{"id":3673441,"url":"https://alion.io/job/usda-information-technology-specialist-information-security","title":"Information Technology Specialist (Information Security)","company":{"id":36337,"name":"Usda","domain":"usda.gov","url":"https://alion.io/company/usda","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":null,"truth_index":null},"role":"Security","role_family":"Security","seniority":null,"employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Fort Collins, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":125776,"max":null,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":125776},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-03T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":null,"last_verified_at":"2026-11-03T00:00:00Z","board_verified":false,"closed_at":null,"days_open":1,"trust":{"level":"not_scored","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":1},"description":"Summary\nThe incumbent participates in administering a program that integrates cybersecurity throughout the IT solution development lifecycle (SDLC), provide full lifecycle vulnerability assessment for all MRP-ITD IT systems, and serves as a senior engineer within the Cybersecurity Services Directorate.\nDuties\n\n The duties may include, but are not limited to:\n\n Serves as a technical authority responsible for designing, engineering, and recommending implementation of advanced defensive capabilities and integrating cutting-edge security technologies.\n\n Conducts complex analysis, correlates threat intelligence with telemetry, and develops detection logic that shapes enterprise-level defensive posture.\n\n Applies authoritative knowledge of federal and industry IT security guidelines.\n\n Provides leadership to and coordinates with IT system owners, investment managers and project managers to provide full lifecycle vulnerability assessment for all MRP IT systems using a variety of techniques.\n\n Optimizes the effectiveness and efficiency of the IT security engineering and architecture programs based on meaningful operational and performance metrics.\n\n Develops policies, procedures, and processes to ensure information systems reliability and accessibility and to prevent and defend against unauthorized access to systems, networks, and data.\n\n Conducts risk and vulnerability assessments of planned and installed information systems to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities, risks, and protection needs.\n\n Remains abreast of all applicable laws, regulations, policies, standards, and guidelines affecting information technology security engineering within MRP, including any periodic changes and amendments to those documents.\n\n Publishes and maintains security engineering metrics on an MRP ITD assessable IT Security Executive Dashboard.\n\n Requirements\nConditions of employment\n\n You must be a US Citizen or US National.\n\n Individuals who were born male after 12/31/1959 must be Selective Service registered or exempt.\n\n Subject to satisfactory adjudication of background investigation and/or fingerprint check.\n\n Successful completion of one-year probationary period, unless previously served. Refer to the Next Steps section for more information.\n\n Direct Deposit: Per Public Law 104-134 all Federal employees are required to have federal payments made by direct deposit to their financial institution.\n\n Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit E-Verify at https://www.e-verify.gov/\n\n Testing Designated Position: Selectee must submit to a urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment and random testing thereafter. Final appointment and continued employment is conditional on negative results for illegal drug use.\n\n All USDA employees are required to be enrolled in Continuous Vetting, which authorizes government agencies to receive notifications of criminal activity on individuals who hold low risk, public trust, or national security positions.\n\n Qualifications\n\n Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement, including specialized experience and/or education, as defined below.\n\nFOR THE GS-14 LEVEL: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience (equivalent to the GS-13 level) that may have been obtained in the private or public (local, county, state, Federal) sectors which demonstrates:\n\n Designing, engineering, and recommending implementation of advanced defensive capabilities for IT applications.\n\n Conducting manual and automated penetration testing on IT systems.\n\n Independently conducting complex analysis, correlating threat intelligence with telemetry, and developing detection logic that shapes enterprise level defensive posture.\n\n Developing and interpreting guidance for security engineering based on applicable legislation or regulations.\n\nNote: There is no education substitution for this grade level.\n\nIn addition, all applicants qualifying based on experience must have IT-related experience demonstrating each of the four competencies listed below. Applicants must demonstrate possession of these competencies within the body of the resume; no separate statements addressing them are required.\n\n Attention to Detail - Is thorough when performing work and conscientious about attending to detail.\n\n Customer Service - Works with clients and customers (that is, any individuals who use or receive the services or products that your work unit produces, including the general public, individuals who work in the agency, other agencies, or organizations outside the Government) to assess their needs, provide information or assistance, resolve their problems, or satisfy their expectations; knows about available products and services; is committed to providing quality products and services.\n\n Oral Communication - Expresses information (for example, ideas or facts) to individuals or groups effectively, taking into account the audience and nature of the information (for example, technical, sensitive, controversial); makes clear and convincing oral presentations; listens to others, attends to nonverbal cues, and responds appropriately.\n\n Problem Solving - Identifies problems; determines accuracy and relevance of information; uses sound judgment to generate and evaluate alternatives, and to make recommendations.\n\nExperience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional, philanthropic, religious, spiritual, community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.\n\n Education\n\n This position does not have an education qualification requirement.