Lead Associate Principal, Cyber Defense

NBMBAA; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 133,000 - 218,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work environment (up to 2 days/

Tuition Reimbursement

Student Loan Repayment Assistance

Technology Stipend

Generous PTO and Parental leave

401k Employer Match

Health benefits

Job summary

The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) is seeking a Lead Associate Principal to direct cyber incident response, security monitoring, and digital forensics across the enterprise. You will champion automation, alert optimization, and continuous improvement of SOC processes, supported by strong project management experience.

You will supervise incident management, security analysis, and forensic investigations, ensuring regulatory compliance and thorough documentation while enabling 24x7 on-call

Qualifications

• 7+ years hands-on security operations experience including interdisciplinary experience in multiple domains.
• Familiarity with threat actor capabilities and network security methodologies.
• Strong communication, judgment and consultation skills, plus project management ability.
• Shift work and 24x7 on-call responsibilities are required.

Responsibilities

• Lead cyber security incident responders in response activities including investigation, coordination, review, closure, and reporting.
• Provide Tier-2 support for alert tuning and validation, and drive automation/AI to optimize SOC efforts.
• Deploy and maintain digital forensic solutions and lead investigations while preserving evidence for regulatory requirements.
• Develop and enhance SOC processes, procedures, and SOAR/AI-driven automation; participate in post-incident reviews.

Skills

Team Leadership

Incident Response

SIEM

SOAR

EDR

Regulatory Controls

Project Management

Communication

Tools

SIEM

SOAR

EDR

DLP

Job description

*****THIS POSITION IS NOT ELIGIBLE FOR VISA SPONSORSHIP*****

What You'll Do:

The Lead Associate Principal leads cyber incident response, security monitoring, and digital forensics efforts to detect, investigate, and contain threats across the enterprise. The Lead Associate Principal also champions automation, alert optimization, and continuous improvement of SOC processes, supported by project management experience.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each primary duty satisfactorily.

Perform duties across several Cyber disciplines, activities may include:

Incident Management and Security Analysis:

• Lead cyber security incident responders in response activities including investigation, coordination, review, closure, and reporting.

Security Monitoring & Analysis:

• Tier-2 support of alerts and validating tuning requests.
• Alert tuning and reduction.
• Lead Automation/AI efforts to optimize security operations effort.
• Ensure accurate documentation.
• Monitor security alerts and events from various security tools and technologies.
• Perform advanced analysis of security logs, network traffic, and endpoint data

Digital Forensics

• Deploy and maintain digital forensic solutions and lead forensic investigations to determine scope, root cause, and impact of security incidents, preserving evidence in accordance with legal and regulatory requirements.

Continuous Improvement:

• Participate in post-incident reviews to identify areas for improvement.
• Stay current with the latest cybersecurity trends, threats, and technologies.
• Lead the development and enhancement of SOC processes, procedures, and SOAR/AI-driven automation.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• None

Qualifications

The requirements listed are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the primary functions.

• Team Leadership experience, taking initiative; providing and following through on solutions across various skillsets.
• Proactive, collaborative leader who works closely with peers and cross-functional teams to resolve issues, delivering both long-term projects and time-sensitive incident response.
• Experience in SOAR, SIEM, DLP, EDR. Ability to create/tune alerts/rules independently.
• Knowledge and experience implementing controls based on security regulation (e.g., NIST Cyber Security Framework) is a plus.
• Effective and excellent oral and written communication, analytical, judgment and consultation skills.
• Ability to work independently and possess strong project management skills.
• Ability to effectively communicate in both formal and informal review settings with all levels of management.

Technical Skills

Demonstrated Expert proficiency in:

• Usage of SIEM, SOAR, EDR, DLP tools.
• Security Incident Lifecycle and management
• Incident Response playbook development managing incident analysis and remediation.
• Security Orchestration and Automated Response tools and concepts.

Some experience:

• Scripting and development activities to appropriately leverage Application Programing Interfaces (APIs) to optimize integrations between disparate security monitoring and analysis devices.
• Knowledge of Generative and Prompt A.I.

Education and/or Experience

• Minimum seven years hands-on security operations experience including interdisciplinary experience with four or more of the following: Cyber Threat Analysis, Digital Computer Forensics, Incident Response, Application Security, Operating Systems Security, Cryptographic Controls, Networking, Programming languages, Incident Response.
• Technical experience and comprehensive knowledge of threat actor capabilities, intentions, methodologies, and motives.
• Familiarity with computer network exploitation and network attack methodologies while maintaining an understanding of the relationship these activities have with the financial services industry and critical infrastructure.
• Industry knowledge of leading-edge security technologies and methods.
• Shift work and working in an on-call response capacity is required including availability for 24 x 7 on-call support responsibilities.
• Previous project management experience is a plus.

Certificates or Licenses

• Strongly prefer at least one of the following certifications: CISSP, GCIA, GCIH, CHFI, GCFA, CASP+.

About Us

The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) is the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization. Founded in 1973, OCC is dedicated to promoting stability and market integrity by delivering clearing and settlement services for options, futures and securities lending transactions. As a Systemically Important Financial Market Utility (SIFMU), OCC operates under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. OCC has more than 100 clearing members and provides central counterparty (CCP) clearing and settlement services to 23 exchanges and trading platforms. More information about OCC is available at www.theocc.com.

Benefits

A highly collaborative and supportive environment developed to encourage work-life balance and employee wellness. Some of these components include:

• A hybrid work environment, up to 2 days per week of remote work
• Tuition Reimbursement to support your continued education
• Student Loan Repayment Assistance
• Technology Stipend allowing you to use the device of your choice to connect to our network while working remotely
• Generous PTO and Parental leave
• 401k Employer Match
• Competitive health benefits including medical, dental and vision

Visit https://www.theocc.com/careers/thriving-together for more information.

Compensation

• The salary range listed for any given position is exclusive of fringe benefits and potential bonuses. If hired at OCC, your final base salary compensation will be determined by factors such as skills, experience and/or education.
• In addition, we believe in the importance of pay equity and consider internal equity of our current team members as part of any final offer.
• We typically do not hire at the maximum of the range in order to allow for future and continued salary growth. We also offer a substantial benefits package as noted on www.theocc.com/careers
• All employees may be eligible for a discretionary bonus. Discretionary bonuses are based on various factors, including, but not limited to, company and individual performance and are not guaranteed.

Salary Range

$132,500.00 - $218,300.00

Incentive Range

8% to 15%

This position is eligible for an annual discretionary incentive compensation award, for which the target range is listed above (see Incentive Range). The amount of such award, if any, will be based on various factors, including without limitation, both individual and company performance.

For more information about OCC, please click here.

OCC is an Equal Opportunity Employer