Principal Investigator - Cybersecurity

Administrative

Oshawa • ID: ADP23-03 • Temporary

ABOUT DURHAM COLLEGE

Durham College (DC) is leading the way as a post-secondary institution, offering an innovative and transformative student experience and hands-on learning opportunities. With this focus top of mind for our students and our employees, DC is proud to be ranked as one of the GTA’s Top 100 employers.

The college offers a wide range of market-driven programs across multiple disciplines, including culinary management, farming and horticulture, business, IT, construction and trades, science and technology, health care, engineering, social and community services, justice, media, art and design.

With a focus on experiential learning, DC graduates are known for having the skills and knowledge employers need. More than 104,000 alumni represent the college, both locally and around the world.

Serving the Durham Region and Northumberland County communities for over 55 years, with campuses in Oshawa and Whitby, the college offers over 12,500 full-time post-secondary and apprenticeship students access to more than 145 full-time post-secondary programs – including five honours bachelor degrees and eleven apprenticeship programs. Led by over 1,860 full- and part-time staff, DC has an estimated annual economic impact of more than $913 million on Durham Region.

Long-standing campus partners DC and Ontario Tech University have enjoyed a productive partnership for two decades. The two institutions’ history of collaboration includes an array of seamless and flexible academic pathway programs for students. The college and university also share some campus services and facilities.

Students and staff from both institutions benefit from top-notch health and wellness facilities and some of the highlights include the revitalized Softball Diamond, Campus Fieldhouse, Campus Ice Centre with twin pads, outdoor Soccer Field, the state-of-the-art Campus Recreation and Wellness Centre (CRWC) which includes 5 gymnasiums, studios, indoor track, FLEX fitness centre, and a high-performance training centre, as well as Fitness facilities at Whitby campus. These facilities see on average 20,000 student visits monthly. Campus Recreation programming enjoys great success with over 7,000 students participating annually.

Durham College is seeking experienced and motivated professionals who share our commitment to quality and student success. The Office of Research Services, Innovation and Entrepreneurship is currently seeking applications from qualified individuals who are interested in joining the Centre for Cybersecurity Innovation, on a part-time, project-based contract to oversee the development of real-world solutions for industry partners through applied research and knowledge transfer projects.

Teams of expert faculty, students and recent graduates collaborate with industry partners and their staff to deliver innovative cybersecurity-based solutions to pressing business problems and opportunities. Projects can include producing and testing prototypes, evaluating new technologies, and developing new or improved products or processes for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). All projects are funded by provincial or federal government grants.

The Centre for Cybersecurity Innovation is located at the Oshawa Campus and provides SMEs access to facilities, equipment, technical expertise, and project services to assist them in product development, technology adoption, expansion into new markets and commercialization of new products, services and processes.

The responsibilities of Durham College Principal Investigator include, but are not limited to:

• Conducting applied research projects in collaboration with college staff and industry partners.
• Developing work plans in collaboration with industry partners, including specific resource requirements, milestones and deliverables.
• Attending meetings and presenting project scopes, deliverables and metrics.
• Identifying human resource needs and interviewing / hiring student research assistants.
• Supervising student research assistants.
• Providing technical expertise and leadership for applied research projects.
• Preparing and implementing dissemination activities, including assisting Research Assistants in the preparation of final materials/reports.
• Assisting college staff and students with development and completion of final reports and collection of metrics.
• Assisting with follow-up activities with industry clients or funders.
• Presenting findings at internal and external events, including conferences and seminars, as required - assisting with development of case studies.

The ideal candidate will meet or exceed the following qualifications:

• An undergraduate degree in Cybersecurity, Information Technology, Business or a related field, preferably a masters degree.
• Three to five years of relevant industry experience and demonstrated ability in fields and technologies relevant to project opportunities.
• Demonstrated research skills and project delivery abilities preferably with experience carrying out research projects.
• Excellent organizational and time management skills, with excellent attention to detail, and the ability to multi-task and prioritize projects.
• Strong written and verbal communication and analytical skills, with ability to work and communicate effectively in an office environment with frequent interruptions and dynamic deadlines.
• Proficient computer skills with recent working knowledge of Microsoft applications (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) in a Windows environment.
• Self-motivated and independent worker who also functions well in a collaborative team environment.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to present and interact with a variety of stakeholders including students, other faculty members, support staff, administrators, other departments within the college and with external partners.
• Uncompromised commitment to confidentiality.

The ideal candidate will possess the following technical skills:

• Established track record of delivering commercial projects involving incident response, vulnerability analysis, penetration testing, risk mitigation and compliance.
• Experience with programming and scripting languages (e.g., PHP, .NET, Java, C, Perl, etc.).
• Experience with Cloud and distributed technology architectures and security controls.
• Experience with Industrial Control System (ICS) environments or securing ICS/sensitive segregated networks.
• Certifications in two or more of the following areas required: CISSP, GSEC, CISM, GISO, GCIH, CISA
• Direct project management experience required. PMP certification and Network certification and/or work experience is considered an asset.
• Hands-on coding experience with C/C++, Python, Scala, Lua, R, Matlab, and/or Java.
• Strong experience with systems for large scale data analysis including Spark, Hadoop and Kafka.
• Knowledge of common application-level vulnerabilities including those found in the OWASP Top 10 and CWE Top 25.
• Hands-on expertise with commercial and open-source penetration testing tools (ex: Burp Suite, OWASP ZAP, Nessus, Nmap, Metasploit, CANVAS, SQLMap, Empire, etc.).
• Understanding of Linux/Windows-based operating systems
• Programming skills in Python, Powershell, Ruby, or other relevant languages.
• Knowledge of common penetration testing methodology and standards (PTES, OWASP, CREST, OSSTMM, CWE, CAPEC, CVE, CVSS, etc.)

Required Skills

Hourly Rate: $50.50

Required Experience

Up to 24 hours per week, Monday to Friday.

Occasional weekend and evening hours may be required.

Some travel to industry partner premises.