Cyber Recovery Engineer

Spectraforce Technologies; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Part time

Job summary

Spectraforce Technologies in Chicago, IL is seeking a Cyber Recovery Engineer to design, operate, and test the cyber recovery program within a regulated financial services environment. You will work with senior engineers to develop hands-on proficiency in isolated recovery environments and backup platform management.

We expect growth into independent recovery workstreams within 12–18 months, with emphasis on FFIEC, NIST CSF, and NYDFS compliance and documentation.

Qualifications

• 7–10 years in infrastructure engineering or security-adjacent roles.
• Experience in a financial or similarly regulated environment.
• Exposure to disaster recovery or backup operations.
• Familiarity with at least one enterprise backup platform (Cohesity/Veeam/Rubrik/Zerto/Commvault/NetBackup).
• Basic scripting in Python, Bash, or PowerShell; comfortable modifying scripts.
• Understanding of core networking concepts for isolated environment configuration.
• Strong documentation of procedures and test records.
• Awareness of FFIEC, NIST CSF, NYDFS regulatory frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Maintain Isolated Recovery Environment and clean room infra under senior guidance.
• Execute steps in recovery runbooks during tabletop exercises and tests.
• Document recovery test procedures, results, and deviations; flag anomalies.
• Support forensic validation tasks within the IRE, including integrity checks.
• Learn and apply clean room protocols including network isolation verification and access controls.
• Operate day‑to‑day backup and replication platforms (Cohesity, Rubrik, Veeam, Zerto).
• Monitor backup job health, investigate failures, and escalate issues.
• Assist in testing restore procedures and record RTO/RPO outcomes.
• Prepare regulatory evidence packages and control narratives for examinations and audits.
• Map regulatory guidance to recovery engineering controls under supervision.

Skills

Infrastructure engineering

IT operations

Security-adjacent role

Disaster recovery

Backup platforms

Python scripting

PowerShell / Bash

Networking basics

Documentation

Regulatory frameworks (FFIEC, NIST CSF

Tools

Cohesity

Rubrik

Veeam

Zerto

Commvault

NetBackup

Terraform

Ansible

Job description

Cyber Recovery Engineer

Location: Chicago, IL - 3 days onsite a week

Duration: 12 Months

Experience Level: Senior

Project Overview / Contractor's Role

The Cyber Recovery Engineer is an entry-to-mid-level technical role supporting the design, operation, and testing of the organization's cyber recovery program within a regulated financial services environment. You will work alongside senior engineers and program leads to build hands‑on proficiency in isolated recovery environments (IRE), clean room operations, backup platform management, and regulatory documentation.

This role is intentionally structured to develop the next generation of cyber recovery practitioners. You bring foundational infrastructure or security skills, exposure to a financial institution or highly regulated environment, and a genuine interest in the intersection of resilience engineering and regulatory compliance. You will be expected to grow into independent ownership of recovery workstreams within 12-18 months.

Required Qualifications (Must Have)

• 7-10 years of experience in infrastructure engineering, IT operations, or a security‑adjacent technical role.
• Experience at a financial institution (bank, broker‑dealer, asset manager, insurance firm, or equivalent regulated entity), OR in a similarly regulated environment (healthcare, utilities, government).
• Exposure to disaster recovery or backup operations - including participating in DR tests, managing backup jobs, or executing restore procedures.
• Familiarity with at least one enterprise backup or replication platform: Cohesity, Rubrik, Veeam, Zerto, Commvault, or NetBackup.
• Basic scripting ability in Python, Bash, or PowerShell; comfort running and modifying existing scripts.
• Understanding of core networking concepts (VLANs, firewall rules, DNS, routing) relevant to isolated environment configuration.
• Strong documentation habits; ability to write clear, accurate technical procedures and test records.
• Awareness of regulatory frameworks such as FFIEC, NIST CSF, or NYDFS as they apply to technology and resilience.

Preferred Qualifications (Nice to Have)

• Direct participation in an IRE or clean room recovery exercise, even in a supporting capacity.
• Exposure to regulatory examinations or audit walkthroughs in a technology or cybersecurity context.
• Familiarity with IaC tooling: Terraform, Ansible, or equivalent configuration management platforms.
• Coursework or self‑study in cybersecurity, resilience engineering, or cloud infrastructure.
• Certifications (in progress or completed): CompTIA Security+, CySA+, AWS/Azure fundamentals, or vendor backup platform training.
• Experience with ticketing, change management, and ITSM workflows (ServiceNow or equivalent).
• Exposure to ransomware response or cyber incident response tabletop exercises.

Tasks & Responsibilities

Isolated & Clean Room Recovery Support

• Assist in maintaining and operating the Isolated Recovery Environment (IRE) and clean room infrastructure under senior engineer guidance.
• Execute assigned steps in recovery runbooks during tabletop exercises, simulation drills, and full recovery tests.
• Document recovery test procedures, results, and deviations; flag anomalies to senior team members for triage.
• Support forensic validation tasks within the IRE, including integrity checks and configuration comparisons prior to production re-entry.
• Learn and apply clean room protocols, including network isolation verification and identity access controls during recovery scenarios.

Backup Platform Operations

• Perform day‑to‑day operational tasks across enterprise backup and replication platforms (e.g., Cohesity, Rubrik, Veeam, Zerto, or equivalent).
• Monitor backup job health, investigate failures, and escalate persistent issues with documented findings.
• Assist in configuring and validating backup policies, retention schedules, and replication targets for critical systems.
• Support testing of restore procedures for servers, databases, and applications; record RTO/RPO outcomes against targets.

Regulatory Documentation & Audit Support

• Assist in preparing evidence packages, control narratives, and test result documentation for regulatory examinations and internal audits.
• Maintain organized records of recovery test logs, exercise outcomes, and remediation tracking in line with regulatory standards (FFIEC, NIST CSF, NYDFS).
• Participate in walkthroughs and working sessions with regulators or internal audit teams alongside senior engineers; develop familiarity with examination processes.
• Support mapping of regulatory guidance to recovery engineering controls under direction of senior staff.

Recovery Engineering & Automation

• Execute scripted recovery automation tasks (Python, Bash, PowerShell) and assist in maintaining IaC‑driven recovery environment configurations (Terraform, Ansible).
• Contribute to runbook updates and playbook maintenance as procedures evolve.
• Participate in post‑exercise after action reviews (AARs); contribute observations and help track findings to closure.
• Collaborate with infrastructure, application, and database teams to understand system dependencies relevant to recovery sequencing.