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Defensive Cybersecurity Engineer/Blue Team

The MITRE Corporation

McLean, VAJob$159–238K/yrSeen todaySeen in employer's feed today

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At a glance

Compensation
$159–238K/yr
Location
McLean, VA
Work Authorization
US work authorization required

Olive lists jobs from US employers, including remote roles you can work from the United States.

Requirements

Credentials this posting asks for.

TS/SCI clearance, required

Job overview

MITRE seeks a Defensive Cybersecurity Engineer/Blue Team professional for mission-driven defensive cyber operations and applied research. The role combines hands-on operations with development and evaluation of AI-enabled cybersecurity capabilities, supporting government sponsors. Work may include threat hunting, detection engineering, cyber deception, security analytics, and automation of container environments. The position requires five days per week onsite and an active Top Secret/SCI with polygraph clearance.

Skills & qualifications

RequiredNice to have

Skills

Splunk, requiredCloud Computing, requiredCybersecurity Operations, requiredCybersecurity Principles, requiredSecurity Operations Centers, requiredThreat Hunting, requiredDetection Engineering, requiredMalware Analysis, requiredCyber Deception, requiredElastic/ELK, nice to haveMITRE ATT&CK, nice to haveAI Tools and Techniques, nice to haveDefensive Cyber Operations, nice to have

Qualifications

Bachelor's in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Data Science, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, or Related Field, requiredBachelor's+8, Master's+6, PhD+3 or Equivalent, requiredTop Secret/SCI With Polygraph Clearance, requiredU.S. Citizenship, required

Full job description

At MITRE, your passion fuels work that impacts our nation and improves lives. This is where your skills strengthen national security, cybersecurity, health, transportation, and citizen services. We’re a nonprofit engineering, applied research, and advanced technology organization working in the public interest. With objectivity and integrity at our core, we lead federally funded research and development centers for U.S. government agencies – collaborating with industry and academia to deliver integrated, high-impact solutions that advance our nation’s health, security, and prosperity. Our people tackle the toughest technical challenges, supported by competitive benefits, meaningful career development, and a culture of innovation, collaboration, and technical excellence. Choose MITRE for a career with purpose — and help shape the future.

Department Summary:

MITRE’s Defensive Cyber Operations department is seeking creative people to work collaboratively with our staff of cybersecurity engineers in the fields of defensive cyber operations, threat hunt, detection engineering, and cyber deception and adversary engagement with increasing emphasis in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support mission-driven cybersecurity initiatives for government sponsors.

This role blends hands-on defensive operations with advanced research and applied development in AI-enabled cybersecurity. The successful candidate will help design, implement, and evaluate next-generation defensive capabilities that leverage machine learning, large language models, autonomous systems, and advanced analytics to protect mission-critical systems and national infrastructure

Roles & Responsibilities:

Our work responsibilities vary, but could include:

  • Combining cybersecurity domain expertise and contemporary data science skills to enhance adversary detection, network defense, and Security Operations Center (SOC) process improvement.

  • Developing AI-enabled cybersecurity tools for anomaly detection, behavioral analytics, malware analysis, and adversary emulation.

  • Researching emerging AI techniques (e.g., machine learning, deep learning, generative AI, reinforcement learning) and assessing their applicability to defensive cyber missions.

  • Using MITRE ATT&CK® to hunt the adversary and build TTP-based defenses.

  • Using detection engineering to create security analytics and dashboards in Splunk or Elastic and integrating new data feeds

  • Automating container environments via continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD)

  • Acting as a trusted advisor to the Federal Government

Basic Qualifications:

  • Typically requires a minimum of 8 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 6 years and a Master’s degree; or a PhD with 3 years’ experience; or equivalent combination of related education and work experience.

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Data Science, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, or a related field

  • Significant experience with Splunk and cloud computing

  • Knowledge of cyber security operations and cyber security principles and their application

  • Experience in at least one of: Security Operations Centers (SOCs), threat hunting, detection engineering, malware analysis, or cyber deception

  • Applicants selected for this position will be subject to a government clearance security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information.

  • Must have an active Top Secret/SCI with polygraph U.S Government issued Security Clearance. Per the U.S. Government’s eligibility requirements, you must be a U.S Citizen to be considered for a security clearance.

  • This position has an on-site requirement of 5 days a week on-site.

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Experience with Elastic/ELK

  • Experience using MITRE ATT&CK®

  • Experience using or developing AI tools and techniques for defensive cyber operations

This requisition requires the candidate to have a minimum of the following clearance(s):

Top Secret/SCI/Polygraph

This requisition requires the hired candidate to have or obtain, within one year from the date of hire, the following clearance(s):

Top Secret/SCI/Polygraph

Salary compensation range and midpoint:

$158,800 - $198,500 - $238,200 Annual

Work Location Type:

Onsite

Commitment to Non-Discrimination

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to disability, status as a protected veteran or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, local or international law.

MITRE intends to maintain a website that is fully accessible to all individuals. If you are unable to search or apply for jobs and would like to request a reasonable accommodation for any part of MITRE’s employment process, please email [email protected] for general support and [email protected] for intern positions. This service is for individuals requiring reasonable accommodation requests. Please note that vendor solicitations will not receive a reply.

Benefits information may be found here (https://careers.mitre.org/us/en/benefits) .

Copyright © 1997-2026, The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved. MITRE is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation. Material on this site may be copied and distributed with permission only.

How this job compares

Set against the 1,747 open Cybersecurity Engineer jobs on Olive Jobs, counted November 10, 2026.

Pay
  • This posting$159–238K/yr
  • Virginia median$122–200K/yr157 salary ranges
  • US median$122–198K/yr1,397 salary ranges

This range's midpoint, $199K, is 23% above the Virginia median midpoint ($161K) — in the middle half of Cybersecurity Engineer salary ranges in Virginia.

Openings
Olive Jobs lists 206 open Cybersecurity Engineer jobs in Virginia and 1,747 across the US. 3% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
Hiring the most in Virginia
Experience
This posting asks for at least 3 years of experience; Cybersecurity Engineer postings that state a minimum ask for 5 years at the median (1,606 postings).
Education
521 of the 1,747 open Cybersecurity Engineer jobs (30%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.

Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on November 10, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.

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