Senior Penetration Tester

Title: Sr. Penetration Tester

Location: Onsite – Washington, DC (telework at client discretion)

Terms: Full-time

Salary: $140K - $175K

Clearance: Public Trust

Travel: Minimal – occasional CONUS travel (approximately one week per year)

Position Description

We are seeking a Sr. Penetration Tester to conduct advanced security assessments and penetration tests across networks, applications, and infrastructure for a federal cybersecurity program. This role identifies vulnerabilities, evaluates their severity, and provides detailed reports to stakeholders to prioritize remediation efforts, often leading projects and mentoring junior team members while staying current on emerging threats and security trends.

The successful candidate will:

• Lead advanced security assessments and penetration tests.
• Evaluate vulnerability severity and help stakeholders prioritize remediation.
• Mentor junior team members.
• Stay current on emerging threats and security trends.

Responsibilities:

• Conduct advanced security assessments and penetration tests across networks, applications, and infrastructure.
• Identify vulnerabilities, evaluate their severity, and provide detailed reports to stakeholders to prioritize remediation efforts.
• Perform no-knowledge and/or limited-knowledge technical assessments (Red Teaming) of identified assets and their cloud environments.
• Conduct real and simulated attacks against segments of the enterprise to assess resiliency and response to an actual attack.
• Collaborate on ways to defend, alter, or reconfigure cybersecurity defense mechanisms (Blue Teaming), and ensure information sharing between Red and Blue teams (Purple Teaming).
• Conduct penetration tests only with the knowledge and authorization of the client CISO, after appropriate authorities, approvals, and Rules of Engagement are established.
• Develop Rules of Engagement documents defining the type and scope of testing at least 30 days before each assessment.
• Identify in advance any application or operational risks of loss or denial of service that might result from penetration testing techniques.
• Produce penetration test and assessment reports within 15 business days, including an executive summary, technical risks, potential impact, and remediation options.
• Coordinate with the client to use penetration test findings to inform, expand, or focus monitoring efforts.
• Provide onsite and remote vulnerability assessments, working with system owners and administrators to examine security architecture and vulnerabilities through scans, configuration review, design documentation review, and interviews.
• Perform wireless assessments, including wireless access point detection and penetration testing, and produce Wireless Assessment Reports with an executive summary, network mapping, vulnerability analysis, and configuration assessment.
• Perform web application assessments of outward-facing web applications for exploitable defects in web service implementation.
• Support operating system security and database assessments against configuration baselines.
• Develop custom scripts and tools to automate testing.
• Lead assessment projects and mentor junior team members.

Required Skills and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or an IT-related discipline and 5 years of related experience.
• CISSP or equivalent certification. (Equivalent certification covers a similar level of information security domains or depth of knowledge and/or experience.)
• Demonstrated significant hands-on experience in penetration testing methodologies, various hacking techniques, and expertise in relevant security tools and frameworks.
• Proficiency with penetration testing tools such as Burp Suite, Nmap, Metasploit, Nessus, and custom scripts.
• Familiarity with scripting languages such as Python, PowerShell, or similar for automation and custom tool development.

Desired

• Experience performing penetration testing on federal government contracts as a contractor, under government-approved Rules of Engagement.
• Offensive certifications such as OSCP, GPEN, or CEH in addition to CISSP.
• Experience with Red, Blue, and Purple Team exercises.
• Experience assessing cloud and industrial control system (ICS) environments.

Work Authorization/Clearance: Must be a US Citizen and have or are able to obtain a Federal Government Public Trust clearance.

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Salary: 140000.0 - 175000.0 USD