Jr. Cyber Defense Analyst

Space Ground System Solutions (SGSS), a Parsons company, is hiring a junior Cyber Defense Analyst/Threat Hunter, working full-time and onsite at our customer location in Welcome, MD. This position will be a part of mission-focused teams supporting the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and work alongside Site Reliability Engineers (SREs), network engineers, and software developers to implement and operate a defensive cyber monitoring and response environment that spans both on-prem and AWS GovCloud infrastructure.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

• Operate and enhance defensive cyber monitoring systems across hybrid networks (on-prem, AWS GovCloud, and remote sites)
• Perform real-time and retrospective threat analysis using SIEM, SOAR, and log analytics platforms (Splunk, Elastic, OpenSearch, or similar)
• Correlate events across diverse telemetry sources - host, network, application, and identity data - to detect anomalies and potential intrusions
• Develop detection content, dashboards, and visualizations to improve situational awareness and incident triage.
• Conduct threat hunting and adversary emulation activities aligned to MITRE ATT&CK and D3FEND frameworks
• Support incident response and forensics, collecting and analyzing indicators of compromise (IOCs) and developing post-incident reports
• Collaborate with SRE and DevOps teams to integrate monitoring hooks, improve observability, and ensure logging/telemetry pipelines are complete and reliable
• Automate common analysis and detection workflows using Python, PowerShell, or Go
• Develop playbooks and response automation using SOAR tooling or custom scripts to reduce mean time to respond (MTTR)
• Participate in red/blue/purple team exercises and contribute to the continuous improvement of defensive posture across CNAP/SNE environments
• Support compliance and auditing activities, ensuring monitoring, alerting, and response workflows meet DoD cybersecurity requirements (RMF, STIGs, etc.)

REQUIRED SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS

• Must be a US Citizen
• Must meet eligibility requirements associated with obtaining an active DoD SECRET clearance
• S. in Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a closely related field, from an accredited university and at least one (1) year of professional experience
• 1–5 years of professional experience in cybersecurity, SOC operations, or network/system administration
• Familiarity with SIEM tools (Splunk, Elastic, OpenSearch, or similar)
• Understanding of network and endpoint security fundamentals - TCP/IP, firewalls, logs, intrusion detection, and common attack vectors
• Experience with Linux and Windows log analysis, event correlation, and alert tuning
• Basic proficiency with scripting or automation languages (Python, PowerShell, or Bash)
• Strong analytical, investigative, and documentation skills - able to produce clear incident reports and threat summaries
• Excellent communication skills and willingness to collaborate across infrastructure, operations, and development teams

PREFERRED SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS

• Certifications such as Security+, CySA+, CEH, Splunk Certified User/Power User, AWS Security Specialty, or GCIA/GCDA/GCFE
• Experience developing custom detections and enrichment pipelines
• Familiarity with Zero Trust and enclave network architectures (CNAP, SNE)
• Understanding of incident handling procedures and escalation workflows
• Experience in threat intelligence analysis and mapping IOCs to ATT&CK techniques
• Exposure to machine learning or data-driven anomaly detection approaches
• Experience writing operational runbooks or playbooks for SOC or NOC environments

Space Ground Systems Solutions (SGSS), a wholly owned subsidiary under the Parsons Corporation, is passionate about making our nation the undisputed leader in Space because we understand that ensuring our security for future generations depends on it. We have emerged as a leader in the development of cutting-edge solutions for the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community. Our tremendous success can be attributed to our people and our priorities. Do you want to be part of a team that is helping the government solve major national security challenges in the space domain? We need your help.

SGSS believes in taking care of their employees by offering:

• ALL benefits fully funded, for your entire family
• • this includes Medical/Dental/Vision/Group Life/STD/LTD - no employee premiums
• SGSS funded HSA (Health Savings Account) provided
• • with SGSS funding the maximum amount allowed by the IRS
• Retirement Savings Plan (RSP/401k) with a 20% annual company contribution - no employee contribution required

Apply now to work for a company that truly believes YOU are the key to OUR success . . . Come BE the difference.

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Applicants selected for this position will be subject to a government security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information or applicants who are eligible for security clearances.

SGSS is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status or any other protected status.