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Viasat · 12 hours ago

Staff Security Specialist, Threat Hunter

Washington, DC

Full-time

Hybrid

Senior Level, Lead/Staff

$190K/yr - $284K/yr

5+ years exp

Viasat is a company on a mission to deliver connections that can change the world. They are seeking a Cyber Threat Hunter to proactively safeguard the organization from advanced threats, using intelligence-driven methodologies to hunt down adversaries and enhance security measures.

InternetOptical CommunicationTelecommunications

No H1B

Security Clearance Required

U.S. Citizen Only

Responsibilities

Execute hypothesis-driven threat hunts across the network, endpoints, and cloud environments to uncover hidden, anomalous, or malicious activity that could bypass controls

Integrate Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) from tactical, operational, and strategic sources to inform hunting hypotheses, prioritize investigations, and enrich security tooling

Collaborate on threat intelligence driven incidents by providing hunting and CTI enrichment support

Prioritize vulnerabilities and security gaps based on threat actor exploitation trends identified via CTI and hunting campaigns, directly feeding into the vulnerability management and security engineering programs

Coordinate with detection engineers to develop new detections, composite rules, and dashboards based on discovered threat Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) to enhance the security team's overall capability

Lead the lifecycle of threat intelligence within the Threat Intelligence Platform (TIP), ensuring timely maintenance, accurate expiration policies, reduction in false positive rates, and continuous enrichment of Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) and TTPs to improve contextualization and prioritization of alerts in the Security and Information Event Management (SIEM)

Maintain continuous tracking and monitoring of external threat surfaces, including dark web forums, leak sites, and underground marketplaces, focusing on brand protection, supply chain risks, and the identification of organizational asset management risks

Review the latest threat intelligence reports, internal alerts, and ongoing investigations. Prioritize the day's hunting campaigns based on the most relevant and high-impact threats

Spend significant time querying and analyzing large datasets from SIEM, Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), network logs, and cloud telemetry, searching for patterns and anomalies that confirm or deny a threat intelligence hypothesis

Conduct in-depth analysis on potential IOCs, which may include correlating data from disparate sources

Work directly with the Incident Response team to transition a confirmed threat into a full-scale incident, providing critical context on the threat actor, their motives, and their activities

Participate in and contribute to relevant threat intelligence working groups, consuming information from partners to rapidly shift and focus hunting efforts on the most immediate and relevant threats to our sectors

Regularly review and update intelligence feeds and context within the TIP and SIEM to keep alerting rules efficient. This reduces false positive alerts and improves detection based on gathered information

Document and communicate findings clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, detailing the threat, its potential impact, and actionable remediation steps

Qualification

Threat HuntingCyber Threat IntelligenceIncident ResponseSIEMEndpoint DetectionResponseVulnerability ManagementOperating System InternalsCloud InfrastructureNetwork ProtocolsData AnalysisTechnical CommunicationCollaborationContinuous Learning

Required

5+ years' experience threat hunting

2+ years experience with the Incident Response lifecycle (Preparation, Detection & Analysis, Containment, Eradication & Recovery, Post-Incident Activity) and the ability to lead the technical aspects of an investigation

Demonstrable ability to source, analyze, and apply CTI to hunting for adversary TTPs

Provide expert-level knowledge and practical experience with SIEM, TIP, and Endpoint and Network Detection & Response E/NDR) tools for data querying and analysis

Experience prioritizing vulnerabilities, Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs), in a vulnerability management program based on CTI feeds and evidence of active exploitation (e.g., applying the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog)

Solid understanding of operating system internals (Windows, macOS, Linux), cloud infrastructure, common network protocols, or the ability to analyze endpoint and network artifacts (e.g., packet captures, memory dumps, system logs)

US Citizenship required

Active DoD Secret Clearance or have held one in the last two (2) years

Ability to travel up to 10%