Security Engineer (Threat Response), Sophos Security Team (IDR)

Lever, Inc.; Oxford; Remote; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote-first culture

Hybrid opportunities

Job summary

Sophos is seeking a highly capable security engineer to independently detect, investigate and respond to cyber threats while engineering scalable detections and agentic workflows. You will use AI-assisted tools and production-grade automation to improve incident response effectiveness.

The role emphasizes DFIR, threat hunting and cross-functional collaboration across engineering, product and leadership to reduce risk and improve resilience.

Qualifications

• Experience in enterprise incident response across endpoints, identity, cloud and network.
• Proficient in DFIR, endpoint and firewall forensics, threat hunting and detection engineering.
• Able to write reliable automation in Python and query data via SQL.

Responsibilities

• Own complex investigations across the incident lifecycle from triage to lessons learned.
• Coordinate response across IDR, engineering, product and business teams.
• Perform DFIR and endpoint forensics, including malware and network analysis.
• Write and improve detections, playbooks and automations.
• Build production-grade automation to reduce repetitive tasks.
• Design reusable agentic workflows cross-platform.
• Use approved tooling to accelerate investigations and documentation.
• Contribute through GitHub with PRs and tests.
• Instrument workflows with telemetry for observability.
• Apply safety controls for consequential actions.
• Communicate incidents and risk clearly to leadership.

Skills

DFIR

Endpoint forensics

Python

Git/GitHub

AI tooling familiar

Agent workflow design

Observability

Tools

Claude

Codex

Copilot

GitHub

Job description

About Us

Sophos is a cybersecurity leader defending 600,000 organizations globally with an AI-driven platform and expert-led services. Sophos meets organizations wherever they are in their security maturity and grows with them to defeat cyberattacks. Its solutions combine machine learning, automation, and real-time threat intelligence with frontline human expertise from Sophos X-Ops to deliver advanced, 24/7 threat monitoring, detection, and response.

Sophos offers industry-leading managed detection and response (MDR) alongside a comprehensive portfolio of cybersecurity technologies - including endpoint, network, email, and cloud security, extended detection and response (XDR), identity threat detection and response (ITDR), and next-gen SIEM. Together with expert advisory services, these capabilities help organizations proactively reduce risk and respond faster, with the visibility and scalability needed to stay ahead of evolving threats.

Sophos goes to market with a global partner ecosystem, including Managed Service Providers (MSPs), Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs), resellers and distributors, marketplace integrations, and cyber risk partners, giving organizations the flexibility to choose trusted relationships when securing their business. Sophos is headquartered in Oxford, U.K. More information is available at www.sophos.com.

Role Summary

Independently detect, investigate and respond to cyber threats across Sophos and its products, while engineering the detections, automations, reusable skills and agentic workflows that scale Internal Detection and Response. The role combines incident response judgement with security engineering and the safe, measurable and observable use of AI.

What You Will Do

• Own complex investigations across the incident lifecycle, from triage and evidence collection through containment, recovery and lessons learned.
• Act as a trusted front door for security issues, coordinating response across IDR, engineering, product and business teams.
• Perform DFIR and endpoint forensics, including log, network and packet analysis, malware analysis and firewall investigation where applicable.
• Write and improve detections, playbooks, orchestrations and preventions using evidence from incidents and threat hunting.
• Build production-quality automation that removes repetitive work, improves consistency and enables analysts to operate at a higher layer.
• Design model-agnostic, reusable skills and workflows that run across approved AI and agent platforms rather than depending on one model.
• Use Claude, Codex, Copilot and future approved tooling to accelerate investigations, coding, testing, documentation and detection engineering.
• Contribute through GitHub: create branches, raise and review pull requests, write tests, respond to feedback and support controlled deployment.
• Instrument agentic workflows with logs, traces, metrics, evaluation results and failure signals so behaviour and outcomes are observable.
• Apply safe harness design, least privilege, scoped tool access, approval gates, evidence validation, rollback and human review for consequential actions.
• Communicate incidents, risks, decisions and technical outcomes clearly to engineering and leadership audiences.

What You Will Bring

• Strong enterprise incident response experience across endpoint, identity, cloud, network and product-focused investigations.
• Practical capability in DFIR, endpoint and firewall forensics, threat hunting, detection engineering and analysis of unstructured telemetry.
• Ability to write reliable automation in Python or a comparable language, work with APIs and query data using SQL.
• Working knowledge of Git and GitHub engineering practices, including pull requests, code review, testing and CI/CD concepts.
• Hands-on familiarity with Claude, Codex or comparable coding agents, including context design, task decomposition and validation of generated output.
• Ability to design and write evals for agentic workflows and skills, covering task success, output quality, safety, regressions and common failure modes.
• Understanding of agent architecture, tool use, skill-based design, model portability and AI or automation safety controls.
• Ability to design observability for automated work and use telemetry to troubleshoot, measure quality and improve reliability.
• Clear written and verbal communication, sound opsec judgement and the ability to work effectively in a globally coordinated environment.

In Canada, the base salary for this role ranges from $86,000 to $143,000. In addition to base salary, we offer additional compensation including bonus eligibility and a comprehensive benefits package. A candidate's specific pay within this range will depend on a variety of factors, including job-related skills, training, location, experience, relevant education, certifications, and other business and organizational needs.

Ready to Join Us?

At Sophos, we believe in the power of diverse perspectives to fuel innovation. Research shows that candidates sometimes hesitate to apply if they don't check every box in a job description. We challenge that notion. Your unique experiences and skills might be exactly what we need to enhance our team. Don't let a checklist hold you back - we encourage you to apply.

What's Great About Sophos?

Sophos operates a remote-first working model, making remote work the primary option for most employees. However, some roles may necessitate a hybrid approach. While we are a remote first organization, applicants must have legal authorization to work in the jurisdiction where the position is posted, without requiring employer sponsorship.

Our people - we innovate and create, all of which are accompanied by a great sense of fun and team spirit.

Employee-led diversity and inclusion networks that build community and provide education and advocacy.

Annual charity and fundraising initiatives and volunteer days for employees to support local communities.

Global employee sustainability initiatives to reduce our environmental footprint.

Global fitness and trivia competitions to keep our bodies and minds sharp.

Global wellbeing days for employees to relax and recharge.

Monthly wellbeing webinars and training to support employee health and wellbeing.

Our Commitment To You

We're proud of the diverse and inclusive environment we have at Sophos, and we're committed to ensuring equality of opportunity. We believe that diversity, combined with excellence, builds a better Sophos, so we encourage applicants who can contribute to the diversity of our team. All applicants will be treated in a fair and equal manner and in accordance with the law regardless of gender, sex, gender reassignment, marital status, race, religion or belief, color, age, military veteran status, disability, pregnancy, maternity or sexual orientation. We want to give you every opportunity to show us your best self, so if there are any adjustments we could make to the recruitment and selection process to support you, please let us know.

Data Protection

If you choose to explore an opportunity, and subsequently share your CV or other personal details with Sophos, these details will be held by Sophos for 12 months in accordance with our Privacy Policy and used by our recruitment team to contact you regarding this or other relevant opportunities at Sophos. If you would like Sophos to delete or update your details at any time, please follow the steps set out in the Privacy Policy describing your individual rights. For more information on Sophos' data protection practices, please consult our Privacy Policy Cybersecurity as a Service Delivered | Sophos.