Senior Systems Engineer

Description: The Senior Systems Engineer (Level 3) serves as a principal technical leader and subject matter expert within the National Security Agency’s Enterprise Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Program. Operating in a highly classified, multi-domain infrastructure, the successful candidate will drive the strategic architectural design, end-to‑end integration, deployment, and optimization of premier endpoint security platforms, specifically Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE) and Trellix HX. This critical role bridges high‑level systems architecture with operational defense capabilities, ensuring total endpoint visibility, robust threat containment, and resilient configuration management across all enterprise and mission‑critical assets to defend national security infrastructure against sophisticated cyber threats.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

The Systems Engineer 3 is responsible for leading the lifecycle engineering and scale‑out architecture of MDE and Trellix HX across hybrid environments, including on‑premises, cloud, and virtual desktop infrastructures (VDI). This includes authoring complex system engineering and implementation plans, tuning agent configurations and exclusion policies to eliminate mission friction, and monitoring overall endpoint health at scale. The engineer will collaborate closely with threat hunting and intelligence analysts to translate actionable threat intelligence into custom technical indicators of compromise (IOCs), utilizing Kusto Query Language (KQL) and YARA rules. Additionally, the individual will act as a primary technical advisor to Government stakeholders on system risks and engineering considerations, provide advanced forensic support to the SOC during critical high-priority incidents, and actively mentor junior and mid-level engineering personnel within the program.