Job Title: SOAR Automation Engineer
Location: Washington, DC (Hybrid / on-site collaboration required)
Employment Type: Contract (W2 through ZipStaff — No C2C or 1099)
About the Opportunity
ZipStaff is seeking an experienced SOAR Automation Engineer to support security operations for a major national transportation organization in the Washington, DC area.
This is a hybrid technical role spanning security operations and automation engineering. You will design and deploy automated workflows, custom playbooks, and API integrations across enterprise systems, translate security and business needs into technical requirements, and improve risk triage and incident remediation.
What You’ll Do:
- Design, build, and maintain automated playbooks, workflows, custom widgets, and API connectors across SaaS, cloud, and on-premises systems (including CMDBs, ticketing tools, and security platforms).
- Conduct technical discovery sessions with business and security stakeholders; author user stories, epics, and technical specifications.
- Streamline risk triage, escalation, and remediation pipelines; normalize and enrich security datasets; monitor automation performance.
- Develop custom forms, user interfaces, dashboards, and analytics reporting.
- Troubleshoot platform issues, manage application performance, and implement error handling and logging.
- Establish and maintain change controls, data validation standards, and documentation for SOAR automations to support enterprise compliance.
Required Qualifications:
- Proven hands-on experience building, testing, and deploying custom playbooks and integrations on a leading SOAR platform (Palo Alto Cortex XSOAR, Splunk SOAR, or Microsoft Sentinel).
- Deep proficiency with RESTful APIs, JSON/XML parsing, and scripting (Python, PowerShell, or JavaScript).
- Experience integrating hybrid environments (AWS, Azure, M365, ITSM platforms).
- Strong understanding of the Incident Response lifecycle, threat mitigation, SecOps workflows, and risk triage frameworks.
- Ability to act as a hybrid technical analyst — translating stakeholder requests into structured requirements, acceptance criteria, and architecture documentation.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to work in the Washington, DC area for hybrid onboarding and collaborative sessions.
- Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience in transportation, government, or other highly regulated environments.
- Hands-on dashboard / UI development within a SOAR platform.
- Prior work connecting SOAR to CMDB and enterprise ticketing platforms.
About ZipStaff
ZipStaff partners with leading organizations to connect skilled cybersecurity professionals with high-impact contract opportunities. We focus on quality matches and long-term success.
To apply, please submit your resume highlighting your SOAR platform experience (XSOAR, Splunk SOAR, or Sentinel), playbook development, and API/scripting background.