Security Operations Center (SOC) Analyst

Grow, innovate, and generate progress: Harness your expertise to solve challenges and celebrate success! 


Job Summary
JCS Solutions is seeking a Security Operations Center (SOC) Analyst supporting the Pentagon Reservation under the DISA Penetration Handling, Incident, System Health (PHISH) Support Services II program. This position supports a 24/7 SOC mission and requires availability for rotating shifts, including weekends, holidays, and inclement-weather operations. The position requires 60 percent onsite work at the Mark Center in Alexandria, Virginia, consistent with program and customer requirements. 
The Security Operations Center (SOC) Analyst supports continuous monitoring, detection, analysis, escalation, mitigation, and response to cybersecurity events affecting customer networks, endpoints, servers, applications, cloud environments, and mission systems. The analyst uses security telemetry, threat intelligence, established analytic procedures, and operational tools to identify suspicious or malicious activity; investigate potential compromises; document findings; and coordinate response actions with senior analysts, incident responders, cyber engineers, system owners, and mission partners. 
This role is an experienced technical individual-contributor position. The SOC Analyst works independently to achieve day-to-day operational objectives and may own defined projects or technical processes within the SOC. The analyst contributes to operational cybersecurity, infrastructure support, and mission-support activities; collaborates with internal subject-matter experts to resolve technical problems; and may provide peer support, coaching, or technical review for less-experienced personnel. 

Location: Alexandria, VA
Clearance: TS/SCI
Certification: Active DoD 8140/8570 IAT Level II certification

What’s in it for you: 

• Join a premier technology firm specializing in innovative solutions.  
• Be part of a collaborative, inclusive, and innovative work culture.  
• Enjoy tremendous growth potential in a high-performing team environment.  
• A robust benefits package: 
  • Health, dental, and vision insurance  
  • Life insurance  
  • Short-and-long term disability  
  • Paid time off (PTO)  
  • 401k retirement plan with employer match 
  • Annual Professional Development Reimbursement Program  
  • And more! 

 
What you will do:

• Monitor, triage, and investigate alerts from Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) platforms, Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) tools, intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS), authentication logs, NetFlow, packet capture, cloud-security tools, vulnerability data, and other available security sensors. 
• Analyze endpoint, host, network, identity, application, and cloud telemetry to identify anomalous, suspicious, or malicious activity. 
• Conduct assigned incident investigations by reviewing security logs and alerts, correlating evidence across available data sources, identifying potentially affected systems or accounts, assessing scope and potential impact, and escalating cases in accordance with established procedures. 
• Apply cyber threat intelligence and knowledge of adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) to validate alerts, identify indicators of compromise, prioritize investigations, and provide relevant context to incident responders and technical stakeholders. 
• Support approved containment, eradication, recovery, and post-incident activities by collecting evidence, documenting actions, validating security controls, and coordinating with designated response personnel. 
• Perform computer forensic network and host analysis in support of incident investigations, threat-hunting activities, and evidence-based reporting. 
• Support proactive threat hunts, environment sweeps, and detection-validation activities based on known or emerging adversary activity, vulnerabilities, and organizational priorities. 
• Identify recurring false positives, control gaps, telemetry limitations, suspicious trends, vulnerabilities, and adversary behaviors; recommend improvements to detection logic, dashboards, analytic workflows, playbooks, and SOC processes. 
• Contribute to the development, testing, tuning, and documentation of detection use cases, correlation logic, analytic playbooks, standard operating procedures, work instructions, and knowledge-management artifacts. 
• Document analytic methods, evidence, findings, actions taken, escalation decisions, and recommended next steps in case-management and knowledge-management systems. 
• Prepare clear incident tickets, shift summaries, situational-awareness updates, and technical reports for SOC personnel, incident responders, system owners, and operational stakeholders. 
• Conduct authorized infrastructure-support activities, including device discovery, operating-system fingerprinting, service scanning, passive network scanning, and support to the configuration, testing, deployment, and maintenance of cybersecurity hardware and software. 
• Maintain proficiency with operational tools, cyber-defense methodologies, network and host analysis techniques, and evolving threats. 
• Support training, exercises, operational planning, and integrated cyber operations as assigned. 
• Collaborate with SOC operations, incident response, cyber engineering, threat intelligence, system administrators, and mission partners to share findings and support timely remediation. 
• Provide technical guidance, peer review, and knowledge sharing to junior analysts or other team members, as assigned. 

