Application Security Engineer

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Cyber Security Directorate (CSD) Security Operations Center (SOC) is a US Government program responsible to prevent, identify, contain and eradicate cyber threats to CBP networks through monitoring, intrusion detection and protective security services to CBP information systems including local area networks/wide area networks (LAN/WAN), commercial Internet connection, public facing websites, wireless, mobile/cellular, cloud, security devices, servers and workstations.  The CBP SOC is responsible for the overall security of CBP Enterprise-wide information systems, and collects, investigates, and reports any suspected and confirmed security violations. 

Primary Responsibilities

Leidos is looking for an Application Security Engineer to support:

 Application Security Operations and Maintenance, Application Security Configuration Management and Application Security Logging and Vulnerability Management :

• Ensure continuous monitoring of all CSD managed applications and implement an alerting system for critical incidents
• Participate in market research to identify new security solutions as required to avoid obsolescence and to improve the overall security posture
• Develop, deploy, maintain, and/or assist in the implementation and integration of Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) into CBP’s security tool suite.
• Integrate security best practices into the software development life cycle (SDLC) and ensure security is embedded from design to deployment.
• Utilize SAST tools to analyze source code for vulnerabilities.
• Work closely with development teams and ISSOs to remediate identified security issues.
• Conduct security assessments using Microfocus WebInspect and other DAST tools.
• Collaborate with development teams to address and remediate dynamic security findings.
• Implement and manage container security tools, with a focus on Anchore, to ensure secure container deployments.
• Provide recommendations for secure container orchestration.
• Work on ensuring systems and applications comply with Security Technical Implementation Guide
• Establish and maintain the definitive current basis for control and status accounting of application systems and their configuration items.
• Select configuration items at appropriate levels for application products to facilitate documentation, control
• Tune logging capabilities for efficiency, identify shortfalls, and recommend improvements and new technologies for application logging.
• Support the CSD Service Desk in managing and executing the Vulnerability Identification and Remediation process for applications.

Basic Qualifications

• BS degree in Information Technology, Software Engineering, or related field and 8 – 12 years of prior relevant experience
• 3+ years of prior experience in application security with a focus on SAST, SCA, DAST
• Knowledge of secure coding practices and integration into SDLC
• Familiarity with common security frameworks and standards
• Strong programming/scripting skills
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills
• Working in an Agile project management environment
• Must have a Top Secret Clearance with SCI
• Must be able to report into the Ashburn VA office up to 5 days per week.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s with 1-2 years of prior experience in application security with a focus on SAST, SCA, DAST
• Experience with data engineering tools such as Kubernetes/Rancher, Cloudera
• Experience with Configuration Management and IaC tools such as Salt or Ansible
• Experience with scripting languages, CI/CD tools, Elasticsearch, or Gitlab
• Experience working in an air-gapped environments
• Experience working in large computing environments (> 1,000 end-points) 

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:

July 10, 2026

Pay Range:

Pay Range $107,900.00 - $195,050.00

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.