Senior SOAR Engineer

Overview

Senior SOAR Engineer – Oakton, VA

Are you ready to enhance your skills and build your career in a rapidly evolving business climate? If so, Chenega Military, Intelligence & Operations Support (MIOS) could be the place for you. The Senior SOAR Engineer is responsible for designing, implementing, optimizing, and maintaining the organization’s Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response capabilities. This role acts as the technical and strategic authority for SOAR platforms—leading automation initiatives, improving incident response workflows, and enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the NOSC.

The Senior SOAR Engineer collaborates with security engineers, analysts, architecture teams, and leadership to translate security operations needs into scalable automated solutions.

• Serve as the primary architect and technical expert for SOAR technologies (e.g., Palo Alto XSOAR, Splunk SOAR, IBM SOAR, Microsoft Sentinel automation).
• Lead design and development of new SOAR playbooks, integrations, automation, and workflows.
• Maintain platform health, performance, scalability, and high availability.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to translate business requirements into technical specifications.
• Implement best practices for automation governance, version control, and deployment processes.
• Mentor, support, and guide engineers through code reviews, technical discussions, and career development.
• Build and optimize automated solutions for incident triage, enrichment, containment, remediation, and reporting.
• Develop custom connectors and integrations via APIs, Python scripting, or vendor SDKs.
• Identify repetitive SOC tasks and convert them into automation opportunities.
• Ensure automations meet security, compliance, and operational requirements.
• Enhance IR workflows with automated threat intelligence, vulnerability data, and detection signals.
• Troubleshoot automation failures, workflow issues, and data ingestion problems.
• Support major incident response activities by leveraging SOAR-driven orchestrations.
• Other duties as assigned.

• Bachelor’s degree in information technology, Cyber Security, or other related fields.
• 8+ years of professional experience in cybersecurity with at least 5+ years dedicated to SOAR engineering or automation, including 3+ years working in a classified and air-gapped environment and 2+ years in a technical leadership role.
• IAT III or higher-level certification required
  • At least one of the following certifications: PCAP, PCPP, PCCSE, GCIH, GSOC, GMON, GCIA, GCDA, GCFA, or GCTI is preferred.
  • At least one platform-specific SOAR certification: XSOAR, Splunk, Sentinel is preferred.
• DOD Top Secret clearance with the ability to obtain an SCI and CI Polygraph

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Strong hands-on experience with at least one major SOAR platform (e.g., XSOAR, Splunk SOAR, IBM SOAR, Swimlane, Tines, Sentinel Logic Apps).
• Proficiency in Python for automation and integrations.
• Deep understanding of system architecture, data structures, and algorithms.
• Strong understanding of SOC operations, detection engineering, and IR processes.
• Experience working with REST APIs, webhooks, JSON, YAML, and automation frameworks.
• Advanced troubleshooting and problem-solving across complex enterprise networks.
• Knowledge of classified/unclassified government network requirements, NIST, DISA STIGs, and other cybersecurity frameworks.
• Effective collaboration with cross-functional teams, including security, systems engineering, and program management.
• Experience with multiple operating systems (Windows, Linux, and MacOS).
• Deep understanding of common security technologies (EDR, SIEM, firewalls, TIPs, IAM, cloud security).
• Strong understanding of vulnerability requirements, system STIGing, RMF, and ATO life cycle best practices.
• Familiarity with Dev Ops/Git Ops tools (Git, CI/CD pipelines).
• Familiarity with SIEM and SOAR solutions (XSOAR, Swimlane, Splunk, Cortex XDR, QRadar, etc.).
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and cloud automation.
• Knowledge of scripting beyond Python (Power Shell, Bash).

At Chenega MIOS, our professional development plan focuses on helping our team members at every level of their careers to identify and use their strengths to do their best work every day. From entry-level employees to senior leaders, we believe there’s always room to learn.

We offer opportunities to help sharpen skills in addition to hands-on experience in the global, fast-changing business world. From on-the-job learning experiences to formal development programs, our professionals have a variety of opportunities to continue to grow throughout their careers.

At Chenega MIOS, we know that great people make a great organization. We value our team members and offer them a broad range of benefits.