Research and Development Lead

Research and Development Lead at ECS

ECS is seeking an experienced Research and Development (R&D) Lead to lead R&D efforts for the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Program. This is an exciting opportunity to set technical vision and drive innovation for a critical national cyber program. The R&D Lead will be responsible for leading R&D efforts, including leading a team of 1–5 engineers in performing rapid prototyping of solutions, and analyzing multiple solution options to determine the best fit for the program.

The role is at the forefront of innovation – designing highly scalable, practical solutions for our customers and evangelizing the best solutions for adoption.

• Lead the R&D team as a hands‑on technical lead driving the development of innovative solutions that meet the program's requirements.
• Define and execute a repeatable analysis program where customer needs drive innovative solutions and traceable outcomes.
• Perform rapid prototyping of solutions to validate technical feasibility and identify potential risks.
• Analyze multiple solution options and document results to inform the selection of the best solution.
• Conduct trade studies to compare the pros and cons of different solutions and recommend the most suitable approach.
• Collaborate with the Core Architecture team to prove the feasibility of solutions and select the best technologies and implementation approaches.
• Work closely with the Development and Infrastructure Leads to define requirements, create, extend, and maintain a development lab for R&D purposes.
• Ensure that the developed solutions meet the program's non‑functional requirements, such as scalability, maintainability, reliability, and security.
• Communicate the technical vision and implementation plans to stakeholders, including DHS, System Integrators, user groups, and the development team.
• Serve as a solution SME/evangelist and present the solution vision and implementation to various audiences, including users and senior government leaders.
• Collaborate with the development team to design major system components and ensure system design is extensible to accommodate future requirements.

• US citizenship with ability to obtain Public Trust suitability.
• Ability to obtain a TS security clearance and be SCI eligible.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years of experience developing enterprise production solutions.
• 3+ years of solutions architecture experience performing rapid prototyping of solutions and analyzing multiple solution options.
• Proven ability to collaborate with cross‑functional teams, including development and infrastructure leads.
• Strong communication and presentation skills sufficient to develop robust analysis documentation.
• Strong understanding of cybersecurity concepts, including threat modeling, vulnerability management, and incident response.
• Familiarity with cloud computing and scalable cloud architectures.
• Experience with code repositories, ALM tools, and big data platforms.

• Experience as a Technical Lead for enterprise‑wide software development/COTS integration programs.
• Experience conducting trade studies and selecting the best solution based on the analysis.
• Experience coordinating work in an Agile Environment, esp. using Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Scrum, and/or Kanban.
• Understanding of current cyber exploits, attack methodology, and detection techniques.
• Cloud workload experience, esp. AWS.

ECS is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate or allow discrimination on the basis of any characteristic protected by law. 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, or local jurisdiction law.