Senior Penetration Tester & Assessments Lead
CACI · Remote · United States · 11d ago
The Opportunity:
CACI is seeking a Senior Penetration Tester and Assessments Lead to plan and lead controlled technical assessments of customer networks, applications, cloud workloads, identity systems, and externally exposed assets. This role is the senior engagement lead: it owns assessment scoping, technical planning, day-to-day execution, evidence quality, reporting, and customer out-brief support for assigned engagements. It works within the methodology and cross-engagement governance established by the Offensive Security Technical Lead.
This position will provide continuous technical assessment support for full‑time, proactive testing of externally and internally visible federal cyber assets. This expands federal visibility by conducting continual assessments of .gov domains, subdomains, and internet‑facing assets to uncover unknown exposures, validate vulnerabilities, and provide agencies with actionable remediation guidance. This role supports the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Program’s mission to safeguard and secure cyberspace in an environment where the threat of cyber-attack is continuously growing and evolving and is responsible for enhancing the security, resilience, and reliability of the Nation’s cyber and communications infrastructure. The CDM Program defends the United States (U.S.) Federal Information Technology (IT) networks from cybersecurity threats by providing continuous monitoring sensors (tools), diagnosis, mitigation tools, and associated services to strengthen the security posture of Government networks.
Responsibilities:
• Lead assigned penetration-testing engagements from scoping and rules-of-engagement development through test planning, execution, reporting, out-briefing, and remediation clarification.
• Translate customer objectives, architecture, constraints, and safety requirements into a sequenced assessment plan with explicit authorization boundaries and deconfliction procedures.
• Direct and mentor junior testers while remaining hands-on with complex network, web/API, Active Directory/AD CS, Linux, Windows, AWS, Azure, and identity-focused attack paths.
• Validate vulnerabilities through safe manual testing and controlled exploitation; demonstrate privilege escalation, lateral movement, pivoting, and business or mission impact without disrupting operations or altering live data.
• Review scanner output and operator evidence, eliminate false positives, reproduce findings, assign defensible severity, and prioritize remediation using exploitability, exposure, mission impact, CVSS, CISA KEV, and relevant threat context.
• Ensure assessment reports clearly document scope, methods, evidence, attack paths, root causes, risk, and actionable remediation recommendations; perform technical quality review before delivery.
• Lead technical discussions and customer out-briefs, answer remediation questions, and support validation of corrected weaknesses.
• Escalate scope conflicts, safety issues, unanticipated access, and material findings to the Technical Lead and customer points of contact.
Qualifications:
Required:
• U.S. citizenship is required.
• The selected candidate must meet eligibility requirements for access to sensitive information and be able to obtain a Public Trust fitness determination (High Risk).
• Ability to work in customer-provided remote environments, use customer-approved tools, and comply with rules of engagement, data-handling requirements, evidence controls, deconfliction procedures, and stop-work criteria.
• Five or more years of hands-on penetration-testing or offensive-security experience, including at least two years leading technical assessments or small assessment teams.
• Demonstrated ability to scope, plan, execute, and report enterprise penetration tests across internal/external networks, web applications/APIs, Windows/Active Directory, Linux, and cloud environments.
• Advanced experience with common assessment tool classes such as Nmap, Tenable/Nessus, Burp Suite Pro, OWASP ZAP, Metasploit, BloodHound, PowerView, Impacket, NetExec, Certipy/Certify, Wireshark/tcpdump, and comparable customer-approved tools.
• Strong manual-testing skills that go beyond scanner output, including exploit validation, attack-path development, evidence preservation, and safe proof-of-concept creation.
• Demonstrated ability to produce technically accurate assessment reports and brief both technical and senior customer audiences.
• One or more recognized hands-on certifications such as OSCP, OSEP/OSCE, OSWE, GPEN, GXPN, GWAPT, PNPT, CPTS, or equivalent.
Desired:
• Eight or more years of offensive-security experience across multiple enterprise assessment domains.
• CISA AES/HVA Assessment Lead or Technical Lead experience, or comparable federal high-value-asset assessment leadership.
• Advanced AWS/Azure, Kubernetes/container, mobile, IoT, wireless, database, or source-code security-testing experience.
• ICS/OT, critical-infrastructure, restricted-network, or air-gapped assessment experience.
• Experience developing reusable assessment playbooks, report templates, test harnesses, automation, or internal training.
-What You Can Expect:
A culture of integrity.
At CACI, we place character and innovation at the center of everything we do. As a valued team member, you’ll be part of a high-performing group dedicated to our customer’s missions and driven by a higher purpose – to ensure the safety of our nation.
An environment of trust.
CACI values the unique contributions that every employee brings to our company and our customers - every day. You’ll have the autonomy to take the time you need through a unique flexible time off benefit and have access to robust learning resources to make your ambitions a reality.
A focus on continuous growth.
Together, we will advance our nation's most critical missions, build on our lengthy track record of business success, and find opportunities to break new ground — in your career and in our legacy.
Pay Range:
There are a host of factors that can influence final salary including, but not limited to, geographic location, Federal Government contract labor categories and contract wage rates, relevant prior work experience, specific skills and competencies, education, and certifications. Our employees value the flexibility at CACI that allows them to balance quality work and their personal lives. We offer competitive compensation, benefits and learning and development opportunities. Our broad and competitive mix of benefits options is designed to support and protect employees and their families. At CACI, you will receive comprehensive benefits such as; healthcare, wellness, financial, retirement, family support, continuing education, and time off benefits.
Since this position can be worked in more than one location, the range shown is the national average for the position.
The proposed salary range for this position is:
$90,300-$189,600CACI is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other protected characteristic.