\n\n Additional information\n\n Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP), Reemployment Priority List (RPL), or Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP): Visit the OPM website for information on how to apply as a CTAP, RPL, or ICTAP eligible. To exercise selection priority for this vacancy, CTAP/RPL/ICTAP candidates must meet the basic eligibility requirements and all selective factors. CTAP/ICTAP candidates must be well qualified, which means having knowledge, skills, abilities, and/or competencies that exceed the minimum qualification requirements for this position. CTAP/ICTAP applicants must receive a rating of at least 85 out of a possible 100 to receive selection priority.\n\n First time hires to the federal government normally start at the lowest rate of the salary range for the grade selected.\n\n Travel, transportation, and relocation expenses will not be paid. Any travel, transportation, and relocation expense associated with reporting for duty will be the responsibility of the selected employee.\n\n Locality pay will vary based upon the selectee's duty location. A final salary determination will be made upon selection.\n\n Reasonable Accommodation (RA) Requests: If you believe you have a disability (i.e., physical or mental), covered by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended, that would interfere with completing the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be granted the opportunity to request a RA in your online application. Requests for RA for the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments and appropriate supporting documentation for RA must be received prior to starting the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. Decisions on requests for RA are made on a case-by-case basis. If you meet the minimum qualifications of the position, after notification of the adjudication of your request, you will receive an email invitation to complete the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, based on your adjudication decision. You must complete all assessments within 48 hours of receiving the URL to access the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, if you received the link after the close of the announcement. To determine if you need a RA, please review the Procedures for Requesting a Reasonable Accommodation for Online Assessments here.\n\n Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.\n\n A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. .\n\n Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.\nHow you will be evaluated\nYou will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.\n\n This is a Direct-Hire Authority position, all applicants who meet the minimum qualifications, to include any specialized experience and/or selective placement factor(s), if applicable, will be referred to the selecting official. Before a certificate is issued to the selecting official, your application is reviewed to ensure that you meet all the qualification requirements. A rating will not be used; veteran's preference does not apply due to the existence of the Direct Hire authority for this position.\nYou will be evaluated based on how well you meet the qualifications listed in this vacancy announcement. Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents), your responses on the application questionnaire, and your responses to all assessments required for this position.\n\nYou will be assessed on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics):\n\nAccountability\nAttention to Detail\nCustomer Service\nDecision Making\nFlexibility\nInfluencing/Negotiating\nIntegrity/Honesty\nInterpersonal Skills\nLearning\nReading Comprehension\nReasoning\nSelf-Management\nStress Tolerance\nTeamwork\n The USA Hire Assessment includes a cut score based on the minimum level of required proficiency in these critical general competencies. You must meet or exceed the cut score to be considered. You will not be considered for the position if you score below the cut score or fail to complete the assessment.\n\nOverstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration. Cheating on an assessment may also result in your removal from consideration.\nNote: If, after reviewing your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications and/or experience, you may be found ineligible. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating. Providing inaccurate information on Federal documents could be grounds for non-selection or disciplinary action up to including removal from the Federal service.\n\nTo preview the application questionnaire, please visit: https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/13105450\n\nAdditional Information - USA Hire Online Assessment All applicants are required to complete the online USA Hire assessment to be considered for the position for this vacancy. Applicants will not be given the opportunity to complete the online USA Hire assessment outside of the assigned assessment window for this vacancy.\n\n A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. .\n\n Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and wh...","description_format":"text","description_chars":22481,"description_truncated":true,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Digital Government"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-03T10:04:15Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":90,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.903,"p_room":1,"age_days":1,"expected_fill_days":25,"reasons":["seen:1","velocity","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-11-04T06:34:25Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":125776,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/usda-information-technology-specialist-information-security","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/usda-information-technology-specialist-information-security.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-04T11:06:38Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":16472,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-05T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":36337},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=36337"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fusda-information-technology-specialist-information-security"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fusda-information-technology-specialist-information-security"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fusda-information-technology-specialist-information-security"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/usda-information-technology-specialist-information-security\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fusda-information-technology-specialist-information-security"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3673441}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"usda.gov","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3673441},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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