Critical Infrastructure Cyber Protection & Defense Analyst

Cybersecurity Consultant

Essential Job Functions and Responsibilities: (Knowledge, skills, and behaviors required for this position.)

• Deliver professional advice, expertise, strategic insight, and other cyber-related consulting services to advance industrial control systems (ICS) cybersecurity for critical infrastructure.
• Provide advice and expertise in cybersecurity designs, implementation, vulnerability identification, and mitigation techniques and procedures that will aid industry and the Nation in securing critical infrastructure systems against current and emerging threats.
• Monitor critical infrastructure sector networks to actively remediate unauthorized activities.
• Respond to crises or urgent situations within critical infrastructure sectors to mitigate immediate and potential threats.
• Develop, research, and apply advanced mitigation, preparedness, and response and recovery approaches, as needed, to maximize survival of life, preservation of property, and information security.
• Lead cyber security efforts and deliver capability to customers.
• Promote an open and informal communication environment with both internal and external stakeholders at all levels in order to develop mutual trust and teamwork.
• Conduct information collection and analysis of United States critical infrastructure with particular emphasis on control systems and technology-controlled processes.
• Manage teams in the creation of cyber security products.
• Create related reports and provide briefings related to these issues.
• Conduct technical analysis projects.
• Work to fill gaps in current situational awareness across sectors and develop products to address the needs of a diverse customer set spanning multiple classification levels, federal, private, and international organizations.
• Other duties as assigned.

Education, Credentials, and

Work Experience:

Required

• Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical or electrical engineering, cyber security/computer sciences, and/or business/financial management from an accredited institution.
• EX3:
  Education/
  
  Experience:
  
  Bachelor's and 5 years. Master's and 2 years. PhD and 2 years.
• EX4:
  Education/
  
  Experience:
  
  Bachelor's and 9 years. Master's and 6 years. PhD and 4 years.
• Relevant experience commensurate with level. Experience shall include designing or applying control systems cyber security solutions in critical infrastructure at the system and/or regional level.
• Obtain and maintain a Q security clearance and special access as required. When required, must be able to work in a secure work environment to include handling/storing/processing classified and CUI information, and adhere to physical and electronic projection standards.
• Testing Designated Position (TDP)
• Expertise in Splunk SPL, including advanced search commands, statistical functions, data models, and performance optimization
• Hands-on experience with Splunk Enterprise Security, including correlation searches, risk-based alerting (RBA), notable events, and the ES framework
• Hands-on experience with using the Splunk Monitoring Console to monitor and maintain the health of a distributed Splunk ecosystem.
• Hands-on experience with data transformation using props and transforms configurations and Splunk regular expressions
• Working knowledge of the Splunk AI Toolkit (AITK) for building and applying ML-based detections
• Experience with the Splunk App for Data Science and Deep Learning (DSDL), including custom model development and deployment
• Strong understanding of the MITRE ATT&CK framework and detection engineering methodology

Special Requirements

• Must be a US citizen.
• Must be eligible for a DOE Q clearance (equivalent to Top Secret) and SCI access.
• Must be able to work under pressure, simultaneously addressing multiple complex tasks to meet commitments while maintaining quality of work and a professional interface.

Preferred

• Professional Engineer and/or Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certifications.
• Relevant experience to include program/project management here at INL, particularly in the cyber security realm, and familiarity with industrial control systems. In-depth knowledge of the US energy sector and experience working with DOE, DOD and DHS and private industry on grid security-related projects is beneficial.
• Experience with detection-as-code practices and tools (Git, CI/CD pipelines)
• Proficiency in Python for data processing and model development
• Knowledge of SOAR platforms and detection automation
• Relevant certifications (Splunk Certified Power User/Admin, Splunk Enterprise Security Certified Admin, GIAC, etc.)

Physical Requirements:

While performing the duties of this classification, the employee is frequently required to stand, walk, sit, stoop, kneel, bend, use hands to handle materials, manipulate tools, keyboard and type, reach with hands and arms, and operate job-related equipment. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 30 pounds. Sufficient visual acuity and hearing capacity to perform the essential functions and interact with people is…