Threat Hunting & Detection Engineer (US Federal)

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About the Team

About the Role

This role will support one or more direct or indirect contracts with the U.S. Federal Government which due to federal government security requirements mandates that all Workday personnel working on the contracts be United States citizens (naturalized or native).

Workdays Cyber Defense Directorate protects enterprise and U.S. Government SaaS environments operating under multiple authorization boundaries including air-gapped regions (AGR).

Our Cyber Defense capability provides advanced monitoring detection threat hunting and response across regulated cloud environments supporting federal customers. We operate in partnership with SOC Red Team Blue Team Purple Team and Threat Intelligence to ensure continuous validation of detection coverage and operational readiness.

The Detection Engineering and Threat Hunting function is foundational to maintaining compliance reducing adversary dwell time and ensuring resilient security posture across high-security SaaS environments.

The Threat Hunting & Detection Engineer is responsible for engineering validating and continuously improving detection capabilities across FedRAMP High and IL5 cloud-native SaaS environments including air-gapped regions.

This role develops high-fidelity detection logic leveraging:

• Splunk (correlation searches data models CIM alignment SPL optimization)
• Cloud-native telemetry (AWS CloudTrail GuardDuty Inspector VPC Flow Logs SaaS application logs)
• Identity and access telemetry
• Endpoint and container telemetry
• Vulnerability intelligence sources

You will translate adversary behaviors into actionable detection analytics aligned to MITRE ATT&CK and NIST SP 800-61r3 incident response lifecycle principles. You will support continuous monitoring requirements under FedRAMP and DoD IL5 frameworks ensuring detection content aligns to compliance mandates audit traceability and evidentiary standards.
In air-gapped environments you will design detection strategies that account for:
Limited telemetry pathways Constrained automation capabilities
Reduced external enrichment access Secure data transfer controls

You will collaborate closely with:

• SOC Analysts to improve alert quality and reduce false positives
• Security Engineers to ensure log integrity and coverage
• Red/Purple Teams to validate detection effectiveness
• Threat Intelligence to operationalize adversary reporting
• Compliance stakeholders to support audit and continuous monitoring requirements

As the program matures this role will help define detection engineering standards lifecycle governance and detection coverage metrics across the Cyber Defense Directorate.

About You

This role may require a security clearance at the TS/SCI w/CI Poly level. Applicants must have the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government issued security clearance. An active TS/SCI w/CI Poly is preferred

You understand the intersection of detection engineering cloud security and regulatory frameworks. You can balance operational effectiveness with compliance rigor. You are comfortable operating in high-assurance controlled and sometimes disconnected environments where precision and auditability matter.

Basic Qualifications

• 6 years of experience in cybersecurity operations detection engineering or threat hunting
• Hands-on experience building detections in Splunk including correlation searches and SPL development Experience operating in FedRAMP DoD IL4/IL5 or similarly regulated cloud environments
• Experience working with AWS security services (CloudTrail GuardDuty Inspector VPC Flow Logs)
• Strong understanding of MITRE ATT&CK mapping and adversary tradecraft
• Familiarity with NIST SP 800-61r3 incident response lifecycle
• Bachelors degree in Cybersecurity Computer Science Engineering or equivalent experience

Other Qualifications

• Experience conducting hypothesis-driven threat hunting within SaaS and cloud-native architectures
• Strong understanding of identity-based attack vectors (IAM abuse token theft federation misuse)
• Experience detecting container and workload-level attacks
• Familiarity with secure logging architectures in air-gapped environments
• Experience leveraging SOAR platforms (e.g. Tines) within constrained or controlled automation boundaries

Workday Pay Transparency Statement

The annualized base salary ranges for the primary location and any additional locations are listed below. Workday pay ranges vary based on work location. As a part of the total compensation package this role may be eligible for the Workday Bonus Plan or a role-specific commission/bonus as well as annual refresh stock grants. Recruiters can share more detail during the hiring process. Each candidates compensation offer will be based on multiple factors including but not limited to geography experience skills job duties and business need among other things. For more information regarding Workdays comprehensive benefits please click here.

Our Approach to Flexible Work

With Flex Work were combining the best of both worlds: in-person time and remote. Our approach enables our teams to deepen connections maintain a strong community and do their best work. We know that flexibility can take shape in many ways so rather than a number of required days in-office each week we simply spend at least half (50%) of our time each quarter in the office or in the field with our customers prospects and partners (depending on role). This means youll have the freedom to create a flexible schedule that caters to your business team and personal needs while being intentional to make the most of time spent together. Those in our remote home office roles also have the opportunity to come together in our offices for important moments that matter.

Pursuant to applicable Fair Chance law Workday will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Workday is an Equal Opportunity Employer including individuals with disabilities and protected veterans.

At Workday we are committed to providing an accessible and inclusive hiring experience where all candidates can fully demonstrate their skills. If you require assistance or an accommodation at any point please email .

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