Security Engineering Lead

When you join AIS, you're joining a mission-driven team that's passionate about making a difference. You'll work on projects that matter, alongside industry-leading experts, in an environment that fosters innovation, driving client success, and empowering our team to make a lasting impact. As an employee-owned company, we value collaboration, inclusivity, continuous growth, and shared success.

• Employee Ownership: Your contributions directly impact the company's success, and you share in its achievements.

• Continuous Learning: Access to resources, training, and mentorship to support your professional growth.

• Inclusive Culture: A workplace where diversity is celebrated, and everyone's voice is valued.

• Mission-Driven Work: Engage in projects that make a meaningful difference for our clients and communities.

At AIS, we're looking for more than just skills - we're looking for driven individuals who are passionate about making a difference, eager to grow, and aligned with our core principles.

This position is contingent upon contract award. We are currently pursuing a proposal and are seeking qualified candidates to include in our submission and identify candidates for future hiring needs on the program once awarded.

• Core Knowledge & Skills: Designs secure architectures, leverages advanced threat detection, leads incident response, and implements security automation.

• Work & Complexity: Manages complex incidents, conducts threat analysis, leads audits, and implements process improvements.

• Quality & Independence: Delivers high-quality reports, aligns practices with industry standards, and operates with high autonomy.

• Teamwork & Communication: Leads team projects, collaborates cross-functionally, mentors juniors, and resolves conflicts.

• Consulting & Engagement: Provides strategic consulting, leads improvement initiatives, recommends advanced technologies, and manages vendor relationships.

Position Overview

Seeking a Cryptologist in support of our Department of Defense (DoD) customer as part of a highly talented, highly motivated, and high-performing team. This position offers a unique opportunity to work at the forefront of cyber investigations, digital forensics, cyber threat analysis, and mission support in a dynamic and collaborative environment. The successful candidate will contribute to

protecting national security interests by leveraging technical expertise, analytical skills, and innovative problem-solving to address complex cyber challenges. Individuals who are passionate about cybersecurity, committed to excellence, and eager to make a meaningful impact are encouraged to apply.

This highly analytical Cryptologist should specialize in data recovery and device access to directly support law enforcement, counterintelligence (CI) investigations, and digital forensic examiners. You will serve as a critical technical resource for investigative teams - recovering encrypted, deleted, and otherwise inaccessible data from seized devices and digital media encountered during active criminal and CI investigations. Core responsibilities include:

Decrypting encrypted data from mobile devices, computers, and storage media.

Recovering deleted data not recognized by standard carving tools.

Extracting data from flash memory chips with custom or proprietary file systems.

Collaborating with digital forensic examiners to support evidence recovery from locked or damaged devices.

Researching encryption implementations and storage architectures used in consumer and commercial devices to identify recovery pathways.

Producing detailed technical reports documenting methodologies and findings suitable for federal court proceedings or intelligence products.

Key Responsibilities

• In this role, the Cloud Architect analyzes the technical and operational requirements of agency applications and services to design a robust cloud foundation capable of reliably hosting and supporting those capabilities.
• The position requires close collaboration with Cloud Engineers, Cloud Security professionals, and other stakeholders to define and implement cloud infrastructure, networking architectures, and deployment strategies that align with federal standards and mission objectives.
• By providing technical leadership and architectural guidance, the Cloud Architect ensures cloud environments are resilient, secure, cost-effective, and positioned to support both current operations and future growth

Required For This Opportunity

• Minimum of 8 years with BS/BA; Minimum of 6 years with MS/MA; Minimum of 3 years with PhD; Additional four years of experience may be considered in lieu of a BS/BA degree. A degree in Mathematics, Computer Science, Cryptography, Information Security, or a related field is highly desired.
• Active TS clearance/SCI eligible required.
• Strong programming and scripting proficiency in Python, C++, Java, or similar languages.
• Experience decrypting data from encrypted mobile devices (Android/iOS), full-disk encryption (FDE), and file/container-level encryption schemes.
• Experience recovering deleted or fragmented data beyond the capabilities of standard forensic carving tools
• Experience extracting data from NAND/NOR flash memory chips, including devices with custom or proprietary file systems.
• Familiarity with digital forensic tools and workflows (e.g., Cellebrite, GrayKey, Magnet AXIOM, EnCase, FTK, X-Ways)
• Low-level knowledge of common file systems including FAT, NTFS, EXT2/3/4, APFS, and proprietary embedded file systems.
• Experience supporting law enforcement, CI, or federal investigative operations.

Active TS clearance/SCI eligible required.

• Strong programming and scripting proficiency in Python, C++, Java, or similar languages.
• Experience decrypting data from encrypted mobile devices (Android/iOS), full-disk encryption (FDE), and file/container-level encryption schemes.
• Experience recovering deleted or fragmented data beyond the capabilities of standard forensic carving tools
• Experience extracting data from NAND/NOR flash memory chips, including devices with custom or proprietary file systems.
• Familiarity with digital forensic tools and workflows (e.g., Cellebrite, GrayKey, Magnet AXIOM, EnCase, FTK, X-Ways)
• Low-level knowledge of common file systems including FAT, NTFS, EXT2/3/4, APFS, and proprietary embedded file systems.
• Experience supporting law enforcement, CI, or federal investigative operations.

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience with hardware-based data recovery techniques including JTAG, chip-off, and ISP (In-System Programming).
• Background in reverse engineering storage protocols, firmware, or encryption implementations on embedded devices.
• Familiarity with legal frameworks governing lawful access and chain-of-custody requirements for recovered data.
• Prior experience supporting DoD, Intelligence Community (IC), or federal law enforcement customers (FBI, DEA, HSI, NCIS, etc.).
• Experience testifying as an expert witness or providing technical declarations in federal proceedings.

Applied Information Sciences does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, religion, color, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other basis. Employment decisions are based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs.