Data Security Engineer

Description

The C5ISR Center Cyber Security Service Provider (CSSP) delivers 24x7x365 defensive cyber operations supporting critical Department of War (DoW) missions. Our team provides continuous monitoring, threat detection, incident response, and vulnerability management across cloud and on-premises environments, including AWS, Azure, GCP, Oracle Cloud, and SaaS platforms.

Leidos is seeking a Data Security Engineer to build, optimize, and sustain the cybersecurity data pipelines that power these defensive operations. You will ingest, normalize, enrich, and manage high-volume security telemetry within Elastic; optimize data performance and quality; automate workflows; and troubleshoot dependencies across Elastic, Kafka, and CI/CD systems. You will partner with cyber teams to ensure analysts and defenders have reliable, analytics-ready data for threat detection and response.

This position is hybrid on-site 3 days/week in Adelphi, Maryland and requires U.S. Citizenship and an active TS/SCI clearance.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Design, maintain, and optimize scalable cybersecurity data ingestion and normalization pipelines.

• Develop transformations and enrichments for diverse security log and telemetry sources.

• Configure and optimize Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana, and Fleet for high-volume, high-availability operations.

• Maintain index templates, mappings, schemas, and data models supporting analytics and detection logic.

• Implement data validation, deduplication, and quality controls to ensure data integrity.

• Automate ingestion, transformation, and engineering workflows using Python, Bash, and related tools.

• Monitor pipeline and indexing performance, troubleshoot data-flow issues, and optimize throughput, storage, and query performance.

• Maintain traceability and troubleshoot dependencies across Kafka, Elastic, and CI/CD tooling.

• Partner with Detection Engineering, Threat Analysis, Endpoint, and other cyber teams to support operational requirements.

• Maintain technical documentation, SOPs, and engineering artifacts.

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Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree and 4–8 years of relevant experience, or additional experience may substitute in lieu of degree.

• 3+ years of data engineering, data analysis, cybersecurity data engineering, or related experience.

• Experience with data ingestion, transformation, normalization, or high-volume data-processing pipelines.

• Experience with relevant technologies such as Elastic Stack, Kafka, Python, Bash, and CI/CD tooling.

• Familiarity with Elastic Common Schema (ECS) or similar cybersecurity data models.

• Required DoD 8570/8140-aligned and CSSP Analyst certifications, as applicable to the position.

• U.S. Citizenship with an active TS/SCI clearance.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

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Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience onboarding and normalizing high-volume cybersecurity telemetry and log sources.

• Experience with Kafka, Python/Bash automation, CI/CD, or DevSecOps practices.

• Experience supporting AWS, Azure, GCP, Oracle Cloud, hybrid-cloud, or multi-cloud environments.

• Knowledge of cybersecurity operations, including SIEM, threat detection, incident response, and security monitoring.

• Experience supporting a DoD CSSP, SOC, or other large-scale defensive cyber operations environment.

• Strong troubleshooting skills across complex data pipelines and interconnected systems.

If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo — because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 — and moving faster than anyone else dares.

Original Posting:

August 13, 2026

Pay Range:

Pay Range $87,100.00 - $157,450.00

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.

About Leidos

Leidos is an industry and technology leader serving government and commercial customers with smarter, more efficient digital and mission innovations. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with 47,000 global employees, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $16.7 billion for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2025. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com.

Pay and Benefits

Pay and benefits are fundamental to any career decision. That's why we craft compensation packages that reflect the importance of the work we do for our customers. Employment benefits include competitive compensation, Health and Wellness programs, Income Protection, Paid Leave and Retirement. More details are available at www.leidos.com/careers/pay-benefits.

Securing Your Data

Beware of fake employment opportunities using Leidos’ name. Leidos will never ask you to provide payment-related information during any part of the employment application process (i.e., ask you for money), nor will Leidos ever advance money as part of the hiring process (i.e., send you a check or money order before doing any work). Further, Leidos will only communicate with you through emails that are generated by the Leidos.com automated system – never from free commercial services (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail) or via WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. If you received an email purporting to be from Leidos that asks for payment-related information or any other personal information (e.g., about you or your previous employer), and you are concerned about its legitimacy, please make us aware immediately by emailing us at LeidosCareersFraud@leidos.com.

If you believe you are the victim of a scam, contact your local law enforcement and report the incident to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Commitment to Non-Discrimination

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, ethnicity, age, national origin, citizenship, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, pregnancy, family structure, marital status, ancestry, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Leidos will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with relevant laws.

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