Job Requirements
Arlington, VA
Top Secret/SCI Polygraph not specified
Senior Level Career (10+ yrs experience)
Salary not specified
Join Premium to unlock estimated salaries 
Job Description
Job Title: Senior Detection Engineer
Location: Arlington, VA
Clearance: TS/SCI
Compensation: Open Rate
Position Overview
Quantum Science Solutions (QSS) is seeking a Senior Detection Engineer to support a critical customer mission by developing, validating, deploying, and optimizing advanced threat detection capabilities across federal and critical infrastructure environments.
The Senior Detection Engineer will combine threat hunting, adversary behavior analysis, and detection engineering to identify sophisticated cyber threats, improve detection effectiveness, and address security visibility gaps. This position requires advanced technical expertise in behavioral analytics, security telemetry, detection automation, and cross-functional collaboration to deliver scalable and reliable cyber defense capabilities.
Key Responsibilities
• Develop and test threat hunting hypotheses to identify persistence, privilege escalation, credential access, lateral movement, command and control, and defense evasion techniques.
• Analyze endpoint, network, identity, cloud, and application telemetry to develop behavioral analytics, correlation rules, signatures, and investigative queries targeting adversary techniques.
• Translate threat hunting findings, incident response lessons, and exercise results into reusable production detections, technical requirements, and acceptance criteria.
• Develop, test, deploy, and tune detection logic using historical telemetry, controlled simulations, and purple team exercises while documenting validation results and limitations.
• Evaluate false positives, false negatives, alert volume, thresholds, exclusions, and environmental baselines to improve detection accuracy and effectiveness.
• Assess security sensors, tools, and data sources to identify collection, parsing, normalization, and retention gaps; coordinate remediation and validate restored coverage.
• Develop automation for data enrichment, query execution, analytical workflows, and detection validation, including SOAR playbooks when applicable.
• Optimize security queries and data pipelines while maintaining appropriate error handling, recovery procedures, and operational safeguards.
• Maintain version-controlled detection content, peer reviews, release criteria, approval records, and rollback procedures; revalidate analytics following environmental or platform changes.
• Collaborate with threat hunters, incident responders, intelligence analysts, platform engineers, and data scientists to integrate detections and evaluate advanced analytics, including machine learning where appropriate.
• Measure detection coverage, fidelity, actionable findings, and remaining gaps; communicate operational impacts and recommend improvements.
• Provide technical leadership supporting Vulnerability Management (VM) and Threat Hunting (TH) activities, including cybersecurity exercises, sensing assessments, and corrective action tracking.
• Evaluate emerging cybersecurity tools, telemetry sources, and analytical techniques against mission requirements and recommend adoption strategies.
• Mentor analysts and establish standards for detection development, documentation, testing, and tuning, including Job Qualification Requirements (JQRs), training scenarios, and practical assessments.
Mandatory Skills
• U.S. Citizenship
• Active TS/SCI clearance, and ability to obtain DHS Suitability.
• 10+ years of directly relevant experience, including senior-level threat hunting, detection engineering, incident response, or related defensive cybersecurity operations.
• Demonstrated experience independently developing, deploying, maintaining, and tuning production detection content.
• Strong expertise in threat hunting methodologies, adversary behavior analysis, iterative investigations, and evidence-based conclusions.
• Advanced proficiency with security query languages such as KQL, SPL, EQL, ES|QL, or vendor-specific EDR languages, including cross-platform optimization.
• Experience analyzing process execution, command lines, process ancestry, authentication, persistence mechanisms, network connections, and enterprise telemetry.
• Strong knowledge of Windows/Linux internals, enterprise networking, identity systems, cloud telemetry, and sophisticated adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs).
• Experience mapping detections to MITRE ATT&CK and validating coverage through telemetry, test evidence, and documented limitations.
• Proficiency in Python, PowerShell, or comparable languages for cybersecurity analysis, enrichment, testing, and automation.
• Experience evaluating detection effectiveness, including false positives, exclusions, suppression risks, and tuning decisions.
• Ability to document detection logic, validation results, investigative guidance, and operational limitations.
• Experience translating operational findings into engineering requirements, validating sensing effectiveness, and coordinating improvements across technical teams.
Education Requirement
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Information Systems, or a related field.
Preferred Skills
• Experience with CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender, Cortex XDR, SentinelOne, Elastic, Splunk, or comparable platforms.
• Experience with Sigma, detection-as-code, automated testing, SIEM data onboarding, and pipeline tuning.
• Experience with adversary emulation, cybersecurity exercises, and federal civilian or critical infrastructure cyber operations.
• Experience developing detection engineering competencies, JQRs, training scenarios, and practical assessments.
Preferred Certifications
• GCDA, GCFA, GDAT, GCIA, GCIH, GCTI, SC-200, or CISSP
Why QSS?
At QSS, you’re not just filling a role, you’re building and sustaining systems that matter. We invest in your growth, foster innovation, and reward technical excellence.
