Cyber Defense Incident Response Lead

KeyBank; Brooklyn (OH); On-site; USD 96,000 - 181,000; Full time

Job summary

KeyBank is seeking an experienced Cyber Incident Response Lead to join the Cyber Defense team within Corporate Information Security in Brooklyn, OH. You will lead high-impact incident response activities, coordinating across Cyber Defense, technology, business, risk, legal, communications, and executives, while maturing the incident response program.

The role requires strong incident response experience, executive communication skills, and the ability to drive playbooks, tabletop exercises,

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Continuity, Risk Management, or related field - or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of experience in cybersecurity, incident response, security operations, cyber risk management, technology incident management, or related disciplines.
• Strong executive communication skills and ability to translate technical incidents into business impact, risk, actions taken, and next steps.
• Experience leading cross-functional teams during high-pressure situations and driving clarity, accountability, and timely decision-making.
• Experience developing incident response plans, playbooks, runbooks, procedures, executive summaries, or after-action reports.

Responsibilities

• Lead cybersecurity incident response coordination for significant cyber events, ensuring triage, escalation, containment coordination, stakeholder engagement, and resolution tracking.
• Serve as the primary Cyber Defense incident response lead during active incidents, coordinating with multiple enterprise partners.
• Ensure accurate, timely incident timelines, actions taken, evidence, communications, and lessons learned.
• Develop, mature, and maintain the Cyber Defense incident response program, including frameworks, operating models, governance, templates, metrics, and improvements.
• Create and maintain incident response playbooks and runbooks to support consistent execution during events.
• Design, facilitate, and evaluate tabletop exercises and simulations to test readiness and drive remediation actions.
• Lead post-incident reviews, documenting root cause, response effectiveness, and ownership of actions.
• Develop concise executive reporting for Cyber Defense leadership and board-level audiences as appropriate.
• Establish and track incident response metrics, including timelines, documentation quality, and program maturity.
• Engage stakeholders across business, technology, risk, legal, compliance, communications, and third-party teams.

Skills

Incident response experience

Executive communication

Tabletop exercises

Cross-functional leadership

Documentation & reporting

Threat intelligence familiarity

Security operations basics (SIEM/EDR/S

Education

Bachelor's degree in Cybersecurity or related field

Tools

ServiceNow Security Incident Response

Palo Alto Cortex XSIAM/XSOAR

Job description

Cyber Incident Response Lead

As a member of the Cyber Defense team within Corporate Information Security, the Incident Response Lead plays a critical role in strengthening KeyBank's ability to prepare for, coordinate, and respond to cybersecurity incidents across the enterprise. This position is responsible for leading high-impact cyber incident response activities, ensuring timely coordination across Cyber Defense, technology, business, risk, legal, communications, and executive stakeholders. The Incident Response Lead will own and continuously mature the Cyber Defense incident response program by maintaining response documentation, improving playbooks and runbooks, developing repeatable response processes, and ensuring lessons learned are translated into actionable program improvements.

Location

4910 Tiedeman Road, Brooklyn Ohio

Job Description

As a member of the Cyber Defense team within Corporate Information Security, the Incident Response Lead plays a critical role in strengthening KeyBank's ability to prepare for, coordinate, and respond to cybersecurity incidents across the enterprise. This position is responsible for leading high-impact cyber incident response activities, ensuring timely coordination across Cyber Defense, technology, business, risk, legal, communications, and executive stakeholders. The Incident Response Lead will own and continuously mature the Cyber Defense incident response program by maintaining response documentation, improving playbooks and runbooks, developing repeatable response processes, and ensuring lessons learned are translated into actionable program improvements.

This role requires a strong blend of cyber incident response experience, program development capability, executive communication skills, and operational leadership. The Incident Response Lead will facilitate tabletop exercises, support incident simulations, drive post-incident reviews, develop executive-level reporting, and help ensure KeyBank's incident response capabilities remain aligned to the evolving threat landscape, regulatory expectations, and business resilience needs. This position directly supports KeyBank's mission to Deter, Detect, Deny, and Disrupt adversaries through coordinated, well-documented, and continuously improving cyber defense capabilities.

