The C5ISR Center Cyber Security Service Provider (CSSP) delivers 24x7x365 defensive cyber operations supporting critical Department of War (DoW) missions. Our team provides continuous monitoring, threat detection, incident response, and vulnerability management across cloud and on-premises environments, including AWS, Azure, GCP, Oracle Cloud, and SaaS platforms.
Leidos is seeking a Data Security Engineer to build, optimize, and sustain the cybersecurity data pipelines that power these defensive operations. You will ingest, normalize, enrich, and manage high-volume security telemetry within Elastic; optimize data performance and quality; automate workflows; and troubleshoot dependencies across Elastic, Kafka, and CI/CD systems. You will partner with cyber teams to ensure analysts and defenders have reliable, analytics-ready data for threat detection and response.
This position is hybrid on-site 3 days/week in Adelphi, Maryland and requires U.S. Citizenship and an active TS/SCI clearance
Design, maintain, and optimize scalable cybersecurity data ingestion and normalization pipelines.
Develop transformations and enrichments for diverse security log and telemetry sources.
Configure and optimize Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana, and Fleet for high-volume, high-availability operations.
Maintain index templates, mappings, schemas, and data models supporting analytics and detection logic.
Implement data validation, deduplication, and quality controls to ensure data integrity.
Automate ingestion, transformation, and engineering workflows using Python, Bash, and related tools.
Monitor pipeline and indexing performance, troubleshoot data-flow issues, and optimize throughput, storage, and query performance.
Maintain traceability and troubleshoot dependencies across Kafka, Elastic, and CI/CD tooling.
Partner with Detection Engineering, Threat Analysis, Endpoint, and other cyber teams to support operational requirements.
Maintain technical documentation, SOPs, and engineering artifacts.
Bachelor's degree and 4–8 years of relevant experience, or additional experience may substitute in lieu of degree.
3+ years of data engineering, data analysis, cybersecurity data engineering, or related experience.
Experience with data ingestion, transformation, normalization, or high-volume data-processing pipelines.
Experience with relevant technologies such as Elastic Stack, Kafka, Python, Bash, and CI/CD tooling.
Familiarity with Elastic Common Schema (ECS) or similar cybersecurity data models.
Required DoD 8570/8140-aligned and CSSP Analyst certifications, as applicable to the position.
U.S. Citizenship with an active TS/SCI clearance.
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Experience onboarding and normalizing high-volume cybersecurity telemetry and log sources.
Experience with Kafka, Python/Bash automation, CI/CD, or DevSecOps practices.
Experience supporting AWS, Azure, GCP, Oracle Cloud, hybrid-cloud, or multi-cloud environments.
Knowledge of cybersecurity operations, including SIEM, threat detection, incident response, and security monitoring.
Experience supporting a DoD CSSP, SOC, or other large-scale defensive cyber operations environment.
Strong troubleshooting skills across complex data pipelines and interconnected systems.
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.
August 13, 2026
For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.
Pay Range $87,100.00 - $157,450.00
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.
Leidos is a Fortune 500® innovation company rapidly addressing the world’s most vexing challenges in national security and health. The company's global workforce of 48,000 collaborates to create smarter technology solutions for customers in heavily regulated industries. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $15.4 billion for the fiscal year ended December 29, 2023.
Leidos was cited for the meaningful work employees perform that is challenging, impactful, and aligned with our customers’ missions as reasons professionals want to work and stay at our company. Leidos has also been named to lists including Forbes’ Best Employers for Diversity, Forbes’ America’s Best Employers for Women, Military Times Best for Vets Employers, and Ethisphere Institute’s World's Most Ethical Companies®.
Employees enjoy career enrichment opportunities available through mobility and development and experience rewarding relationships with supportive supervisors and talented colleagues and customers. Employees appreciate our flexible work environment, allowing for and encouraging a true work-life balance. Our professionals are also excited about our Employee Resource Groups, like the Collaborative Outreach with Remote and Embedded Employees (CORE), which strives to create an environment where every employee, regardless of location, feels fully engaged as a valued employee of Leidos.
Your most important work is ahead, visit careers.leidos.com for our latest opportunities.
