Senior Cyber SETA Lead / Technical Advisor

Modern Technology Solutions · Arlington · $200,000 (stated in the posting)

The Senior Cyber SETA Lead / Technical Advisor serves as an authoritative, trusted technical advisor to Government Program Executive Officers (PEOs), Program Managers (PMs), and government leadership. In this Systems Engineering and Technical Assistance (SETA) role, the incumbent provides independent technical evaluation, acquisition stewardship, and engineering oversight to ensure that major defense acquisition programs, rapid warfighter prototyping initiatives, and joint cyber architectures deliver resilient capabilities against sophisticated, state-sponsored cyber adversaries.

Operating as an objective extension of the government customer, this role bridges defense acquisition lifecycle governance (FAR and OTA), and operational cyber threat mitigation. The Senior Cyber SETA Lead independently evaluates prime contractor engineering deliverables, software assurance pipelines, supply chain risk management (SCRM) postures, and threat emulation findings across multi-domain platforms (including aircraft, tactical networks, mission planning, cloud, and electronic warfare suites). Leveraging an offensive cyber mindset and extensive program leadership experience, the incumbent ensures that government requirements are validated, defensible architectures are enforced, and taxpayer investments achieve maximum warfighter survivability.

Responsibilities

Independent Technical Evaluation & Defensible Architecture Oversight: Act as the government's primary technical authority evaluating prime contractor system architectures, engineering change proposals (ECPs), and security artifacts.
SETA Program Management & Acquisition Advisory: Provide objective advisory support across the Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) lifecycle and DoD 5000/adaptive acquisition pathways. Advise government leadership on technical direction, source selections, Statements of Work (SOW), System Requirements Documents (SRDs), Contract Data Requirements Lists (CDRLs), and vendor milestone reviews. Assist in formulating innovative contracting approaches using traditional FAR/DFARS mechanisms and Other Transaction Authority (OTA) rapid acquisition vehicles.
Prime Contractor Surveillance & Software Assurance: Monitor and evaluate prime vendor execution across the cyber lifecycle—including software assurance, continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD), secure supply chain risk management (SCRM), and test and evaluation (T&E). Provide critical assessments of contractor-submitted vulnerability remediation timelines, zero-day mitigation strategies, and continuous monitoring baselines.
Threat Intelligence & Red Team Synthesis: Synthesize multi-source intelligence reports, NSA threat disclosures, and red team/adversary emulation results into actionable risk-mitigation roadmaps for program leadership. Translate emerging adversarial vectors into clear engineering requirements and operational risk tradeoffs that inform government milestone and fielding decisions.
Executive Communication & Cross-Functional Alignment: Prepare and deliver executive-level technical briefings, independent risk assessments, and decision memorandums for General/Flag Officers, PAEs, and congressional or DoD oversight bodies. Facilitate technical synchronization across government stakeholders, operational cyber mission forces, service laboratories (e.g., DARPA), and commercial vendor teams.

Required Qualifications

20+ years of progressive experience in defense acquisition, systems engineering, military cyber operations, or technical advisory roles within the DoD and Intelligence Community.
Demonstrated background acting in an engineering advisory, SETA, or government technical director capacity overseeing major defense programs or acquisition directorates.
Major Defense Acquisition & Weapon Systems Domain Experience: Documented experience providing cybersecurity engineering oversight, program protection, or CISO-level technical direction for major defense platforms (ACAT I programs, military aircraft/avionics, tactical mission systems, or defense cloud infrastructures).
DoD Acquisition & PPBE Acumen: Thorough familiarity with the DoD acquisition lifecycle, defense budgeting (PPBE), requirements decomposition, and government oversight of major prime contracts and OTA consortia.
Defensive Engineering & Systems Assurance: Hands-on technical knowledge of Defense-in-Depth principles, operating system and network hardening, zero-trust architectures, supply chain security, and enterprise host/network security monitoring (e.g., HBSS/ESS, NSM).

Preferred Qualifications

Former Program Director / CISO Leadership: Prior service as a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Cyber Program Director, or Lead Systems Engineer for a marquee joint or service-level program (e.g., F-35 Joint Program Office, Army RCCTO, ASA(ALT), or ARCYBER).
AI & Digital Engineering Adoption: Demonstrated understanding of modern AI model deployments (e.g., Fable, Astra) for cyber operations and automated threat discovery, combined with experience evaluating Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) digital architectures.
Offensive Tradecraft & Red Team Oversight: Hands-on familiarity with military or national-agency cyber red team operations (e.g., NSA red team operations, USCYBERCOM mission teams) and the ability to interpret technical exploitation findings for executive leadership.
Operational Defensive Cyber Leadership: Prior leadership experience establishing or advising regional or theater-level Defensive Cyber Operations (e.g., Regional Cyber Centers, Defensive Cyberspace Operations [DCO] formations, or the Persistent Cyber Training Environment [PCTE]).
Rapid Prototyping & Defense Research Collaboration: Proven track record advising on accelerated capability transitions, OTA-based prototyping, and joint inter-agency technology programs in partnership with research entities (e.g., DARPA, service laboratories).
Military Service Background: Commissioned military officer service with deployed tactical communications, signal, or cyber command experience.
Industry Perspective: Prior executive-level defense industry experience managing multi-program portfolios, profit & loss (P&L), and large-scale contractor teams, providing unique insight into vendor management and prime contractor accountability.

Education Requirements

Bachelor of Science in Engineering (Civil, Systems, Computer, or related technical engineering discipline) from an accredited institution.

Clearance requirement:

Active Top Secret clearance with SCI eligibility and a successfully completed counterintelligence or full-scope polygraph (TS/SCI w/ Polygraph required).

The pay range for this position is $200,000/year to $230,000/year; however, base pay offered may vary depending on established government contract ranges, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience, and other factors. MTSI offers a full range of medical benefits, 401k, ESOP, paid time off, and other benefits, dependent on the position offered. Base pay information is based on market location. Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis. This posting will be renewed periodically until the position is filled.

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