Antivirus Engineer (McLean)

A Fortune 50 financial services company is seeking a highly motivated Antivirus Engineer to join their team in the McLean, Virginia area. Responsibilities: Diagnose and resolve complex performance issues related to Microsoft Defender. Review and interpret Client Analyzer logs. Recommend tuning and optimization strategies to minimize Defender's resource impact Configure and deploy security policies using Intune, MECM, and Ansible Develop and execute testing methodologies for deployment and policy validation Produce documentation and follow established enterprise engineering and change-control processes Conduct network diagnostics including firewall rule evaluation and packet/traffic analysis Identify and remediate telemetry gaps or inconsistencies across endpoints Review, validate, and maintain security exclusions between test and production environments Ensure all security configurations adhere to enterprise, regulatory, and audit requirements Conduct assessments of current security posture and recommend improvements Review penetration test findings and propose remediation strategies Qualifications: 8+ years of experience in Endpoint Security Engineering, Antivirus Operations, or Security Tooling Administration Expertise in Microsoft Defender troubleshooting, tuning, and performance analysis Strong experience with Intune, MECM, and Ansible for configuration and deployment Proficiency in KQL, telemetry validation, and log analysis across Security products Hands-on experience with Microsoft security tools (MDE, Sentinel, Defender for Cloud) Strong understanding of Enterprise Security, Compliance, and Governance standards Familiarity with Network Diagnostics, Firewall Evaluations, and Splunk searches Desired Skills: Experience in large enterprise or financial services environments Experience participating in incident Response, Threat Hunting, or Red Team Remediation Knowledge of secure Configuration Baselines and Endpoint Hardening frameworks