Cyber Defense Strategy & Operations Lead

Optimum; Bethpage (NY); On-site; USD 134,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

Optimum seeks a Lead for Cyber Defense Operations Strategy and Coordination to align enterprise cyber defense capabilities across SOC, IR, Threat Intelligence, and Vulnerability Management. The role drives strategy, incident response readiness, and risk oversight, delivering measurable KPIs and cross-functional collaboration with IT, Legal, and business teams.

The candidate should have 8+ years in cyber security, strong leadership, and familiarity with frameworks like NIST CSF and MITRE ATT&CK.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent experience
• 8+ years experience in Cyber Security or related field
• Demonstrated experience in SOC, incident response, threat intelligence, or vulnerability management leadership
• Strong knowledge of cyber defense frameworks and standards (for example, NIST CSF, MITRE ATT&CK, ISO 27001)
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional programs and influence outcomes without direct authority
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including executive-level reporting

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the cyber defense operations strategy, roadmap, and operating model
• Coordinate priorities and execution across SOC, IR, Threat Intelligence, Vulnerability Management, and security engineering teams
• Establish and lead oversight, including operational reviews, risk reviews, and post-incident reviews
• Drive development and standardization of playbooks, runbooks, escalation paths, and response coordination protocols
• Translate emerging threats into operational priorities, detection use cases, and control improvements
• Develop and report KPIs/KRIs such as MTTT, MTTR, detection coverage, and remediation SLA performance
• Partner with Infrastructure, IT, Legal, Privacy, and business teams during incident response and readiness efforts
• Lead improvement exercises and operational readiness drills (PTEs, Table tops, etc.) to strengthen crisis response
• Identify process and tooling gaps and coordinate automation and operational improvement initiatives

Skills

SOC leadership

Incident response

Threat intelligence

Vulnerability management

Security frameworks

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or related field

CISSP certification

CISM

GIAC (GCIH/GCIA)

PMP

Tools

SIEM

SOAR

EDR

Case management

Vulnerability risk platforms

Job description

Optimum seeks a Lead for Cyber Defense Operations Strategy and Coordination to align enterprise cyber defense capabilities across SOC, IR, Threat Intelligence, and Vulnerability Management. The role drives strategy, incident response readiness, and risk oversight, delivering measurable KPIs and cross-functional collaboration with IT, Legal, and business teams.

The candidate should have 8+ years in cyber security, strong leadership, and familiarity with frameworks like NIST CSF and MITRE ATT&CK.