Senior Cyber Offense Specialist
What you'd do
At the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI), our team of cyber experts work to understand and evaluate the cyber offense capabilities of AI models, working closely with AI developers and the US national security community to prepare for increasing capabilities in this critical domain. This notice is issued under direct-hire authority to recruit new talent to occupations for which NIST has a severe shortage of candidates.
Major duties
In this position, you will: Integrate national security context into CAISI's assessments of AI cyber capabilities, mapping offensive tradecraft-from vulnerability research to exploit development-to real-world adversarial tactics. Develop strategic roadmaps for evaluation, ensuring that AI assessment scenarios reflect high-priority cyber threats to national security interests and critical infrastructure. Translate complex evaluation results into mission-focused assessments and risk briefings for senior interagency leadership and national security stakeholders. Bridge the gap between emerging AI research and established offensive cyber tradecraft to ensure evaluations remain operationally relevant to the US Government. Strengthen the U.S. security posture by providing a high-quality technical evidence base that informs federal defensive and offensive cyber strategies. Coordinate with interagency partners to align assessments with federal cyber requirements and validate that frontier AI systems are measured against realistic cyber targets. Safeguard national interests by ensuring frontier AI models are rigorously evaluated against relevant cyber assets and national security benchmarks.
What you need to qualify
Basic Requirements: A. Bachelor's degree in computer science. OR B. Bachelor's degree with 30 semester hours in a combination of mathematics, statistics, and computer science. At least 15 of the 30 semester hours must have included any combination of statistics and mathematics that included differential and integral calculus. All academic degrees and course work must be from accredited or pre-accredited institutions. In addition to the basic requirements, applicants must have one year (52 weeks) of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-12 level (ZP-III at NIST). Specialized experience is defined as experience performing advanced technical tasks in offensive cyber tradecraft, such as vulnerability analysis, exploit development, or reverse engineering; identifying the functional utility of specific technical components within a cyber-attack lifecycle; and documenting technical findings through reports or briefings that explain the functional impact of cyber tools or vulnerabilities. Experience 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, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. The qualification requirements in this vacancy announcement are based on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Qualification Standards Handbook. If requesting reconsideration of your qualification determination, please refer to the following site: Applicant Reconsideration
Before you apply
Federal applications are different: your resume should be 3–5 pages and mirror the language of this announcement. Read our federal resume guide first — it's the #1 reason qualified people get screened out.
Don't miss the next one.
Get an email the moment a similar federal job opens — postings can close in as little as 5 days.