareholders, shareholder descendants and shareholder spouses who meet the minimum qualifications for the job.
Bering Straits Native Corporation is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any status protected by state or federal law, or any other basis prohibited by law.
Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities
This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws. For further information, please review the Know Your Rights (https://www.eeoc.gov/poster) notice from the Department of Labor.
See All 19 Senior Cybersecurity Engineer Jobs in District of Columbia
Find roles in District of Columbia that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find JobsSenior Cybersecurity Engineer Jobs by City in District of Columbia
Where District of Columbia roles are concentrated, by current openings.
Senior Cybersecurity Engineer Job Market in District of Columbia
A snapshot from current District of Columbia openings, updated as new roles post.
Who's Hiring
- OneZero Solutions2O
- One Federal Solution2

- Astrion1

- Danaher1

- GINIA1
Top Industries Hiring
- Consulting & Professional Services2
- Manufacturing1
What District of Columbia Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in senior cybersecurity engineer jobs across District of Columbia.
- Active security clearance, typically Secret or Top Secret with SCI eligibility required
- CISSP, CISM, or equivalent advanced cybersecurity certification strongly preferred by DC employers
- Seven or more years of hands-on experience in cybersecurity engineering or architecture roles
- Deep experience with federal compliance frameworks including NIST, FedRAMP, and FISMA
- Proficiency in cloud security across AWS GovCloud, Azure Government, or similar federal platforms
- Experience leading or mentoring junior security engineers on enterprise-scale federal or defense programs
Senior Cybersecurity Engineer Jobs in District of Columbia: Frequently Asked Questions
How do you become a senior cybersecurity engineer in District of Columbia?
Reaching the senior level in DC typically requires a bachelor's degree in computer science, information security, or a related field combined with at least seven years of progressive cybersecurity experience. There is no DC-specific state license for this role, but the market strongly favors candidates holding a CISSP or CISM, and most federal contractor positions require an active security clearance. Candidates who build experience inside federal agencies or large defense contractors in the DC area move into senior roles faster than those on purely commercial paths.
How much do senior cybersecurity engineers make in District of Columbia?
Senior cybersecurity engineers in District of Columbia earn a median of about $135,090 a year, based on May 2025 Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data, ranging from around $86,280 for the lowest 10% to over $189,510 for the top 10%. Pay rises with experience, specialty, and employer.
Which companies hire senior cybersecurity engineers in District of Columbia?
Companies currently hiring senior cybersecurity engineers in District of Columbia include OneZero Solutions, One Federal Solution, and Astrion, per current listings on Migrate Mate as of July 2026. DC's concentration of federal agencies, defense contractors, and intelligence community partners means that government-adjacent employers account for a disproportionately large share of senior-level openings compared to any other U.S. market.
Which District of Columbia cities have the most senior cybersecurity engineer jobs?
The cities with the most senior cybersecurity engineer openings in District of Columbia are Washington. Washington DC itself drives the largest share of postings because federal agencies and their prime contractors are headquartered here, while the broader metro's suburban areas attract openings from defense firms and technology companies that support classified and civilian government programs across the region.
Are there remote senior cybersecurity engineer jobs in District of Columbia?
Yes, though cleared and compliance-heavy roles limit full-remote options compared to other tech disciplines. About 56% of senior cybersecurity engineer openings tied to District of Columbia are remote or hybrid as of July 2026, reflecting a market where on-site or hybrid presence is still frequently required for clearance-sensitive work. Positions in policy, risk management, and architecture tend to offer the most remote flexibility within the DC market.
How can I get hired as a senior cybersecurity engineer in District of Columbia with little or no experience?
The most realistic entry path in DC is through a junior analyst or SOC analyst role at a federal contractor, where firms like Booz Allen Hamilton and Leidos run structured associate and analyst development programs that pipeline candidates into engineering tracks. Earning CompTIA Security+ or a CySA+ credential before applying gives entry-level candidates a measurable edge, and many DC-area agencies post cleared internship programs through university partnerships at institutions like George Mason and American University that lead directly to full-time offers.
Where can I find and apply to senior cybersecurity engineer jobs in District of Columbia?
You can find and apply to senior cybersecurity engineer jobs in District of Columbia on Migrate Mate, which lists current DC-area openings updated in real time. Search the listings by role and location, identify the ones that match your experience and clearance level, and apply directly to each one. No sign-up is required to see the roles.
See All 19 Senior Cybersecurity Engineer Jobs in District of Columbia
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