Cyber Defense Engineer

Zelis • Morristown, TN

4d • Hybrid

About The Position

Leads complex security initiatives and provides expert guidance on threat mitigation, compliance, and architecture. The Cyber Defense Engineer builds, manages, and enhances tools, automations, and data systems that power cyber defense operations. The role involves hands-on work with security technologies, developing workflow efficiencies, supporting detection engineering, ensuring high-quality security data, and mentoring teammates to strengthen overall team capability.

Requirements

• Bachelor of Computer Science, Engineering, Information Security, Information Technology, or 4+ years of equivalent experience.
• 4+ years of enterprise level cybersecurity detection, response, or engineering experience.
• Ability to collaborate across enterprise teams within a cybersecurity context
• Strong oral/written communication skills with experience in cybersecurity technical process documentation.
• Demonstrated passion for cyber defense and commitment to maintaining technical proficiency
• Proven innovation and non-traditional problem solving
• Advanced knowledge of SIEM, SOAR, malware sandboxing and related tools
• Experience building or maintaining automation scripts or workflows (e.g., Python, PowerShell, Bash, APIs).
• Ability to diagnose and solve complex technical issues across tools, data flows, and integrations.
• Experience mentoring or training others on tools, techniques, or processes.
• Strong problem-solving mindset with an interest in improving systems and workflows.
• Understanding of detection logic, threat behaviors, and MITRE ATT&CK.

Nice To Haves

• Advanced cybersecurity certifications (e.g., GCFA, GCIA, GNFA, GCTI, GREM, GCIH, GCFA, GPEN, OSCP, etc.).
• Experience with cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP) and associated security tooling.
• Advanced Proficiency in scripting and high-level programming languages (Python, PowerShell, bash, etc.)

Responsibilities

• Identify capability gaps, propose solutions, and design modern defensive approaches.
• Build or enhance automated workflows to reduce manual effort, improve reliability, and accelerate detection/response.
• Maintain, optimize, and troubleshoot security platforms, custom tools, and log pipelines across the enterprise.
• Oversee the lifecycle of security data—ingestion, transformation, normalization, and quality control across systems.
• Support detection engineering through maintenance, testing, and improvement of detection logic, rules, dashboards, and data sources.
• Guide junior engineers and analysts on tools, processes, automation practices, and new capabilities.
• Tune, fix, integrate, or enhance security tools.
• Build or update automation scripts/workflows for incident response, threat intelligence, and vulnerability management.
• Maintain data pipelines by validating log sources, troubleshooting gaps, updating parsers, and improving normalization.
• Review and build detection rules/alerts, collaborating with analysts to reduce noise and improve performance.
• Work with IT, cloud, networking, and security teams to deploy solutions or resolve tool issues.
• Write documentation, improve runbooks, and share lessons learned.
• Support teammates through technical guidance and demonstrations.
• Participate in discussions on innovation, process improvement, and future engineering projects.
• Perform additional tasks as assigned.

Benefits

• 401k plan with employer match
• flexible paid time off
• holidays
• parental leaves
• life and disability insurance
• health benefits including medical, dental, vision, and prescription drug coverage

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior