Director Security Operations

Sierra Nevada Corporation • Sparks, NV

8d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Director Security Operations provides strategic leadership and operational oversight for the security program, including security operations, incident response, cloud security engineering, threat intelligence, and reporting. The role oversees 24x7x365 multi-tier Security Operations Center (SOC) operations and serves as the senior escalation point and incident commander for critical incidents. It leads security engineering initiatives for cloud-native detection, response, and monitoring pipelines, and advances automation, machine learning, predictive threat analytics, and AI-enabled security workflows.

The Director engages with client stakeholders, enterprise leadership, and regulatory bodies; leads executive and client communications during major incidents; and oversees actionable cyber threat intelligence and operational reporting. The position also contributes to strategic planning and execution of the security program, policy development, risk and compliance assessments, and advice to executive leadership. Work is in an office or hybrid environment, with travel as needed.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field.
• 13+ years of experience in a related role, including at least 6+ years in a leadership role such as Director, Senior Manager, or equivalent; a higher-level relevant degree may substitute for experience.
• 7+ years of progressive cybersecurity experience.
• Verifiable background leading operations in an MSSP, government or defense intelligence agency SOC, or Fortune 500 enterprise SOC.
• Proven track record leading incident response and crisis management in high-stress, mission-critical scenarios under strict time constraints.
• Hands-on familiarity managing engineering initiatives involving cloud security architectures, automation/SOAR pipelines, and ML/AI-driven detection tooling.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including presenting technical threat analyses to executive committees and enterprise clients.
• Strong knowledge of information security, industrial security, and regulatory compliance.
• Ability to develop and implement policy, influence partners to incorporate security requirements into functional-area operations, and drive process improvement within and outside the security organization.
• Ability to interpret the intent of guidelines and regulations and exercise considerable judgment in applying them to individual situations.
• Strong decision-making skills, including clearly stating the bottom line up front, prioritizing important information, simplifying complex matters, and making timely, well-reasoned decisions.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Secret U.S. Security Clearance; U.S. citizenship is required for the clearance.

Nice To Haves

• Deep understanding of threat actor tactics, techniques, and procedures, malware analysis lifecycles, and forensic methodologies.
• Practical exposure to LLMs, generative AI tools, or agentic frameworks in security workflows, such as automated alert triage or natural-language threat hunting.
• Mastery of modern detection and telemetry stacks such as Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, CrowdStrike Falcon, Palo Alto Cortex XSOAR, and Datadog.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Information Systems, or equivalent practical experience.
• CISSP, CISM, or CCISO certification.
• Advanced technical certifications such as GIAC GCIH, GCFA, GNFA, or GCDA.

Responsibilities

• Oversee 24x7x365 multi-tier SOC operations, including operational cadence, shift handovers, escalation paths, and service level agreements/objectives.
• Direct response strategies for critical incidents and serve as the senior escalation point and incident commander during threats, breaches, and outages.
• Establish standard operating procedures, playbooks, and runbooks aligned with industry frameworks, including MITRE ATT&CK, MITRE ATLAS, NIST CSF, and ISO 27001.
• Maintain analyst performance and operational rigor while mitigating alert fatigue and burnout.
• Advance proactive threat hunting and active defense initiatives.
• Manage SOC financial planning and analysis and reporting.
• Lead the security engineering team building, deploying, and maintaining cloud-native detection, response, and monitoring pipelines across AWS, Azure, and GCP.
• Promote modern security technologies, including machine learning, predictive threat analytics, and autonomous AI agents for triage, enrichment, and remediation.
• Oversee SIEM, SOAR, EDR/XDR, and cloud-native security platforms, refining detection engineering, rule tuning, and pipeline efficiency.
• Serve as the senior operational liaison for key client stakeholders, enterprise leadership, and regulatory bodies.
• Lead client briefings during major security incidents, presenting root-cause analyses, containment actions, and remediation paths.
• Partner with Product, Customer Success, and Sales Engineering to align SOC capabilities with client expectations and service offerings.
• Oversee production of actionable cyber threat intelligence and operational reporting.
• Author and review cyber activity reports, executive dashboards, and threat advisories for technical teams and executive or external customer leadership.
• Lead strategic planning and execution of the security program and develop and implement security policies and strategy.
• Advise executive leadership on security-related matters.
• Conduct risk and compliance assessments and develop mitigation strategies.

Benefits

• Annual incentive pay based upon performance and commensurate with the level of the position.
• Medical, dental, and vision plans.
• 401(k) with 150% match up to 6%.
• Life insurance.
• Three weeks of paid time off.
• Tuition reimbursement.

What This Job Offers

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