Defensive Cyber Operations (DCO) Analyst

Dark Wolf Solutions is looking for a Defensive Cyber Operations Analyst to perform continuous system monitoring to identify malicious cyber-attacks while supporting the containment and remediation of IT threats.

The role will function as an operator responsible for hands-on incident response, correlation, and threat detection both on-premise using ELK and across AWS GovCloud environments using Splunk Enterprise.

Key Responsibilities:

• Active monitoring, detection, and analysis across on-prem (ELK) and cloud-hosted AWS GovCloud (Splunk Enterprise) environments.
• Utilize AI-assisted analysis, automation, and correlation of data from various log sources to triage security events, detect anomalies, and reduce response times for complex threats.
• Vulnerability Management actions to include providing recommendations and implementing mitigations.
• Conduct intrusion analysis and correlation of unauthorized activities; provide and implement recommendations to improve detection and customer mitigation processes.
• Participate in the Root Cause Analysis process and documentation capturing efforts taken to mitigate unauthorized actions.
• Participate in the development of DCO tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) and supporting documentation.
• Identify security discrepancies and report and respond to security incidents.
• Provide research and analysis in support of expanding programs and areas of responsibility.
• Draft documentation for briefings, reports, and informational analyses.
• Participate in customer exercises (after duty hours may be required).
• Adhere to defined policies, master plans and schedules.
• Complete all initial and annual training requirements and disclosures as outlined by BSTG.
• Perform all other duties as required, consistent with the goals, objectives, and responsibilities of the department.

Required Qualifications:

• 4+ years of relevant cybersecurity experience, including direct SOC / vSOC / CSSP incident response experience.
• 2+ years of hands-on experience using Splunk Enterprise and ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) for event correlation and threat detection.
• Direct experience monitoring, ingesting, and analyzing security telemetry within AWS GovCloud environments (e.g., CloudTrail, VPC Flow Logs, AWS GuardDuty).
• Hands-on experience utilizing GitLab (e.g., source control, CI/CD pipelines, issue tracking, or DevSecOps workflows).
• 2+ years of experience with employment of DoD cybersecurity requirements, policies, and procedures to include assessment and authorization activities.
• Department of Defense Directive (DoDD) 8140 / 8570 IAT CSSP Certification must be obtained prior to hire (CEH, Security+, GCIH, CySA+ or Equivalent).
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.
• US Citizenship and an active Top Secret/SCI security clearance required.

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience with AI/ML security tools (e.g., generative AI for query generation, automated threat intelligence, or AI-driven behavioral analytics).
• AWS Certified Security – Specialty certification.
• Splunk Core Certified Power User / Admin or Elastic Certified Analyst certifications.
• Experience writing search queries using SPL (Splunk Processing Language) and KQL/Lucene (Kibana Query Language).
• Experience with SentinelOne (or similar EDR platforms) for endpoint detection, threat hunting, and automated remediation.
• Familiarity with Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) tools such as Terraform or Ansible within a DevSecOps environment.
• Experience performing cybersecurity activities in support of software and system requirements, design, development, testing, and sustainment.
• Experience with HBSS, ACAS, SCAP Compliance Checker (SCC), DISA STIGs.
• Working knowledge of NIST 800-53 Security and Privacy Controls.
• Experience with various operation systems such as RHEL and Windows.
• Experience in performing post-incident computer forensics without destruction of critical data.
• Ability to provide guidance on DoD Cyber regulations and requirements to engineering and software development staff.

The estimated salary range for this role is $90,000.00 - $145,000.00, commensurate on experience and technical skillset.