Senior Grid Cybersecurity Researcher

Overview

At PNNL, our core capabilities are divided among major departments that we refer to as Directorates within the Lab, focused on a specific area of scientific research or other function, with its own leadership team and dedicated budget.

Our Science & Technology directorates include National Security, Earth and Biological Sciences, Physical and Computational Sciences, and Energy and Environment. In addition, we have an Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a Department of Energy, Office of Science user facility housed on the PNNL campus.

The Electricity Infrastructure and Buildings Division, part of the Energy and Environment Directorate, is accelerating the transition to an efficient, resilient, and secure energy system through basic and applied research. We leverage a strong technical foundation in power and energy systems and advanced data analytics to drive innovation, transform markets, and shape energy policy.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is seeking a senior cybersecurity researcher with deep operational power systems expertise to advance the security, resilience, and trustworthiness of the nation’s electricity infrastructure. You will lead and contribute to research spanning secure communications, OT/ICS security, and grid‑aware cyber analytics, delivering field‑ready methods and tools that improve real‑time operations, situational awareness, and decision support for utilities and system operators.

Conducts fundamental and applied research in various cyber security domain areas. Research and advances theories, techniques and approaches to secure computing, cyber resiliency, cyber defense and analysis, including the design and efficiency of algorithms and how humans interact with computers and computing processes as well as the methods used for experimentation in the cyber security domain. Develops work products including new theories and technical advances in the field.

Produces and/or integrates solutions driven by exploratory analysis from complex architectures and data sets based on research of security trends, new methods, and techniques used in unauthorized access or misused use of data and systems. Resulting from research and exploratory analysis, designs and develops novel and secure computational systems and components, including both hardware and software, with a focus on architectures, languages, applications, secure software design, secure hardware design, machine learning, reverse engineering, malicious software analysis, statistical modeling, formal methods and protocols.

Prepares and presents technical reports, reports, and/or publications. May interface with external entities including law enforcement, intelligence and other government organizations and agencies.

• Lead research in grid cybersecurity and communications for critical infrastructure—develop strategies, tools, and use cases that prevent unauthorized access, detect anomalies, and harden operational networks.
• Lead system assessments looking for common modes of failure in the critical infrastructure supporting DHS lifeline sectors.
• Design and validate cyber‑resilient operational approaches for SCADA, EMS, DMS, protection & control, and grid‑edge devices, including integration into real‑time situational awareness and decision‑support systems.
• Integrate AI/ML and advanced modeling into cyber‑physical detection, response, and recovery workflows to improve forecasting, outage mitigation, and physical‑cyber resilience.
• Advance standards and industry adoption by collaborating with utilities, ISOs/RTOs, telecom providers, vendors, regulators, and government agencies.
• Publish and present research, producing documentation and guidance to accelerate deployment by operational stakeholders.
• Industry engagement with utilities, ISOs/RTOs, vendors, and regulators. Excellent communication skills; ability to translate complex cyber‑physical concepts for operational stakeholders.

This position supports the Energy Systems Resiliency (ESR) Group within PNNL’s Energy Infrastructure & Building Division (EIBD). The role is virtual, with the expectation of frequent (more than quarterly) trips to…