System Engineer 2

About the role

The Software Analyst supports the mission of the National Information Assurance Partnership by conducting in-depth software assurance and Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) analysis for commercial technologies seeking evaluation, authorization, or deployment within National Security Systems (NSS) and other sensitive U.S. Government environments. This role focuses heavily on software supply chain transparency, software provenance, open-source software (OSS) risk analysis, vulnerability identification, and vendor cybersecurity practices. The analyst evaluates software components, dependencies, development practices, and third-party supplier risks to identify potential threats to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of government systems. The position requires strong technical analysis, cybersecurity knowledge, and the ability to assess software ecosystems from both a security and supply chain perspective.

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) analysis on commercial software products, platforms, and applications undergoing evaluation or review.
• Analyze software dependencies, transitive dependencies, and third-party libraries to identify supply chain risks and hidden software exposure.
• Review and validate SBOM formats and standards including SPDX, CycloneDX, and SWID tags.
• Assess software provenance, code lineage, package integrity, and software component authenticity.
• Identify known vulnerabilities and software weaknesses through CVE analysis, KEV review, vulnerability databases, and threat intelligence sources.
• Evaluate risks associated with open-source software (OSS), foreign-developed software components, unsupported or end-of-life dependencies, unmaintained libraries, and software obfuscation or lack of transparency.
• Perform secure software supply chain assessments aligned with NIST SSDF, Executive Order 14028, federal software assurance guidance, and NIAP protection profile requirements.
• Conduct due diligence research on software vendors, developers, maintainers, and software ecosystems.
• Analyze vendor secure development practices including secure coding methodologies, build pipeline security, CI/CD protections, dependency management, patch management, and code signing.
• Review software development and deployment architectures for potential supply chain attack vectors.
• Support Common Criteria evaluations and software assurance activities through technical risk analysis and supply chain assessments.
• Produce technical reports, analytical findings, risk summaries, and executive-level briefings related to software supply chain security.
• Collaborate with government, industry, evaluation labs, and cybersecurity stakeholders to improve software assurance practices and SBOM utilization.
• Monitor emerging software supply chain threats, malware campaigns, dependency compromise incidents, and malicious package activity.

Required Skills

• Experience in software supply chain security, cybersecurity analysis, application security, or SCRM.
• Strong understanding of Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs), open-source software ecosystems, software composition analysis (SCA), vulnerability management, and secure software development.
• Familiarity with Common Criteria, NIAP evaluation concepts, NIST cybersecurity guidance, and federal security initiatives.
• Knowledge of software package managers and ecosystems such as npm, PyPI, Maven, NuGet, and GitHub repositories.
• Ability to analyze complex software dependency structures and identify risk indicators.
• Experience writing technical analytical reports and communicating findings to technical and non-technical audiences.
• IA and cybersecurity architectures, concepts, principles, use cases, and standards; DoD, IC, and other federal government (e.g., NIST) policy, directives, and instructions relevant to IA and cybersecurity strategic planning and direction.

Desired Skills

• Experience with SBOM and software analysis tools such as Dependency-Track, Syft, Grype, Black Duck, Snyk, Sonatype Nexus, Mend.io, and Anchore.
• Familiarity with Static Application Security Testing (SAST), Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), malware analysis, reverse engineering, and code signing validation.
• Understanding of supply chain attacks, dependency confusion, typosquatting, build system compromise, and malicious open-source package activity.
• Experience evaluating software vendor security maturity and secure development lifecycle practices.
• Knowledge of cloud-native software architectures and container security.

Qualifications

• Fourteen (14) years experience as a SE in programs and contracts of similar scope, type and complexity is required.
• Bachelor's degree in System Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering Science, Engineering Management, or related discipline from an accredited college or university is required. Five (5) years of additional SE experience may be substituted for a bachelor's degree.
• Preferred certifications may include CISSP, CSSLP, Security+, GIAC certifications, Certified SCRM Professional, cloud security certifications, and application security certifications.
• TS/SCI With Polygraph Is Required.