Principal Cyber Protection/Sr. Principal Engineer (AHT)

Relocation assistance may be available. This position requires an active Top Secret/SCI clearance and the ability to obtain an IAT Level II or III certification (Security+, Pentest+, SecurityX) within 60 days of start. Travel is required, up to 10% of the time.

About the role

Northrop Grumman Defense Systems (NGDS) is seeking a Cyber Protection Principal Engineer to maintain and enhance capabilities in support of DAF CLOUDworks at the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) in Rome, NY, Warner Robins, GA, or Wright Patterson Air Force Base, OH. DAF CLOUDworks is a rapidly growing secure cloud program that encompasses 10+ teams spanning cloud engineering areas including information security, infrastructure development, and cloud migration.

You will be an active part of one of these teams providing technical support of customers leveraging DAF CLOUDworks. Along with operations and sustainment, the role focuses on modifying and enhancing offerings to implement new requirements, enhance functionality, increase efficiency, or lower operating/deployment. This role specializes in cloud penetration testing, adversarial emulation, red team operations, and container security assessments within a cleared DoD environment. The ideal candidate has a strong offensive security background and deep expertise in AWS and Azure environments. This position is contingent on customer funding and approval and may be filled at a level 3 or level 4.

Responsibilities

• Conduct cloud penetration testing, adversarial emulation, and red team operations.
• Perform container security assessments within a cleared DoD environment.
• Support operations and sustainment of DAF CLOUDworks, including modifying and enhancing cloud offerings.
• Utilize cloud-native offensive tooling such as Pacu (AWS exploitation framework) and AADInternals (Azure/M365 offensive toolkit).
• Leverage enumeration platforms including ScoutSuite, CloudFox, Prowler, and ROADtools.
• Document findings and communicate risk clearly to both technical teams and senior leadership.
• Develop and execute cyber tabletop exercises, including threat scenario design and after-action reporting.
• Perform Docker and Kubernetes security assessments, including container escape techniques and CI/CD pipeline security.
• Use Jira and Confluence for sprint and documentation workflows, and GitHub for version-controlled tooling and collaborative code review.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Science with 5+ years (Level 3) or 8+ years (Level 4) of software development experience; Master's degree with 3+ years (Level 3) or 6+ years (Level 4) of relative experience; or an additional 4 years of experience in lieu of a degree.
• Deep knowledge of cloud attack paths, including IAM privilege escalation, metadata service abuse, misconfigured storage, cross-account trust exploitation, and OAuth/token abuse.
• Proficiency with cloud-native offensive tooling and enumeration platforms.
• Active Top Secret/SCI clearance required.
• Ability to obtain an IAT Level II or III certification within 60 days of start.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior DoD or IC classified environment experience.
• Familiarity with adversary simulation platforms such as Cobalt Strike, Sliver, or Havoc.
• Hands-on experience with Docker and Kubernetes security assessments, including container escape techniques, privileged container abuse, K8s RBAC misconfigurations, and CI/CD pipeline security.
• Strong scripting skills in Bash, Python, and PowerShell.
• Working knowledge of MITRE ATT&CK as applied to cloud and hybrid environments.
• Preferred certifications: OSCP, CPTS, PNPT, GPEN, GXPN, GCPN, AWS Security Specialty, or AZ-500.

Pay

Primary Level Salary Range: $98,400.00 - $155,400.00

Secondary Level Salary Range: $122,800.00 - $193,900.00

The above salary range represents a general guideline. Northrop Grumman considers factors such as scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's experience, education, skills, and current market conditions when determining base salary offers. Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay. Annual bonuses are designed to reward individual contributions and allow employees to share in company results. Employees in Vice President or Director positions may be eligible for Long Term Incentives.

Benefits

• Health insurance coverage.
• Life and disability insurance.
• Savings plan.
• Company-paid holidays and paid time off (PTO) for vacation and/or personal business.