Cyber Threat Hunter

The Threat Hunter will develop and execute hypothesis-driven hunts designed to identify sophisticated adversary activity that may evade existing security controls and automated detections. You will combine threat intelligence, knowledge of adversary tradecraft, the MITRE ATT&CK framework, and deep analysis of endpoint, identity, network, cloud, and security telemetry to uncover evidence of malicious activity.

This role requires an investigator who can move fluidly across multiple security platforms and large telemetry datasets, formulate and test hypotheses, recognize subtle patterns of adversary behavior, and pivot an investigation based on emerging evidence. You’ll work closely with incident responders, forensic investigators, threat intelligence analysts, and other security specialists. You’ll leverage knowledge of the digital forensic and incident response process and expertise conducting forensic investigations.

What You’ll Do:

• Develop and execute proactive hypothesis-drive and exploratory threat hunts based on adversary behaviors, emerging threats, threat intelligence, previous incidents, and identified visibility or detection gaps.
• Translate cyber threat intelligence, adversary tradecraft, malware behaviors, and known attacker techniques into actionable hunt hypotheses.
• Move beyond indicators of compromise (IOCs) to hunt for behaviors, techniques, patterns, and relationships that may indicate sophisticated or previously unidentified adversary activity.
• Use the MITRE ATT&CK framework to map adversary tactics, techniques, and sub-techniques to hunt hypotheses, telemetry sources, findings, and identified coverage gaps.
• Identify patterns of behavior across multiple systems, users, identities, networks, cloud environments, and time periods rather than relying solely on individual security alerts.
• Develop and maintain reusable hunt methodologies, queries, playbooks, and analytical techniques.
• Query, correlate, and pivot across large-scale security telemetry to identify anomalous or malicious activity.
• Demonstrate advanced proficiency developing complex queries across multiple EDR, XDR, SIEM, and security analytics platforms.
• Analyze and correlate telemetry from multiple sources.
• Pivot between endpoint, network, identity, cloud, and other datasets to reconstruct attacker behavior and identify relationships that may not be visible from a single telemetry source.
• Establish baselines and analyze large datasets for deviations, rare behaviors, unusual relationships, and patterns consistent with adversary tradecraft.
• Recognize telemetry limitations and determine what additional data is necessary to validate or refute a hunt hypothesis.
• Apply knowledge of the digital forensic and incident response lifecycle when evaluating suspicious activity discovered through threat hunting.
• Understand how forensic artifacts and telemetry can be used to establish attacker entry points, execution, persistence, privilege escalation, credential access, lateral movement, command and control, collection, exfiltration, and impact.
• Develop timelines and reconstruct attacker activity using evidence from multiple telemetry sources.
• Escalate validated findings into the incident response process when evidence indicates active or historical compromise.
• Translate lessons learned from investigations into new hunt hypotheses and improved detection opportunities.

• 3+ years of experience in threat hunting, incident response, digital forensics, detection engineering, or advanced security analysis field, including threat hunting responsibilities
• Experience conducting proactive threat hunts rather than relying primarily on security alerts or automated detections, and querying and analyzing large volumes of security telemetry across multiple EDR/XDR and SIEM platforms
• Experience with one or more major EDR/XDR technologies such as SentinelOne, CrowdStrike Falcon, Palo Alto Cortex XDR, or Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
• Knowledge of MITRE ATT&CK, including translating adversary techniques into hunt hypotheses and identify the telemetry necessary to investigate them
• Knowledge of endpoint telemetry, including processes, command-line execution, parent-child relationships, persistence mechanisms, services, scheduled tasks, registry activity, file activity, and operating system artifacts
• Knowledge of network telemetry, including DNS, HTTP/S, proxy, firewall, connection, and network data
• Ability to correlate activity across endpoint, network, identity, cloud, and data sources to reconstruct adversary behavior
• Ability to pursue incomplete or ambiguous evidence
• Ability to clearly document hypotheses, methodology, findings, evidence, and conclusions
• HS diploma or GED

Nice If You Have:

• Experience conducting digital forensic or incident response investigations, investigating ransomware, hands-on-keyboard intrusions, credential theft, lateral movement, persistence, command-and-control activity, data staging, and exfiltration
• Experience working with cyber threat intelligence and translating intelligence reporting into actionable threat hunts
• Experience developing behavior-based detections from successful threat hunts
• Strong understanding of identity and authentication telemetry, including authentication patterns, privilege changes, credential abuse, and identity-based attack techniques
• Experience with Microsoft Sentinel or comparable enterprise SIEM platforms
• Experience with multiple query languages used by EDR/XDR and SIEM technologies, such as KQL and vendor-specific query languages
• Experience scripting or automating security analysis using Python, PowerShell, or similar technologies
• Knowledge of cloud telemetry and common attacker techniques affecting cloud environments
• Possession of strong analytical and verbal and written communication skills
• Cybersecurity certifications such as GCFA, GNFA, GCIH, GCIA, GCTI, GDAT, or comparable certifications

At Booz Allen, we celebrate your contributions, provide you with opportunities and choices, and support your total well-being. Our offerings include health, life, disability, financial, and retirement benefits, as well as paid leave, professional development, tuition assistance, work-life programs, and dependent care. Our recognition awards program acknowledges employees for exceptional performance and superior demonstration of our values. Full-time and part-time employees working at least 20 hours a week on a regular basis are eligible to participate in Booz Allen’s benefit programs. Individuals that do not meet the threshold are only eligible for select offerings, not inclusive of health benefits. We encourage you to learn more about our total benefits by visiting the Resource page on our Careers site and reviewing Our Employee Benefits page.

Salary at Booz Allen is determined by various factors, including but not limited to location, the individual’s particular combination of education, knowledge, skills, competencies, and experience, as well as contract-specific affordability and organizational requirements. The projected compensation range for this position is $69,400.00 to $158,000.00 (annualized USD). The estimate displayed represents the typical salary range for this position and is just one component of Booz Allen’s total compensation package for employees. This posting will close within 90 days from the Posting Date.

Identity Statement

As part of the hiring process, we will ask you to complete an identity verification process that leverages advanced biometrics and artificial intelligence to ensure authenticity and protect against identity fraud. You are expected to be on camera during interviews and assessments. We reserve the right to take your picture to verify your identity and prevent fraud.

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