 What you will bring: 

• Experience supporting a SOC, CND organization, cyber protection team, incident-response team, network operations center, or comparable cybersecurity operations environment. 
• Experience monitoring and investigating cybersecurity events using SIEM, EDR, IDS/IPS, endpoint, network, identity, cloud, vulnerability, and log-data sources. 
• Working knowledge of incident-response processes, including alert triage, investigation, escalation, evidence collection, containment support, remediation coordination, and incident documentation. 
• Working knowledge of TCP/IP; common ports and protocols; network traffic flow; endpoint and operating-system fundamentals; authentication and identity activity; and enterprise security controls. 
• Familiarity with adversary TTPs, attack vectors, indicators of compromise, common malware behaviors, and analytic frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK and the Cyber Kill Chain. 
• Ability to analyze available data, identify gaps or uncertainties, apply established procedures, and communicate technically sound findings and recommendations. 
• Ability to prepare clear case notes, incident summaries, shift-turnover products, and technical reports for technical and operational audiences. 
• Ability to collaborate effectively across SOC operations, incident response, cyber engineering, system administration, and customer or mission-partner organizations. 
• Ability to work independently on assigned operational objectives, technical processes, or projects, while recognizing when to seek assistance or escalate risk.  
• Required Certifications
  • An active DoD 8140 IAT Level II certification, such as one of the following: Security+ CE, CySA+, CASP+ CE, CCNA-Security, CCNP Security, CCSP, CISA, CISSP (or Associate), CND, GCED, GCIH, GICSP, GSEC, or SSCP
• Education Requirements
  • Bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity, information technology, computer science, intelligence studies, or a related technical discipline, and 4-8 years of relevant experience; or an equivalent combination of relevant military service, cybersecurity education, certifications, and professional experience. 

How you will wow us:

• Experience using one or more enterprise SIEM platforms, such as Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, IBM QRadar, ArcSight, Elastic, or comparable tools. 
• Experience with EDR, antivirus, host-based security tools, IDS/IPS, network detection and response, vulnerability-management tools, NetFlow, or packet-capture analysis. 
• Familiarity with Windows and Unix/Linux operating systems, command-line tools, and system-administration concepts. 
• Experience with structured threat hunting, detection tuning, use-case development, or translating threat intelligence into analytic queries. 
• Familiarity with malicious-file triage, malware-analysis concepts, network-forensics techniques, or host-forensics artifacts. 
• Experience with scripting or automation using Python, PowerShell, Bash, or a similar language. 
• Relevant cybersecurity certification(s), including those required by the applicable contract, customer, or Department of War policy.  

JCS Solutions (JCS) is a premier technology firm providing innovative solutions and high-quality services in defense, national security, and civilian sectors. JCS offers enterprise-wide solutions including cloud computing, software development, cybersecurity, digital modernization, and management consulting for the federal government.

At JCS, we elevate our customers’ mission through the application of technology and professional services. Our commitment to investing in our workforce drives innovation and progress for our clients, employees, and communities.

JCS is both a Great Place to Work and a Top Places to Work certified company.
  
Our employees embody our core values, and we are looking for others who do too!

• Customer Experience: Strive for excellence and delight our clients 
• Innovation: Embrace creative thinking to enable continual growth and powerful solutions 
• Accountability: Take ownership of and pride in our actions and service delivery 
• Inspire: Be inspired to be your best self and have fun in the process 
• Integrity: Do the right thing, the right way, every time! 
• Stewardship: The careful and responsible management of something entrusted to our care. 

 At JCS Solutions, compensation is based on a number of factors such as location, qualifications, and applicable contract terms. The general salary range for this position is as follows: $75,000.00 - $130,000.00

Commitment to Non-Discrimination
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected status protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws.
 

NOTICE: Please be aware that all JCS Solutions communications related to job interviews and offers from our recruiting team will only come from @JCSSolutions.com. We want to emphasize that we do not conduct any interviews over Discord, Slack, Skype, Zoom, or any chat app.