Key Responsibilities

• Incident Leadership: Lead cybersecurity incident response coordination for significant cyber events, ensuring appropriate triage, escalation, containment coordination, stakeholder engagement, and resolution tracking.
• Incident Command & Coordination: Serve as a primary Cyber Defense incident response lead during active incidents, coordinating across Cyber Threat Response, Cyber Threat Management, Cyber Detection and Automation, Cyber Application and Cloud Defense, Cyber Adversary and Exposure Management, Technology Incident Management, Corporate Incident Response, and other enterprise partners as needed.
• Documentation & Case Management: Ensure accurate, timely, and complete documentation of incident timelines, actions taken, decisions made, evidence collected, communications issued, and lessons learned.
• Program Development: Develop, mature, and maintain the Cyber Defense incident response program, including response frameworks, operating models, escalation paths, governance routines, templates, metrics, and continuous improvement processes.
• Playbook & Runbook Management: Create, update, and maintain incident response playbooks, runbooks, quick reference guides, and standard operating procedures to support consistent execution during cyber events.
• Tabletop Exercises: Design, facilitate, and evaluate cyber tabletop exercises, simulations, and scenario-based discussions to test readiness, validate response plans, identify gaps, and drive remediation actions.
• Post-Incident Reviews: Lead post-incident reviews and lessons-learned sessions, documenting root cause, response effectiveness, improvement opportunities, and ownership of follow-up actions.
• Executive Reporting: Develop clear, concise, and business-relevant incident reporting for Cyber Defense leadership, CIS leadership, executive stakeholders, committees, and board-level audiences as appropriate.
• Metrics & Continuous Improvement: Establish and track incident response performance metrics, including response timelines, documentation quality, action closure, recurring themes, exercise findings, and program maturity indicators.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Partner with business, technology, risk, legal, compliance, communications, and third-party teams to ensure Cyber Defense response processes are understood, practiced, and integrated with enterprise incident management expectations.
• Regulatory & Audit Support: Support internal audit, regulatory, and compliance requests related to cybersecurity incident response documentation, testing, governance, and program effectiveness.
• Threat-Informed Readiness: Collaborate with Threat Intelligence, Detection Engineering, SOC operations, and other Cyber Defense teams to ensure response plans reflect current adversary tactics, emerging threats, and relevant attack scenarios.
• Crisis Communication Support: Support the development of leadership updates, incident summaries, situation reports, after-action reports, and communication artifacts during and after cyber events.
• Process Automation & AI Enablement: Identify opportunities to improve incident response efficiency through automation, AI-enabled workflows, structured data capture, and repeatable response templates.
• Knowledge Sharing: Provide training, coaching, and knowledge transfer to Cyber Defense team members and cross-functional partners on incident response expectations, playbook usage, tabletop outcomes, and program changes.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Continuity, Risk Management, or related field - or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of experience in cybersecurity, incident response, security operations, cyber risk management, technology incident management, or related disciplines.
• Demonstrated experience leading or coordinating cybersecurity incidents in complex enterprise environments.
• Strong understanding of incident response lifecycle activities, including preparation, detection, analysis, containment, eradication, recovery, and post-incident improvement.
• Experience developing or maintaining incident response plans, playbooks, runbooks, procedures, executive summaries, or after-action reports.
• Ability to lead cross-functional teams during high-pressure situations and drive clarity, accountability, and timely decision-making.
• Strong executive communication skills, including the ability to translate technical cyber incidents into business impact, risk, actions taken, and next steps.
• Experience planning, facilitating, or participating in tabletop exercises, cyber simulations, or crisis response exercises.
• Familiarity with security operations, SIEM, EDR/XDR, SOAR, threat intelligence, vulnerability management, cloud security, identity security, and other enterprise security capabilities.
• Working knowledge of common cybersecurity frameworks and guidance, such as NIST CSF, NIST incident response guidance, MITRE ATT&CK, FFIEC Cybersecurity Assessment Tool, or similar industry standards.
• Strong documentation, organization, and program management skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, coordinate stakeholders, and maintain structure during ambiguous or fast-moving incidents.
• Experience supporting audit, regulatory, risk, or governance activities related to cyber incident response.
• Ability to provide after-hours support during significant cybersecurity incidents or exercises, as needed.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in financial services, banking, critical infrastructure, or other highly regulated environments.
• Experience working with Corporate Incident Response, Technology Incident Management, Business Resiliency, Legal, Privacy, Communications, Fraud, Third Party Risk, or similar enterprise response partners.
• Experience developing executive-level incident reports, board-level summaries, or committee reporting materials.
• Experience with ServiceNow Security Incident Response, major incident management workflows, or similar incident tracking platforms.
• Experience with Palo Alto Cortex XSIAM/XSOAR/XDR, or similar security operations technologies.
• Experience integrating incident response workflows with automation, AI-enabled response support, SOAR playbooks, or structured response workspaces.
• Experience conducting post-incident maturity reviews and translating findings into program roadmaps.
• Strong understanding of ransomware, business email compromise, cloud compromise, data exfiltration, third-party cyber incidents, DDoS, insider threat, and other major cyber incident scenarios.

Preferred Certifications

• Certified Information Systems Security Professional - CISSP
• GIAC Certified Incident Handler - GCIH
• GIAC Certified Forensic Analyst - GCFA
• GIAC Certified Enterprise Defender - GCED
• Certified Information Security Manager - CISM
• Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control - CRISC
• Project Management Professional - PMP
• ITIL Foundation or equivalent incident/problem management certification

Compensation And Benefits

This position is eligible to earn a base salary in the range of $96,000.00 - $181,000.00 annually. Placement within the pay range may differ based upon various factors, including but not limited to skills, experience and geographic location. Compensation for this role also includes eligibility for incentive compensation which may include production, commission, and/or discretionary incentives.

Please click here for a list of benefits for which this position is eligible.

Key has implemented an approach to employee workspaces which prioritizes in-office presence, while providing flexible options in circumstances where roles can be performed effectively in a mobile environment.

Job Posting Expiration Date: 10/08/2026

KeyCorp is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to sustaining an inclusive culture. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, genetic information, pregnancy, disability, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

Qualified individuals with disabilities or disabled veterans who are unable or limited in their ability to apply on this site may request reasonable accommodations by emailing [e-mail].