Cyber Protection Principal​/Sr. Principal Engineer-AHT

Relocation Assistance

Relocation assistance may be available.

Clearance required for start:
Yes.

Clearance type:
Top Secret.

Travel required:

Yes, 10% of the time.

Northrop Grumman Defense Systems (NGDS) is seeking a Cyber Protection Principal Engineer to maintain and enhance capabilities in support of DAF CLOUD works at the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) in Rome, NY, Warner Robins, GA, or Wright Patterson Air Force Base, OH. DAF CLOUD works is a rapidly growing secure cloud program that encompasses 10+ teams spanning cloud engineering, information security, infrastructure development, and cloud migration.

You will be an active part of one of these teams providing technical support to customers leveraging DAF CLOUD works. Along with operations and sustainment, DAF CLOUD works focuses on modifying and enhancing offerings to implement new requirements, enhance functionality, increase efficiency, or lower operating/deployment. This role is focused on cloud penetration testing, adversarial emulation, red team operations, and container security assessments within a cleared DoD environment.

The ideal candidate has a strong offensive security background and deep expertise in AWS and Azure environments. This position is contingent on customer funding and approval and may be filled at a level 3 or level 4.

• Level 3:
  Bachelor’s degree in Science with 5+ years of software development experience;
  Master’s with 3+ years of relative experience; or an additional 4 years of experience may be considered in lieu of degree.
• Level 4:
  Bachelor’s degree in Science with 8+ years of software development experience;
  Master’s with 6+ years of relative experience; or an additional 4 years of experience may be considered in lieu of degree.
• This position requires an active Top Secret/SCI clearance and the ability to obtain an IAT Level II or III certification (Security+, Pentest+, Security
  
  X,) within 60 days of start.
• Deep knowledge of cloud attack paths — IAM privilege escalation, metadata service abuse, misconfigured storage, cross-account trust exploitation, and OAuth/token abuse — is required.
• Proficiency with cloud-native offensive tooling including Pacu (AWS exploitation framework) and AADInternals (Azure/M365 offensive toolkit), alongside enumeration platforms such as Scout Suite, Cloud Fox, Prowler, and ROADtools.

• Prior DoD or IC classified environment experience and familiarity with adversary simulation platforms such as Cobalt Strike, Sliver, or Havoc are a strong plus.
• Hands‑on practitioner who has operated tools at depth across real engagements, documented findings under active assessment constraints, and can communicate risk clearly to both technical teams and senior leadership.
• Experience developing and executing cyber tabletop exercises including threat scenario design, threat actor emulation planning, and after‑action reporting is highly valued.
• Hands‑on experience with Docker and Kubernetes security assessments, including container escape techniques, privileged container abuse, K8s RBAC misconfigurations, service account taken abuse, and CI/CD pipeline security across Git Lab, Git Hub Actions, and Jenkins environments.
• Strong scripting skills in Bash, Python, and Power Shell are expected, and a working knowledge of MITRE ATT&CK as applied to cloud and hybrid environments.
• Preferred certifications include OSCP, CPTS, PNPT, GPEN, GXPN, GCPN, AWS Security Specialty, or AZ‑500.
• Day‑to‑day work Jira and Confluence for sprint and documentation workflows, and Git Hub for version controlled tooling and collaborative code review.

Primary Level Salary Range: $98,400.00 - $.

Secondary Level Salary Range: $ - $.

The above salary range represents a general guideline; however, Northrop Grumman considers a number of factors when determining base salary offers such as the scope and responsibilities of the position and the candidate's experience, education, skills and current market conditions.

Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay. Annual bonuses are designed to reward…