Security Analyst II/III

Gaston County Government; Gastonia (NC); On-site; USD 70,000 - 83,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Insurance

Dental and Vision Insurance

Retirement Savings Plans

401K with county contribution

Flexible Work Schedules

Professional Development Opportunities

Job summary

Gaston County Government is seeking a Security Analyst II/III to help protect county information assets and deliver secure IT services across departments.

The role focuses on monitoring, incident response, vulnerability management, and ongoing security improvements in alignment with NIST, HIPAA, CJIS, and other standards. A relevant degree and cybersecurity certifications are required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with 8+ years of IT experience, including 3+ years in cybersecurity.
• Or Associate's degree with 10+ years of IT experience, including 3+ years in cybersecurity.
• At least one cybersecurity-focused certification (e.g., Security+, CySA+, CASP+, CISSP, or equivalent).
• Valid Driver's license.

Responsibilities

• Alert and Incident Response: Monitor, investigate, and respond to cybersecurity alerts and incidents across multiple environments.
• Security Engineering and Hygiene: Implement and improve security controls across Microsoft 365, Entra ID, AD, and endpoints.
• Vulnerability Management: Identify, prioritize, and coordinate remediation of vulnerabilities with IT teams.
• Security Awareness, Audits, and Compliance: Support governance, audits, and regulatory requirements (NIST, HIPAA, CJIS).

Education

Bachelor's degree with 8+ years of IT experience, including 3+ years in cybersecurity-related roles.

Associate's degree with 10+ years of IT experience, including 3+ years in cybersecurity-related roles.

Job description

Joining the team at Gaston County Government means being part of a community that is dedicated to improving the lives of its citizens. We are a dynamic organization that values innovation, collaboration, and commitment to service.

As an employee of Gaston County, you will have the opportunity to make a difference in your community every day. Whether you are working in public safety, social services, or administration, your contributions will help improve the lives of our residents and build a better future for our county.

Description

Provide secure, innovative, and efficient technology that enhances collaboration and empowers County departments to deliver outstanding public service.

Examples of Duties

The anticipated hiring range for the Security Analyst II is $33.80 - $40.14

The anticipated hiring range for the Security Analyst III is $37.50 - $44.53

The duties listed below are not all of the duties that may be assigned but are those that are considered as essential for an employee to perform.

• Alert and Incident Response: Monitor, investigate, and respond to cybersecurity alerts and incidents across endpoint, network, identity, email, cloud, and server environments. Analyze alerts from SIEM, EDR, firewalls, Microsoft 365/Entra ID, email security, and other security platforms to determine scope, severity, and potential business impact. Investigate indicators of compromise, suspicious authentication activity, malware, unauthorized access, and other anomalous behavior. Perform root cause analysis and coordinate containment, eradication, remediation, and recovery activities with other IT teams and County departments. Document incidents, investigative findings, actions taken, and lessons learned. Assist with tuning detections, reducing false positives, improving monitoring capabilities, and developing incident response procedures and playbooks.
• Security Engineering and Hygiene (M365/Entra, Firewalls, Endpoint): Implement, maintain, evaluate, and improve technical security controls across Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Active Directory, Windows Server, endpoint security, firewalls, networking, cloud services, and related security platforms. Review configurations, authentication and access controls, endpoint protections, firewall policies, security baselines, and system exposure to identify and remediate security weaknesses. Support identity protection, privileged access, MFA, conditional access, endpoint detection and response, network security, and other preventative security controls. Perform cybersecurity reviews of proposed software, hardware, cloud services and technology purchases and provide risk-based recommendations. Participate in vendor security assessments and third-party risk reviews. Assist with security architecture, disaster recovery, backup validation, and business continuity activities, including consideration of RPO/RTO and cyber recovery requirements.
• Vulnerability Management:Perform ongoing identification, analysis, prioritization, tracking, remediation, validation, and reporting of vulnerabilities affecting County technology assets. Review vulnerability scan results and security advisories and analyze CVEs, CVSS scores, exploit availability, known exploitation, asset exposure, system criticality, and potential organizational impact to determine remediation priority. Work with infrastructure, networking, application, and support teams to coordinate patching, configuration changes, upgrades, compensating controls, or other remediation activities. Validate remediation and identify recurring or systemic security weaknesses. Maintain vulnerability documentation and metrics, communicate significant risks to appropriate technical and management personnel, and support continuous improvement of vulnerability and patch-management processes.
• Security Awareness, Audits, and Compliance (HIPAA/NIST):Support County cybersecurity governance, security awareness, audit, risk management, and regulatory compliance activities. Assist with internal and external audits, security assessments, evidence collection, remediation tracking, and implementation of controls aligned with NIST, HIPAA, CJIS, and other applicable requirements. Develop and maintain cybersecurity standards, procedures, technical documentation, security guidance, and supporting evidence. Communicate cybersecurity risks and security requirements to County departments, IT personnel, management, vendors, and other stakeholders and recommend appropriate mitigation strategies. Participate in security awareness initiatives and provide technical security guidance to users and IT staff. Support vendor and third-party risk assessments and assist with documenting identified risks and corrective actions. Maintain professional cybersecurity knowledge through continuing education, technical training, seminars, and review of emerging threats and security practices.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with 8+ years of IT experience, including 3+ years in cybersecurity-related roles. OR Associate's degree with 10+ years of IT experience, including 3+ years in cybersecurity-related roles.
• At least one cybersecurity-focused certification (e.g., Security+, CySA+, CASP+, CISSP, or equivalent)
• Valid Driver's license

Candidates must possess advanced incident response expertise, including leading end-to-end investigations, analyzing alerts from EDR and other sources, performing root cause analysis, and coordinating containment, eradication, and recovery actions. Must have an understanding of disaster recovery, incident response coordination, and business continuity concepts, including recovery strategies and dependencies.

Additional Information

The applicant selected must undergo a criminal background check and pass a drug screening test prior to employment

At Gaston County, we are committed to providing equal opportunity to all employees, job applicants, and members of the community we serve. We value diversity, equity, and inclusion, and we strive to create a welcoming and inclusive environment where everyone is treated with respect and dignity.

We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable laws.

Gaston County will not sponsor applicants for work visas.

Full-Time employees are eligible for the total compensation package which includes:

• Health, Dental and Vision Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Retirement Savings Plans
  • Pension
  • 401K (with 5% county contribution annually)
• Flexible Work Schedules
• Professional Development Opportunities
• Discounted YMCA Membership

Part-Time employees are eligible for certain benefits as a part of employment with Gaston County such as:

• Pro-Rated Sick and Annual Leave
• Professional Development Opportunities
• Local Government Retirement Plan
• Employee Assistance Program

Half-Time employees are not eligible for benefits.

To learn more details about the many benefits we provide view our Employee Benefits Guide.

Overall, if you are looking for a challenging and rewarding career with competitive compensation and a comprehensive benefits package, Gaston County is the place for you.