About the role
Senior Security Engineer
Location: Bethesda, MD (Requires Onsite 3–5 days per week as needs change) Employment Type: Full-time
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) is seeking an IT Senior Security Engineer to join our Security Compliance team. In this role, you will work closely with the NLM Information Systems Security Office and play a critical part in safeguarding NLM’s IT infrastructure.
The Senior Security Engineer plays a hands-on role in a multi-disciplined security team, focusing on the implementation of security controls, ensuring compliance with the federal cybersecurity framework (FISMA), and supporting secure cloud adoption across multiple platforms. Collaborating closely with endpoint owners, infrastructure and network security teams, as well as enterprise security teams to meet NIH mandates, this engineer actively works across vulnerability management, application security, cloud security, SIEM, and bringing in new AI-based tooling to strengthen the organization's overall security posture. Receiving day-to-day technical direction from the ISSO and collaborating with tool owners and system administrators—rather than managing any single platform outright—the ideal candidate brings a strong foundation in systems administration, deep hands-on security engineering experience, and the ability to optimize the effectiveness of existing security tools. As part of a broader IT program providing end-to-end support including network, incident response, and security services, this role is critical in ensuring the availability, integrity, and confidentiality of mission-critical systems.
Responsibilities * Enhance and automate security and compliance checks using scripting and available tools; evaluate emerging technologies, including AI capabilities, to improve security coverage and operational efficiency. Lead team efforts to integrate AI/ML-driven capabilities with the current security tools and operations to enhance and automate assessment and remediation using LLM within NLM * Implement and maintain security controls for on-prem and cloud environments (AWS, GCP, Azure), ensuring compliance with FISMA, NIH policy, and federal security requirements. * Recommend and support security services for identity access, privileged access, vulnerability management, encryption, network micro-segmentation, and centralized log management in both cloud and on-premises systems. * Integrate and optimize enterprise security and SIEM solutions (e.g., Splunk, Tenable) for continuous monitoring, event correlation, and compliance visibility in hybrid environments. * Conduct threat modeling and security assessments of cloud deployments, identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities and supporting secure cloud migrations. * Provide security guidance, best practices, and compliance support to developers, operations teams, and system owners, promoting security awareness across the organization. * Analyze vulnerability and assessment data to identify systemic risks, remediation trends, and opportunities for process or tool improvement, collaborating with system administrators and security teams for practical, risk-informed remediation. * Contribute and manage documentation, standard operating procedures, and technical guidance to support the broader security program and ensure consistent practices.
Required Qualifications * Extensive experience securing on-premises and cloud environments (AWS, GCP, Azure), with strong working knowledge of cloud security models, logging, tagging strategies, ephemeral resource tracking, and cross-platform operations; proven hands-on security engineering background in federal, regulated settings. * 10+ years in securing information technology, plus 7+ years in hands-on security engineering built on a systems administration foundation including at least 3 years focused on cloud security and administration of Linux and Windows endpoints * Familiarity with AI/ML integration in security tooling and operations, supporting modern approaches to threat detection and remediation. * Demonstrated expertise applying federal compliance frameworks (FISMA, NIST 800-53, FedRAMP, RMF), supporting system authorization processes (ATO, POA&M), and navigating complex governance and compliance requirements. * Admin or engineering-level experience with at least two security tools such as Tenable, Checkmarx, or Splunk, along with a strong understanding of vulnerability management, application security testing, and remediation workflows. * Bachelor’s degree in computer science, cybersecurity, information technology, or related technical field (or equivalent technical experience) * CISSP certification (or ability to obtain within 6 months). * Effective collaboration and guidance for multi-disciplinary teams managing servers, workstations, network and security appliances within regulated environments; ability to adapt to shifting priorities and contribute to team goals. * Strong written and verbal communication skills, with a proven ability to produce clear security documentation and explain technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Desired Qualifications * Hands-on work experience with AI/ML automation, security event correlation, asset inventory tracking and SEIM management (preferably in SPLUNK), utilizing scripting or programming such as PowerShell, Bash, Python or equivalent and use of APIs * Advanced Linux and Windows administration experience, Certified in AWS/AZURE/GCP * Experience with container security (like Docker & Kubernetes) * Master’s degree in computer science, Cybersecurity, Information Technology, or a related technical field