The Digital Forensics Systems Specialist provides technical leadership and operational support for a federal digital forensic laboratory environment supporting active law enforcement and regulatory investigations. This position ensures the availability, security, and forensic integrity of systems, tools, and infrastructure used to collect, process, analyze, and preserve digital evidence in accordance with federal evidentiary, legal, and security requirements.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Support and sustain digital forensic laboratory systems and infrastructure directly supporting active federal investigations and enforcement actions.
- Lead and execute technical initiatives that modernize digital forensic capabilities while maintaining forensic soundness, evidentiary integrity, and chain-of-custody requirements.
- Plan, manage, and deliver assigned technical projects of moderate to advanced complexity, ensuring adherence to federal schedules, budgets, and operational priorities.
- Perform system validation, functional testing, and operational readiness assessments for new or upgraded forensic tools, platforms, and environments prior to production use.
- Develop, maintain, and enforce system, operational, and forensic documentation required for audits, accreditation, discovery, and legal proceedings.
- Provide hands-on technical support for information systems supporting forensic examinations, evidence storage, analysis, and reporting.
- Ensure forensic systems comply with applicable federal policies, standards, and controls related to data integrity, access control, auditing, and security.
- Proactively monitor and assess system performance, reliability, and security; identify risks and implement corrective actions to ensure uninterrupted investigative operations.
- Implement automation and process improvements that increase examiner efficiency while preserving evidentiary defensibility.
- Coordinate with forensic examiners, investigators, cybersecurity staff, and program leadership to support mission-critical investigative operations.
- Demonstrated expertise in Digital Forensics, including forensic tools, laboratory systems, and workflows supporting computer, mobile, and media examinations.
- Experience supporting forensic laboratory environments used in active law enforcement or regulatory investigations.
- Advanced knowledge of enterprise networking, including secure network segmentation and monitoring, with experience supporting Cisco and Fortinet technologies.
- Expert experience with virtualized environments, including:
- On-premises platforms (VMware, Nutanix)
- Cloud platforms (Microsoft Azure, AWS)
- Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions (Citrix, VMware Horizon)
- Experience supporting hybrid and isolated environments designed for sensitive or classified investigative data.
- Ability to support systems operating under federal cybersecurity and information assurance requirements (e.g., logging, access controls, incident response).
- Current professional certifications such as:
- IACIS Certified Forensic Computer Examiner (CFCE)
- BCERT / ACERT
- SANS (GCFE, GCFA, or equivalent)
- Prior federal or state Law Enforcement experience as a Digital Forensic Examiner may be substituted for specific certification requirements, subject to agency approval.