Information System Security Officers (ISSO), Senior Security Engineers & Security Engineering Leads (CBP)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection runs continuous operations across more than 300 land, air, and sea ports of entry, plus Border Patrol stations and the Air and Marine Operations Center. Security work here carries a cost that security work in a corporate environment does not. A control that blocks something at two in the morning at a remote checkpoint does not inconvenience an employee at a desk. It stops an officer from doing the thing they are standing there to do. Getting that judgment right, over and over, inside a federal authorization process, is most of the job. We are hiring on two tracks. Information system security officers own whether systems stay authorized and whether the paperwork describing them is true. Senior security engineers own how systems are hardened, monitored, and fixed. You will work with network engineers, cloud engineers, field deployment teams, and the government security staff who have to be persuaded rather than informed. One thing is worth knowing before you apply. There is more documentation and process in this work than either track usually wants. An engineer hoping to build tooling all day and an ISSO hoping to write packages undisturbed will both find the job wider than the title suggests.

Responsibilities

Own whether assigned systems stay authorized and stay honestly described; Decide what counts as an acceptable control implementation, what belongs on a POA&M, and when a change needs a security review before it proceeds; Own how systems get hardened, monitored, and remediated; Decide what the secure configuration is, what tooling the program runs, and which risks get engineered out rather than accepted and tracked; Own the security engineering function as a whole, including the standards other engineers build against; Close security findings at their cause rather than at the ticket; Get the security answer into a design while it can still change it; Give the program an accurate picture of its own security posture.

Requirements

Active Top Secret with SCI eligibility; Ability to obtain and maintain a CBP Background Investigation (CBP BI) and EOD; U.S. Citizenship required; One or more of the following certifications: CISSO, CISM, CCSP, CEH, or other relevant equivalent; One or more of the following certifications required: Active CISSP, Active CISM; other relevant certifications (e.g., CCSP, CEH) may be considered; Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, STEM, Information Technology, or Cybersecurity; A minimum of eight (8) years of experience in information security, with at least 5 years specifically in a lead ISSO or similar leadership capacity on large complex USG programs.

Nice to have

Active BI; Active CBP BI, a fitness determination at another DHS component, or an active DoD clearance; Active CISSP; Active Project Management Professional (PMP) certification; Active ISC2 Certified in Governance, Risk and Compliance (CGRC); Knowledge of FedRAMP; Knowledge of A-123 audit; Experience and Expertise with GRC tools such as CSAM; Experience carrying a system through authorization; Experience working inside RMF or an equivalent federal authorization framework; Experience closing a class of findings; Experience writing or reviewing security documentation that somebody else then had to defend in front of a government reviewer; Experience running continuous monitoring where the data was incomplete and had to be made useful anyway; Certifications such as CISSP, CISM, CAP, or Security+ are useful, but they are not a substitute for having done the work.

Benefits

Health Insurance; Life Insurance; Paid Time Off; Holiday Pay; Short-term and long-term Disability; Retirement; Learning and Development opportunities; Other optional benefit elections; $10,000 signing bonus for candidates with active CBP BI, payable after 90 days.