Cybersecurity Incident Response Engineer, Jr

ASM Research, An Accenture Federal Services Company; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 56,000 - 82,000; Full time

Job summary

ASM Research in the United States is seeking a Junior Cybersecurity Incident Response Engineer to monitor security tooling, review events, and triage alerts. You will assist with incident containment and evidence gathering under guidance from senior analysts, while documenting investigations for audit purposes.

Ideal candidates have a foundational understanding of security concepts, experience with SIEM and endpoint protection, and the ability to work in a fast-paced SOC environment. U.S.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in IT, CS, Cybersecurity, or related field or equivalent experience.
• 0–3 years in cybersecurity or related roles with security monitoring exposure.
• Foundational understanding of cybersecurity concepts and SOC roles.
• Hands-on familiarity with SIEM, firewalls, IDS/IPS, endpoints, or scanners.
• Active SECRET clearance or ability to obtain and maintain required clearance.
• U.S. citizenship required to support federal information security requirements.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, communication, and teamwork skills.

Responsibilities

• Monitor SIEM and other security tooling to review events, correlate logs from multiple sources, and identify suspicious patterns.
• Perform Tier 1 alert triage by validating alert context, severity, impact, and escalation-ready tickets.
• Assist with incident response activities, including evidence gathering and containment support under guidance.
• Document investigations with timelines, sources, actions, and handoffs for audits.
• Maintain familiarity with security technologies and interpret alerts within SOC tooling.
• Follow SOC SOPs, playbooks, and reporting formats; suggest improvements as detection matures.
• Support tuning of rules, use cases, and dashboards to reduce noise and improve detection.
• Collaborate with IT, operations, and risk teams to align with security policies and priorities.

Skills

Analytical thinking

Problem solving

Communication

Teamwork

Education

Bachelor's degree in IT, CS, Cybersecurity

Tools

SIEM

Firewall knowledge

IDS/IPS

Endpoint protection

Vulnerability scanners

Job description

The Cybersecurity Incident Response Engineer, Jr. monitors enterprise security tools and logs to detect, analyze, and triage potential cybersecurity threats targeting mission‑critical systems and data. The role performs initial investigations, distinguishes false positives from genuine incidents, and escalates significant events to senior analysts or incident responders as appropriate. The analyst supports basic containment and response actions, documents events and findings, and helps fine‑tune security controls to improve detection fidelity in a highly regulated federal IT environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Monitor SIEM and other security tooling to review events, correlate logs from multiple sources, and identify suspicious patterns that may indicate cybersecurity threats or policy violations.

• Perform Tier 1 alert triage by validating alert context, determining severity and potential impact, filtering out false positives, and generating well‑documented tickets for escalation.

• Assist with incident response activities, including gathering evidence, capturing indicators of compromise, and supporting containment and recovery steps under guidance of senior analysts.

• Document investigations thoroughly, including timelines, data sources reviewed, actions taken, and handoffs, to support audit requirements and follow‑on analysis.

• Maintain familiarity with common security technologies such as firewalls, IDS/IPS, endpoint protection, and vulnerability scanners, and interpret how their alerts surface within SOC tools.

• Follow established SOC standard operating procedures, playbooks, and reporting formats, and contribute feedback to improve them as detection and response capabilities mature.

• Support continuous tuning of rules, use cases, and dashboards to reduce noise, enhance detection accuracy, and improve visibility into the client environment.

• Collaborate with IT, operations, and risk teams to align monitoring and response activities with cybersecurity policies, regulatory expectations, and mission priorities.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in IT, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, or related field, or equivalent relevant experience.

• 0–3 years of experience in cybersecurity, IT operations, or related technical roles with exposure to security monitoring and incident triage.

• Foundational understanding of cybersecurity concepts, common attack techniques, and the role of a security operations center in detection and response.

• Hands‑on familiarity with security tools such as SIEM, firewalls, IDS/IPS, endpoint protection, or vulnerability scanners, and ability to interpret basic alerts and logs.

• Active SECRET clearance or ability to obtain and maintain required clearance.

• U.S. citizenship required to support federal information security requirements.

• Strong analytical, problem‑solving, communication, and teamwork skills, with the ability to manage multiple alerts and tasks in a fast‑paced SOC environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in or supporting a 24x7 SOC environment, including shift work and effective handoff practices for ongoing incidents.

• Entry‑level security certifications such as Security+, CySA+, or similar that validate core defensive operations knowledge.

• Experience following or implementing documented playbooks, runbooks, or standard operating procedures in a security or IT operations context.

• Familiarity with federal cybersecurity policies, control frameworks, or agency‑specific security requirements.

Compensation Ranges

Compensation ranges for ASM Research positions vary depending on multiple factors; including but not limited to, location, skill set, level of education, certifications, client requirements, contract‑specific affordability, government clearance and investigation level, and years of experience. The compensation displayed for this role is a general guideline based on these factors and is unique to each role. Monetary compensation is one component of ASM's overall compensation and benefits package for employees.

EEO Requirements

It is the policy of ASM that an individual's race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation or national origin are not and will not be considered in any personnel or management decisions. We affirm our commitment to these fundamental policies.

All recruiting, hiring, training, and promoting for all job classifications is done without regard to race, color, religion, sex, disability, or age. All decisions on employment are made to abide by the principle of equal employment.

Physical Requirements

The physical requirements described in "Knowledge, Skills and Abilities" above are representative of those which must be met by an employee to successfully perform the primary functions of this job. (For example, "light office duties' or "lifting up to 50 pounds" or "some travel" required.) Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with qualifying disabilities, who are otherwise qualified, to perform the primary functions.

Disclaimer

The preceding job description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job.

$55,700 - $82,100

EEO Requirements

It is the policy of ASM that an individual's race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, gender identity, veteran status, sexual orientation or national origin are not and will not be considered in any personnel or management decisions. We affirm our commitment to these fundamental policies.

All recruiting, hiring, training, and promoting for all job classifications is done without regard to race, color, religion, sex, veteran status, disability, gender identity, or age. All decisions on employment are made to abide by the principle of equal employment.