Senior Cyber Defense & SOC Lead (Hybrid)

Smart DCC; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Annual performance bonus

Generous pension scheme

Private healthcare

Annual leave entitlement plus bank hol

Flexible benefits package

Professional development and training

Employee wellbeing support

Job summary

Smart DCC is seeking a Lead Cyber Security Operations Analyst to lead investigation and response to cyber threats across critical national infrastructure. You will mentor SOC analysts, drive improvements in detection and incident response, and partner with security teams to strengthen threat monitoring and resilience.

You’ll work with cutting-edge security technologies, influence strategy, and shape the future of cyber defence across the organisation while protecting services that touch millions

Qualifications

• Significant experience in a SOC or cyber defence environment.
• Strong incident response and digital investigation experience.
• In-depth understanding of cyber threats, attack techniques and threat actor behaviours.
• Experience with SIEM, EDR, threat intelligence and security monitoring tools.
• Knowledge of cloud security technologies, particularly Microsoft and Azure environments.
• Familiarity with MITRE ATT&CK framework.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management abilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead investigation and response to cyber security incidents and major security events.
• Act as a senior escalation point for complex security analysis and threat hunting activities.
• Drive improvements to monitoring, detection content, automation and incident response processes.
• Support and mentor SOC analysts to develop technical capability across the team.
• Lead security exercises, simulations and lessons learned activities.
• Work with internal and external stakeholders to strengthen overall security posture.
• Producing high-quality reporting and communicating security risks to a variety of audiences.
• Identifying opportunities for continuous improvement across the SOC and wider cyber security function.
• Supporting strategic cyber security initiatives and projects.

Skills

SOC experience

Incident response

Threat hunting

Threat intelligence

Security monitoring tools

Cloud security (Azure)

MITRE ATT&CK

Communication

Tools

SIEM

EDR

Threat intel tools

Monitoring tools

Job description

Smart DCC is seeking a Lead Cyber Security Operations Analyst to lead investigation and response to cyber threats across critical national infrastructure. You will mentor SOC analysts, drive improvements in detection and incident response, and partner with security teams to strengthen threat monitoring and resilience.

You’ll work with cutting-edge security technologies, influence strategy, and shape the future of cyber defence across the organisation while protecting services that touch millions