Senior Exercise Planner – Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC)
Leidos · Arlington, United States · 17d ago
Salary Range: 82,550.00 - 127,000.00 - 171,450.00 USD Annual
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Leidos is seeking a Senior Exercise Planner – Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) to support aspects of HSEEP exercise design, development, conduct, and evaluation for CISA’s National Cyber Exercise Program (NCEP) and engage with CISA’s Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC). The JCDC unites cyber defenders from worldwide organizations to a team of cross-industry organizations that proactively gather, analyze, and share actionable cyber risk information. The JCDC brings together cyber defense capabilities from government, industry and international organizations in an effort to reduce cyber risks. This role supports the Regional Exercise Lead for their assigned regional exercises and works with exercise planning teams on aspects such as planning meetings, scenario development, exercise documentation, facilitation, exercise conduct, and exercise evaluation, for multiple concurrent exercises across the region. This role specifically incorporates the work of the JCDC into all CISA cyber exercise by knowing and understanding the efforts of the JCDC in threat and vulnerability analysis, creation of cybersecurity guidance, and operational coordination across internal CISA divisions and external groups like the intelligence community. An active TS/SCI security clearance is required for this position due to the nature of the subject matter.
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Leidos’ Homeland Sector’s Airports, Borders, and Security (ABS) business area delivers air travel modernization, border protection, and critical infrastructure security solutions that help build a safer, more resilient homeland. Operating globally across aviation security, passenger screening, cybersecurity, and border and port security, ABS integrates next-generation technologies—including AI-driven analytics, advanced threat detection, and command-and-control platforms—to secure the movement of people and goods worldwide by improving situational awareness, accelerating decisions, and strengthening operational outcomes for customers.
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Senior Exercise Planner – Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) (TS/SCI)
Primary Responsibilities Include:
Serve as the main point of contact between JCDC members and the CISA exercise support teams.
Participate and collaborate with, as requested by CISA, the JCDC meetings to understand threat analysis, vulnerability information, and expert guidance that can be incorporated into CISA cyber exercises.
Support the customer’s needs for cyber policy review and development, identifying hot button issues and trends in cyber threats, and guiding informed recommendations for cyber training and exercises based on expertise and experience.
Review and refine ideas, exercise materials, and exercise foundation (i.e., scope, objectives, scenario, player actions, discussion questions, evaluation criteria, etc.) to ensure alignment with JCDC work and cyber response principles.
Report back to the JCDC, as requested by CISA, findings from exercises forming common threads and themes in cyber threats and vulnerabilities.
Lead the Mid and Junior Exercise Planner – JCDC positions in working with JCDC and supporting exercises.
Work with the Regional Exercise Lead and Senior Exercise Planners to determine specific exercise aspects to support.
Lead all aspects of incorporating JCDC into the CISA exercises.
Communicate and coordinate regularly across exercise support team, with Regional Exercise Lead, and with exercise stakeholders.
Participate in initial meetings with Regional Exercise Lead and exercise stakeholders to establish familiarity with the exercise support team, with the stakeholder leads, and to confirm exercise schedules.
Support and participate in planning meetings (as appropriate), such as C&O, IP, MPM, MSEL Meeting, and FPM, and in developing all supporting documentation, including agendas, presentations, and notes.
Lead or support the development of core exercise documentation and artifacts (e.g., CONOPS, EXPLAN, SITMAN, MSEL, COSIN, evaluation forms, invitations/sign-in sheets).
Support end-to-end exercise execution: concept and scope, execution support, evaluation approach, and post-exercise reporting (AAR and assigned reports).
Report regularly to Regional Exercise Lead and across exercise support team according to communications plan.
Attend and participate in each exercise within assigned region, as required.
Fill in as Exercise Facilitator if necessary.
Support development of new CISA Tabletop Exercise Packages (CTEPs) and maintenance of the CTEP scenario library.
Provide SME input to internal training activities to improve facilitation and planning skills across NCEP staff.
Required Experience, Skills, and Education:
Active TS/SCI clearance.
Ability to obtain DHS Suitability / CISA EOD.
8+ years experience in supporting cybersecurity operations, cyber threat analysis, incident response, vulnerability management, cyber risk management, or cyber exercise planning.
Understanding of cyber incident response lifecycle activities, including detection, triage, escalation, containment, coordination, remediation, recovery, and post-incident improvement.
Familiarity with threat intelligence, indicators of compromise, malware reporting, vulnerability information, and adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures.
Experience coordinating with multiple stakeholders across technical, operational, government, and private-sector environments.
Ability to analyze complex cyber scenarios and identify technical, operational, procedural, communications, and information-sharing gaps.
Experience with HSEEP exercise design, development, conduct, and evaluation.
FEMA HSEEP Certification or ability to achieve HSEEP certification within 30 days of contract start.
Strong writing skills to develop polished exercise materials and documents (such as EXPLANs, SITMANs, MSELs, and controller/observer instructions) and post-exercise products (including AAR drafting support).
Demonstrated ability to lead high-level meetings, exercise facilitation, and give customer-facing presentations.
Demonstrated ability to manage time, meet deadlines and milestones, and hold team members accountable to requirements.
Preferred Experience, Skills, and Education:
Bachelor’s degree or higher in cybersecurity, information technology, computer science, homeland security, emergency management, intelligence studies, public policy, or a related field; equivalent experience may be considered.
FEMA Master Exercise Practitioner (MEP)
Experience supporting cybersecurity-focused scenarios and stakeholder engagement across government and private sector partners.
Experience contributing to strategic plan maintenance and innovation projects in support of leadership requests.
Cybersecurity Certifications
CISSP
CEH
GIAC
Experience facilitating cybersecurity or critical infrastructure exercises, tabletop exercises (TTX), or similar preparedness activities.
Experience contributing to AAR development and communicating findings to technical and non-technical audiences.
Clearance Required:
Active TS/SCI clearance.
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Original Posting:
August 31, 2026For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.
Pay Range:
Pay Range $82,550.00 - $149,225.00The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.