Systems Engineer Lead Principal

Job Description

Job Description

BOOST LLC is a dynamic management consulting firm that offers an array of government-compliant back-office solutions to support our teaming partners within the GovCon space. Our consultants are experts in the areas of Accounting, Contracts, Human Resources, Recruiting & Sourcing, and Strategic Pricing and our passion is to guide and propel our partners towards success within this competitive sector.

BOOST is partnering with a cleared small business that provides mission-critical, AI-driven cyber defense and reverse engineering solutions for U.S. Government clients to hire a Systems Engineer Lead Principal.

Position Summary:

As a Systems Engineer Lead Principal, you will be the top technical leader for all infrastructure, systems, cybersecurity, and secure operational readiness. Reporting directly to the CEO, this role ensures the company’s entire digital and physical ecosystem is secure, resilient, and available anywhere, at any time—with zero downtime. The ideal candidate will lead the company’s infrastructure toward SOC Tier 2 readiness, enabling high-assurance monitoring, alerting, incident response, and compliance consistent with top-tier government contractor expectations. You will architect, manage, and harden all internal systems while ensuring compliance with DoD, IC, and federal cybersecurity frameworks, enabling full interoperability with government systems and secure execution of classified and unclassified contracts.This opportunity is 100% onsite located in the Northern Virginia area.

With a mission-first, people-always mindset and zero tolerance for mission failure, you will drive high-assurance capabilities that deliver decisive situational awareness for national security.

Responsibilities:

• Lead design, deployment, and lifecycle management of enterprise infrastructure: on-prem, hybrid, and cloud (AWS GovCloud, Azure GCC High).

• Build and enforce a high-availability, zero-downtime architecture for all critical systems and services.

• Ensure systems are fully mobile-ready and remotely deployable, enabling seamless operations worldwide.

• Build and lead the company’s internal cybersecurity operations toward SOC Tier 2 readiness, including:

  • Real-time monitoring

  • Threat hunting

  • Tiered alert escalation

  • Playbooks and response automation

  • Event correlation across endpoints, servers, and networks

  • Deploy and manage SIEM, SOAR, EDR, and threat intelligence integrations with response KPIs and compliance tracking.

  • Develop a cyber incident response team (CIRT) function and readiness model with proper logging, containment, and forensics procedures.

• Implement Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) and strict identity and access controls across systems and services.

• Manage all enterprise networking (LAN/WAN/VPN/SD-WAN), segmentation, and encrypted communications.

• Continuously assess and improve perimeter defense, endpoint security, and threat detection effectiveness.

• Oversee facility security controls, including access control systems, surveillance, and secure data center designs.

• Align physical security infrastructure with digital and network defense protocols for a fully integrated protection posture.

• Partner with FSO or industrial security leadership on SCIF, cleared facility, and SAP support needs.

• Ensure systems are fully capable of integrating with classified and unclassified government networks, cloud tenants, or environments.

• Lead systems accreditation efforts under RMF, FedRAMP, or agency-specific ATO processes.

• Maintain continuous readiness for audits, penetration testing, and insider threat program alignment.

• Build and lead a high-performance team of systems engineers, cybersecurity staff, and vendors.

• Implement DevSecOps pipelines, infrastructure as code, and secure software/service delivery practices.

• Create SOPs, playbooks, and escalation procedures consistent with mission-critical government environments.

• On-call availability for urgent incidents.

• Travel to integration sites or secure facilities may be required.

• Must maintain clearance eligibility and continuous cyber hygiene posture.

• Obsession with security, uptime, and mission assurance.

• Leadership in crisis, calm under fire, and decisive in high-stakes environments.

• Executive communication skills, capable of briefing CEOs, boards, and federal partners.

• Ability to translate compliance into real-world engineering decisions.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Security, or related field.

• Ten plus (10+) years’ experience in systems, network, and cybersecurity engineering roles.

• Demonstrated success leading secure IT operations in federal contractor or national security environments. Expertise in:
  • Network architecture and security (Cisco, Fortinet, Juniper)
  • SIEM, SOAR, EDR, vulnerability management, MFA, PKI, SSO
  • Virtualization and containerization (VMware, Docker, Kubernetes)
  • Cloud platforms (AWS GovCloud, Azure GCC/High)
  • Compliance frameworks (NIST SP 800-171, 800-53, CMMC, FedRAMP)

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in Cybersecurity, Engineering, or related field.

• Certifications: CISSP, CCNP, AWS/Azure Architect, CISM, GCIA, or similar.

• Experience with SCIF design/support, classified network integration, and special access program (SAP) environments.

• Prior experience standing up or leading an in-house SOC at Tier 1/2 maturity level.

Clearance Requirement:

• Active TS/SCI with Poly

Salary Range:

• $277K-$287K (Salary commensurate with experience)

BOOST is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.