Benefits include:
• Competitive compensation with annual performance bonuses
• Premium Medical, Dental, & Vision coverage
• Generous PTO plus Federal Holidays
• 401(k) with company match
• Opportunities for continuous learning and skill development
Location: Arlington, VA
Clearance: TS/SCI
Compensation: Open Rate
Position Overview
Quantum Science Solutions (QSS) is seeking a Senior Detection Engineer to support a critical customer mission by developing, validating, deploying, and optimizing advanced threat detection capabilities across federal and critical infrastructure environments.
The Senior Detection Engineer will combine threat hunting, adversary behavior analysis, and detection engineering to identify sophisticated cyber threats, improve detection effectiveness, and address security visibility gaps. This position requires advanced technical expertise in behavioral analytics, security telemetry, detection automation, and cross-functional collaboration to deliver scalable and reliable cyber defense capabilities.
Key Responsibilities
• Develop and test threat hunting hypotheses to identify persistence, privilege escalation, credential access, lateral movement, command and control, and defense evasion techniques.
• Analyze endpoint, network, identity, cloud, and application telemetry to develop behavioral analytics, correlation rules, signatures, and investigative queries targeting adversary techniques.
• Translate threat hunting findings, incident response lessons, and exercise results into reusable production detections, technical requirements, and acceptance criteria.
• Develop, test, deploy, and tune detection logic using historical telemetry, controlled simulations, and purple team exercises while documenting validation results and limitations.
• Evaluate false positives, false negatives, alert volume, thresholds, exclusions, and environmental baselines to improve detection accuracy and effectiveness.
• Assess security sensors, tools, and data sources to identify collection, parsing, normalization, and retention gaps; coordinate remediation and validate restored coverage.
• Develop automation for data enrichment, query execution, analytical workflows, and detection validation, including SOAR playbooks when applicable.
• Optimize security queries and data pipelines while maintaining appropriate error handling, recovery procedures, and operational safeguards.
• Maintain version-controlled detection content, peer reviews, release criteria, approval records, and rollback procedures; revalidate analytics following environmental or platform changes.
• Collaborate with threat hunters, incident responders, intelligence analysts, platform engineers, and data scientists to integrate detections and evaluate advanced analytics, including machine learning where appropriate.
• Measure detection coverage, fidelity, actionable findings, and remaining gaps; communicate operational impacts and recommend improvements.
• Provide technical leadership supporting Vulnerability Management (VM) and Threat Hunting (TH) activities, including cybersecurity exercises, sensing assessments, and corrective action tracking.
• Evaluate emerging cybersecurity tools, telemetry sources, and analytical techniques against mission requirements and recommend adoption strategies.
• Mentor analysts and establish standards for detection development, documentation, testing, and tuning, including Job Qualification Requirements (JQRs), training scenarios, and practical assessments.
Mandatory Skills
• U.S. Citizenship
• Active TS/SCI clearance, and ability to obtain DHS Suitability.
• 10+ years of directly relevant experience, including senior-level threat hunting, detection engineering, incident response, or related defensive cybersecurity operations.
• Demonstrated experience independently developing, deploying, maintaining, and tuning production detection content.
• Strong expertise in threat hunting methodologies, adversary behavior analysis, iterative investigations, and evidence-based conclusions.
• Advanced proficiency with security query languages such as KQL, SPL, EQL, ES|QL, or vendor-specific EDR languages, including cross-platform optimization.
• Experience analyzing process execution, command lines, process ancestry, authentication, persistence mechanisms, network connections, and enterprise telemetry.
• Strong knowledge of Windows/Linux internals, enterprise networking, identity systems, cloud telemetry, and sophisticated adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs).
• Experience mapping detections to MITRE ATT&CK and validating coverage through telemetry, test evidence, and documented limitations.
• Proficiency in Python, PowerShell, or comparable languages for cybersecurity analysis, enrichment, testing, and automation.
• Experience evaluating detection effectiveness, including false positives, exclusions, suppression risks, and tuning decisions.
• Ability to document detection logic, validation results, investigative guidance, and operational limitations.
• Experience translating operational findings into engineering requirements, validating sensing effectiveness, and coordinating improvements across technical teams.
Education Requirement
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Information Systems, or a related field.
Preferred Skills
• Experience with CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender, Cortex XDR, SentinelOne, Elastic, Splunk, or comparable platforms.
• Experience with Sigma, detection-as-code, automated testing, SIEM data onboarding, and pipeline tuning.
• Experience with adversary emulation, cybersecurity exercises, and federal civilian or critical infrastructure cyber operations.
• Experience developing detection engineering competencies, JQRs, training scenarios, and practical assessments.
Preferred Certifications
• GCDA, GCFA, GDAT, GCIA, GCIH, GCTI, SC-200, or CISSP
Why QSS?
At QSS, you’re not just filling a role, you’re building and sustaining systems that matter. We invest in your growth, foster innovation, and reward technical excellence.
Benefits include:
• Competitive compensation with annual performance bonuses
• Premium Medical, Dental, & Vision coverage
• Generous PTO plus Federal Holidays
• 401(k) with company match
• Opportunities for continuous learning and skill development
group id: 91142086
