Penetration Tester Junior

General Dynamics Information Technology is hiring a Junior Penetration Tester to support the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Cyber Security Directorate. This onsite role in Ashburn, VA helps strengthen cybersecurity operations through hands-on penetration testing, vulnerability documentation, and follow-up validation activities.

What you’ll do

• Assist with penetration testing across applications, endpoints, networks, cloud systems, and mission-critical environments to identify security gaps.
• Perform discovery and enumeration using industry-standard tools such as Nmap, Nessus, Burp Suite, Metasploit, and similar utilities.
• Execute basic exploitation steps under the direction of senior testers to help validate vulnerabilities.
• Collect and document exploitation artifacts including screenshots, logs, payload outputs, and other evidence to maintain complete audit and reporting trails.
• Support post-exploitation analysis by documenting privilege escalation paths, lateral movement opportunities, or insecure configurations.
• Document vulnerabilities with clear descriptions, reproduction steps, and appropriate severity scoring.
• Contribute to penetration testing reports by drafting technical sections and summarizing findings for stakeholder awareness.
• Coordinate with system owners, developers, engineers, and cybersecurity teams to clarify findings and support remediation efforts.
• Participate in retesting cycles to confirm remediation and track closure progress.

Qualifications

• Minimum 3 years of cybersecurity or vulnerability assessment experience.
• Experience executing penetration tests, gathering evidence, documenting vulnerabilities, and validating system weaknesses.
• Experience with common penetration testing tools, including Nmap, Nessus, Burp Suite, and Metasploit, to run scripts, support senior testers, and improve assessment quality.
• Strong analytical and documentation skills.
• Understanding of exploit development concepts, offensive tooling, and common security control weaknesses.
• Strong skills in maintaining testing notes, scripts, and tool configurations to support repeatability and compliance.
• Ability to produce structured documentation, perform technical writing, and communicate effectively with technical and non-technical audiences.
• Preferred certifications: CompTIA PenTest+, and eJPT / eCPPT.
• Preferred: Bachelor’s degree in information technology, computer science, cybersecurity, or a related field.
• Previous or Current CBP Background Investigation desired.
• U.S. Citizenship Required.

Tools and technologies

• Nmap
• Nessus
• Burp Suite
• Metasploit

Additional details

• Location: Ashburn, Virginia (Onsite Workplace)
• Requisition type: Regular
• Travel required: Less than 10%
• Clearance level: None
• Public Trust: BI Full 6C (T4)
• Salary range: $91,375 - $123,625 per year

Identity verification process

• You are expected to be on camera during virtual interviews.
• We reserve the right to take your picture to verify your identity and prevent fraud.
• You authorize the collection, processing, and use of your biometric data for identity verification and security purposes.

Key skills for success

• Cybersecurity Operations
• Incident Response
• Network Penetration Testing
• Security Operations
• Vulnerability Remediation