Junior Data Engineer / Active Secret

Responsibilities

Peraton is seeking a Junior Data Engineer to join its Department of State (DoS) Diplomatic Security Cyber Mission (DSCM) program.

Location: Beltsville, MD or Washington DC; Flexible for occasional telework; candidate must be local to the work location.

This position will support the Cyber Event Data Node (CEDN), a centralized cloud-based data platform that collects, processes, enriches, normalizes, stores, and distributes cybersecurity data for operational and analytical use.

Peraton’s DSCM program provides technical, engineering, data analytics, cybersecurity, management, operational, logistical, and administrative support to protect the Department’s global infrastructure, systems, information, and mobile devices from cyber risks and threats.

In this role, you will:

Support onboarding new cybersecurity systems and data sources into the CEDN environment.

Work with system owners, cybersecurity analysts, architects, and engineers to identify source data, collection requirements, formats, schemas, volumes, retention needs, and downstream use cases.

Configure and maintain Cribl pipelines for data collection, routing, parsing, transformation, enrichment, compression, filtering, and replay.

Assist with developing and maintaining Databricks data pipelines supporting raw, enriched, and normalized data layers within Delta Lake.

Develop and maintain Python, SQL, and scripting solutions used to automate data ingestion, transformation, validation, and reporting.

Map structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data into standardized schemas and security data models.

Conduct data-quality checks to confirm completeness, accuracy, timeliness, proper formatting, and successful delivery to downstream systems.

Troubleshoot ingestion failures, malformed events, schema changes, pipeline errors, latency, and other data-flow issues.

Support integrations with cybersecurity and analytics platforms such as Splunk Cloud, ServiceNow, Power BI, Tableau, and other authorized consumers.

Apply appropriate metadata, tagging, access controls, and data-handling requirements to support both classified and unclassified environments.

Monitor pipeline health, throughput, storage consumption, and processing performance and help identify opportunities for optimization.

Develop and maintain source-onboarding checklists, data-flow diagrams, interface documentation, configuration records, test plans, standard operating procedures, and troubleshooting guides.

Participate in testing and validation activities before new data sources are released into production.

Work within established change-management, configuration-management, security authorization, and system development lifecycle processes.

Collaborate with senior data engineers, security engineers, data scientists, threat analysts, and mission stakeholders to translate operational needs into reliable data products.

Support knowledge transfer and provide basic technical guidance to data owners and platform users.

Qualifications

Minimum Requirements:

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information systems, data science, cybersecurity, engineering, or a related technical field and 1–2 years of experience. Four additional years of relevant experience may be substituted in lieu of a degree.

Possess or obtain prior to start, and maintain one of the following certifications:

CCNA Security, CEH, CISSP, CySA+, GICSP, GSEC, Security+ CE, CND, or SSCP

Foundational experience with data engineering, data integration, ETL/ELT processes, application integration, or log-management technologies.

Working knowledge of Python and SQL.

Familiarity with structured and semi-structured data formats, including JSON, CSV, XML, syslog, and API-delivered data.

Understanding of databases, data lakes, data pipelines, schemas, metadata, and data lifecycle concepts.

Basic knowledge of cloud computing and cloud storage services.

Ability to analyze technical documentation and translate system requirements into actionable data-integration tasks.

Ability to document configurations, testing results, data mappings, technical procedures, and operational issues clearly.

Strong analytical, troubleshooting, organizational, and communication skills.

Ability to work collaboratively while managing multiple assignments and established deadlines.

Ability to learn new platforms and technologies through hands-on work, formal training, and mentorship.

U.S. citizenship required.

An active Secret security clearance, with the ability to obtain a final Top Secret clearance.

Preferred/Desired:

Experience or training with Cribl Stream, Cribl Edge, or a comparable log-routing and observability pipeline platform.

Experience or training with Databricks, Apache Spark, Delta Lake, notebooks, or lakehouse architectures.

Familiarity with Microsoft Azure, Azure Data Lake Storage, or similar clsroud data services.

Exposure to Splunk, ServiceNow, Power BI, Tableau, SIEM, SOAR, or other cybersecurity analytics platforms.

Familiarity with Git, CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code, or DevSecOps practices.

Understanding of security telemetry from firewalls, endpoints, DNS, authentication services, cloud platforms, email, VPNs, proxies, NetFlow, or packet-capture systems.

Familiarity with data normalization models, data-quality controls, and role-based access controls.

Experience supporting data-source onboarding, API integrations, or high-volume event-processing environments.

Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate, Cribl Certified User, Microsoft Azure certification, or the ability to obtain a relevant certification within six months of hire.

Experience supporting the Federal Government, Department of Defense, intelligence community, or another regulated environment.

Peraton Overview

Peraton is a next-generation national security company that drives missions of consequence spanning the globe and extending to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. As the world’s leading mission capability integrator and transformative enterprise IT provider, we deliver trusted, highly differentiated solutions and technologies to protect our nation and allies. Peraton operates at the critical nexus between traditional and nontraditional threats across all domains: land, sea, space, air, and cyberspace. The company serves as a valued partner to essential government agencies and supports every branch of the U.S. armed forces. Each day, our employees do the can’t be done by solving the most daunting challenges facing our customers. Visit peraton.com to learn how we’re keeping people around the world safe and secure.

Target Salary Range $66,000 - $106,000. This represents the typical salary range for this position. Salary is determined by various factors, including but not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the position, the individual’s experience, education, knowledge, skills, and competencies, as well as geographic location and business and contract considerations. Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay.

EEO EEO: Equal opportunity employer, including disability and protected veterans, or other characteristics protected by law.