Security Operations Analyst: Incident Response & IAM Lead

Appen Limited; United States; On-site; USD 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

The IT Security Analyst at Appen protects the organization's information assets by operating and improving security controls across Microsoft Defender and related platforms. You’ll lead incident response, maintain ISO 27001 documentation, and drive identity, access and patch management to reduce risk.

You will collaborate with security, IT and product teams to monitor, detect, and respond to threats, implement controls, and ensure audits and reporting meet compliance requirements across multiple

Qualifications

• 1–3 years' experience in a security operations or security analyst role.
• Hands-on experience with Microsoft Defender XDR, Sentinel and Entra ID.
• Experience leading security incidents and producing incident reports.
• Working knowledge of ISO 27001 controls and audit processes.
• Experience with IAM, access reviews, PAM and patch management.
• Proficiency with KQL and PowerShell or Python.
• Strong communication skills with technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Monitor, triage and resolve alerts in Microsoft Defender XDR and Sentinel; tune detections to reduce false positives and improve response times.
• Lead incidents end-to-end (containment, eradication, recovery, lessons learned); maintain the Incident Response Plan and playbooks.
• Maintain ISMS policies, risk register and audit evidence; support internal and external audits and close findings.
• Administer Entra ID (Conditional Access, MFA); run quarterly user and privileged access reviews and enforce least privilege.
• Operate the Privileged Access Management solution, including PIM and break-glass accounts.
• Own vulnerability remediation and monthly patch cycles; report compliance against SLAs.
• Manage security licences and Sentinel log ingestion to optimise cost without reducing coverage.

Skills

Security operations

Microsoft Defender

Sentinel

Entra ID

Incident response

ISO 27001

IAM

PAM

KQL

PowerShell

Python

Communication skills

Job description

The IT Security Analyst at Appen protects the organization's information assets by operating and improving security controls across Microsoft Defender and related platforms. You’ll lead incident response, maintain ISO 27001 documentation, and drive identity, access and patch management to reduce risk.

You will collaborate with security, IT and product teams to monitor, detect, and respond to threats, implement controls, and ensure audits and reporting meet compliance requirements across multiple