SOAR Engineer

Sanderson Government & Defence; Cheltenham; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Sanderson Government & Defence seeks a SOAR/SIEM Security Engineer to support a critical national infrastructure (OT) client on an 18-month fixed-term contract, focusing on protecting operational technology environments that underpin essential services.

You will design, implement, and tune SOAR playbooks and Splunk detections, working closely with engineering and safety teams to detect, respond, and automate defence against threats in high-stakes live OT/IT environments.

Qualifications

• Active SC clearance.
• Proven experience in CNI/OT environments.
• Hands-on with SOAR platforms and Splunk.
• Understanding OT vs IT security and high-consequence live environments.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain SOAR playbooks to automate detection and response workflows.
• Develop and tune Splunk use cases, dashboards, and correlation searches across IT and OT data sources.
• Support incident detection and response within CNI/OT environments, collaborating with engineering and safety teams.
• Contribute to the maturity of security monitoring across converged industrial and enterprise networks.
• Operate in OT-specific constraints around availability, safety, and legacy systems.

Job description

SOAR/SIEM Security Engineer - Critical National Infrastructure (OT)

18-Month FTC | SC Cleared

A leading cyber security firm is looking for a SOAR/SIEM Security Engineer to join a critical national infrastructure (CNI) client on an 18-month fixed-term contract, supporting the protection of operational technology (OT) environments that underpin essential national services. This is a high-visibility role within a security operations function tasked with detecting, responding to, and automating defence against threats across converged IT/OT infrastructure. You'll be working on live, high-stakes environments.

What you’ll be doing

• Designing, building, and maintaining SOAR playbooks to automate detection and response workflows
• Developing and tuning Splunk use cases, dashboards, and correlation searches across IT and OT data sources
• Supporting incident detection and response within CNI/OT environments, working closely with engineering and safety teams
• Contributing to the maturity of security monitoring across converged industrial and enterprise networks
• Working within a team that understands the unique constraints of OT - availability, safety, and legacy systems - versus traditional IT security

What you’ll need

• Active SC clearance
• Proven experience working within CNI or OT environments
• Strong hands-on experience with SOAR platforms and Splunk
• A solid grasp of the differences between securing OT and IT - this isn’t a generic SOC role
• Comfortable operating in a live, high-consequence environment where good judgement matters as much as technical skill

The contract

18-month FTC

Strong potential for extension or conversion to a permanent role further down the line (not guaranteed, but a realistic prospect based on programme trajectory)

Reasonable Adjustments:

Respect and equality are core values to us. We are proud of the diverse and inclusive community we have built, and we welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and perspectives. Our success is driven by our people, united by the spirit of partnership to deliver the best resourcing solutions for our clients.