Threat and Incident Response Engineer

Volanno•Seattle, WA

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

Volanno is seeking two Threat and Incident Response Engineers to support the information security team at Sound Transit, the regional transit authority serving the Puget Sound area. The work spans the corporate IT network and the operational technology that runs transit systems. Time is split about evenly between responding to security incidents and proactive threat hunting, with detection tuning running underneath both. On the incident side, this role owns alerts from the moment they arrive. That means triage out of SIEM, EDR, NDR, and the OT monitoring platform, then analysis, escalation, and guidance on containment, eradication, and recovery. This team member will write the root cause analyses and incident reports that go to Sound Transit leadership, keep incident metrics current, and build out response playbooks. In the OT environment the work also involves reading industrial network traffic and coordinating directly with plant and engineering staff, since a response step that is routine on a corporate network can take something offline that needs to stay running. On the hunting side, this team member will form hypotheses and test them against endpoint, network, log, and OT protocol telemetry. What the hunts turn up becomes new detection content. Coverage is mapped against MITRE ATT&CK to guide where hunts focus next, and threat intelligence feeds back into the following round. Alert quality runs through both halves of the job. Detection tuning is a standing part of the role, so expect meaningful time on rule tuning, suppression logic, correlation and enrichment, and SOAR automation. This position will function within a highly motivated, dynamic team. We are looking for someone who works calmly during an active incident and who takes the initiative on hunting rather than waiting for work to be assigned.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree from an accredited U.S. college or university in Computer Science, Information Security, Information Systems, or a related subject.
Minimum of ten (10) years of experience in cybersecurity operations for the senior position, or five (5) or more years for the mid-level position, covering both security incident response and proactive threat hunting.
Demonstrated experience responding to security incidents in an Operational Technology (OT), ICS, or SCADA environment, not enterprise IT alone.
Ability to pass a Sound Transit background check.
Ability to work Pacific Time business hours and to be onsite in the Seattle area on occasion.
Proven experience managing security incidents end to end, from triage through containment, eradication, recovery, and post-incident review.
Working proficiency with a major SIEM such as Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk, or QRadar, including writing and tuning detection content.
Working proficiency with EDR such as Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, CrowdStrike, or SentinelOne, and with network detection and response tooling.
Experience with OT monitoring platforms such as Dragos, Claroty, or Nozomi Networks.
Practical fluency with MITRE ATT&CK, including ATT&CK for ICS, and the ability to map detection and hunt coverage against it.
Ability to design and run hypothesis-driven threat hunts across endpoint, network, log, and OT protocol telemetry.
Detection engineering skills, including writing and refining correlation rules, queries, and use cases in SIEM and EDR platforms.
A track record of reducing false positives, alert noise, and duplicate ticketing, with metrics to support it.
Familiarity with industrial protocols and industrial network traffic analysis, such as Modbus, DNP3, OPC, or BACnet.
Experience folding threat intelligence into hunting and detection workflows.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to brief technical responders and executive stakeholders.
Ability to work independently within a client environment and coordinate across information security, infrastructure, operations, and engineering teams.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting a transit, rail, utility, or other critical infrastructure organization
Public sector or government client experience
Certifications such as GCIH, GCIA, GCFA, GNFA, GICSP, GRID, or CISSP
SOAR automation and playbook development using Sentinel Automation Rules, Splunk SOAR, Cortex XSOAR, or a comparable platform
Experience standing up or maturing a formal threat hunting program
Familiarity with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, NIST SP 800-82, IEC 62443, and TSA Security Directives
Scripting for detection and automation, such as KQL, SPL, Python, or PowerShell
Digital forensics or malware analysis capability
Experience mentoring SOC analysts or leading post-incident reviews

Responsibilities

Triage security alerts from SIEM, EDR, NDR, and OT monitoring platforms.
Analyze security incidents, escalate as needed, and provide guidance on containment, eradication, and recovery.
Write root cause analyses and incident reports for Sound Transit leadership.
Maintain incident metrics and build out response playbooks.
Read industrial network traffic and coordinate with plant and engineering staff in OT environments.
Form hypotheses and test them against endpoint, network, log, and OT protocol telemetry for threat hunting.
Develop new detection content based on threat hunt findings.
Map coverage against MITRE ATT&CK for guiding hunt focus.
Incorporate threat intelligence into hunting and detection workflows.
Tune detection rules, suppression logic, correlation, and enrichment.
Develop SOAR automation.
Reduce false positives, alert noise, and duplicate ticketing.
Produce incident documentation, root cause analysis reports, SOPs, playbooks, and metrics (MTTD, MTTR, SLA adherence).
Recognize when standard IT containment actions are unsafe in an operational environment and work out safe alternatives with engineering staff.
Brief technical responders and executive stakeholders.
Coordinate across information security, infrastructure, operations, and engineering teams.