Security Operations Center Technical Lead

Invictus International Consulting, LLC•Colorado Springs, CO

2d•Onsite

About The Position

Serve as the senior technical authority for SOC watch operations, cyber defense analysis, threat hunting, incident response, and operational cyber risk supporting the establishment and maturation of a new DoD SOC. Lead the most complex cyber defense investigations, incident-response activities, threat-hunting campaigns, and exposure assessments while providing technical direction when scope, impact, evidence, or response options are uncertain. Perform advanced analysis of host and network telemetry, firewall and IDS/IPS data, authentication activity, endpoint data, intrusion artifacts, vulnerabilities, configurations, and other relevant security evidence. Establish and continuously improve SOC investigative methodologies, triage standards, severity and escalation criteria, evidence requirements, incident workflows, threat-hunting processes, case-quality standards, and shift-turnover practices. Serve as the highest-level operational escalation point for SOC personnel and mentor senior and developing analysts through complex investigations, threat hunts, exercises, and defensive activities. Lead advanced threat-hunting campaigns based on threat intelligence, adversary TTPs, mission priorities, incidents, environmental changes, and identified detection gaps. Apply MITRE ATT&CK, threat intelligence, network forensics, host analysis, vulnerability context, adversary analysis, and threat-informed defense techniques to complex investigations and proactive defensive operations. Establish methodologies for correlating vulnerability, asset, configuration, network reachability, system criticality, security-control, threat, and incident data to identify and prioritize operational cyber risk. Lead complex cyber exposure and impact assessments, including exploitation scenarios, attack paths, affected-system analysis, compensating controls, and risk-informed courses of action. Coordinate significant incidents, cyber findings, and operational risks with government stakeholders, ISSOs/ISSMs, system owners, administrators, engineers, incident-response organizations, and other agencies as required. Partner with cybersecurity engineering teams to translate operational requirements into actionable SIEM/SOAR, network monitoring, endpoint, telemetry, analytics, enrichment, automation, and detection capabilities. Identify systemic visibility, detection, tooling, workflow, exposure, and analyst-proficiency gaps and develop recommendations to improve SOC effectiveness and enterprise security posture. Lead development and validation of SOPs, runbooks, incident-response and threat-hunting playbooks, analyst qualification standards, training scenarios, exercises, and lessons-learned actions. Provide senior technical guidance to SOC leadership through risk assessments, threat assessments, metrics, briefings, and recommendations addressing watch readiness, threat activity, high-risk exposures, capability gaps, remediation priorities, and defensive improvements.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline; four additional years of relevant experience may be substituted in lieu of a degree
Minimum 8 years of directly related cybersecurity experience
Must possess a DoD 8570 IAT Level II or IAM Level II certification
Expert-level, hands-on experience in SOC operations, cyber defense analysis, incident investigation, incident response, threat hunting, adversary analysis, or closely related cybersecurity operations
Demonstrated ability to establish or materially improve SOC operating procedures, investigative standards, threat-hunting methodologies, incident workflows, or analyst qualification/training programs
Expert knowledge of enterprise networking, network security monitoring, host/endpoint analysis, identity/authentication activity, incident response, adversary TTPs, threat intelligence, vulnerability/exposure management, and threat-informed defense
Strong knowledge of MITRE ATT&CK and experience operationalizing threat intelligence in SOC, threat-hunting, or cyber defense activities
Demonstrated experience correlating vulnerability, asset, configuration, threat, incident, and security-control data to assess operational risk and prioritize remediation or defensive actions
Experience with SIEM/SOAR, detection engineering, network-security monitoring, endpoint security, vulnerability management, asset discovery, and continuous monitoring capabilities
TS/SCI with the ability to obtain and maintain a CI polygraph

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting DoD or Intelligence Community environments is desired
Experience with ACAS/Tenable, runZero or comparable exposure/asset-discovery tools, DoD STIG/STIG Viewer, SCAP, POA&M processes, and integration of SOC/incident-response findings with ISSO/ISSM or RMF functions is highly desired
Experience helping establish, transform, or mature a SOC, CSIRT, threat-hunting, or cyber defense capability is highly desired

Responsibilities

Serve as the senior technical authority for SOC watch operations, cyber defense analysis, threat hunting, incident response, and operational cyber risk supporting the establishment and maturation of a new DoD SOC
Lead the most complex cyber defense investigations, incident-response activities, threat-hunting campaigns, and exposure assessments while providing technical direction when scope, impact, evidence, or response options are uncertain
Perform advanced analysis of host and network telemetry, firewall and IDS/IPS data, authentication activity, endpoint data, intrusion artifacts, vulnerabilities, configurations, and other relevant security evidence
Establish and continuously improve SOC investigative methodologies, triage standards, severity and escalation criteria, evidence requirements, incident workflows, threat-hunting processes, case-quality standards, and shift-turnover practices
Serve as the highest-level operational escalation point for SOC personnel and mentor senior and developing analysts through complex investigations, threat hunts, exercises, and defensive activities
Lead advanced threat-hunting campaigns based on threat intelligence, adversary TTPs, mission priorities, incidents, environmental changes, and identified detection gaps
Apply MITRE ATT&CK, threat intelligence, network forensics, host analysis, vulnerability context, adversary analysis, and threat-informed defense techniques to complex investigations and proactive defensive operations
Establish methodologies for correlating vulnerability, asset, configuration, network reachability, system criticality, security-control, threat, and incident data to identify and prioritize operational cyber risk
Lead complex cyber exposure and impact assessments, including exploitation scenarios, attack paths, affected-system analysis, compensating controls, and risk-informed courses of action
Coordinate significant incidents, cyber findings, and operational risks with government stakeholders, ISSOs/ISSMs, system owners, administrators, engineers, incident-response organizations, and other agencies as required
Partner with cybersecurity engineering teams to translate operational requirements into actionable SIEM/SOAR, network monitoring, endpoint, telemetry, analytics, enrichment, automation, and detection capabilities
Identify systemic visibility, detection, tooling, workflow, exposure, and analyst-proficiency gaps and develop recommendations to improve SOC effectiveness and enterprise security posture
Lead development and validation of SOPs, runbooks, incident-response and threat-hunting playbooks, analyst qualification standards, training scenarios, exercises, and lessons-learned actions
Provide senior technical guidance to SOC leadership through risk assessments, threat assessments, metrics, briefings, and recommendations addressing watch readiness, threat activity, high-risk exposures, capability gaps, remediation priorities, and defensive improvements