Security Operations Lead

Accenture Federal Services; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 126,300 - 243,100; Full time

Job summary

A leading consulting firm in Washington, DC, seeks a Security Operations Lead to oversee SOC functions and lead a blended team of analysts and engineers. Responsibilities include directing incident response processes, developing detection capabilities, and mentoring team members. The position requires significant cybersecurity experience and expertise with SIEM, NDR, and EDR technologies. Preferred qualifications include advanced threat hunting skills and relevant certifications. The role offers competitive compensation based on experience, ranging from $126,300 to $243,100.

Qualifications

• 8 years of cybersecurity experience, with 3+ years leading SOC or IR teams.
• Hands-on experience triaging alerts, logs, events, and incident artifacts across enterprise environments.
• Strong experience with SIEM/NDR/EDR tools and incident response.

Responsibilities

• Lead day‑to‑day SOC operations including queue management and alert triage oversight.
• Guide analysts during high‑severity incidents and act as the primary interface with client leadership.
• Develop and optimize SIEM correlation rules and monitoring logic.

Skills

Cybersecurity experience

SIEM experience (Splunk, Elastic)

NDR experience (ExtraHop)

Incident response leadership

Tools

SIEM tools

Packet analysis tools

Job description

Role Summary

The Security Operations Lead will oversee all SOC functions and lead a blended team of SOC Analysts and Security Engineers to ensure rapid detection, investigation, and response to security threats. This role is responsible for driving threat hunting, leading major incidents, engineering detection capabilities, and maturing SOC operations to stay ahead of evolving adversary behaviors. The Lead acts as the central coordination point during security events and sets the strategic direction for the SOC to ensure continuous, mission‑critical security coverage.

Key Responsibilities

SOC Leadership & Operations

• Lead day‑to‑day SOC operations, including queue management, alert triage oversight, escalation handling, on‑call rotations, and daily situational reporting.
• Mentor and develop SOC analysts across tiers; refine SOPs, workflows, and response playbooks.
• Drive threat hunting activities focused on identifying patterns, outliers, and TTP‑aligned behaviors across host, network, email, and cloud logs.
• Oversee SIEM dashboarding, alert tuning, log source health, and rule/correlation development to strengthen detection depth.
• Coordinate with Security Engineering to ensure logging fidelity, sensor coverage, and integration of new technologies.

Incident Response

• Lead the full lifecycle of incident response: identification, containment, eradication, recovery, forensics support, and post‑incident reporting.
• Perform or direct deep‑dive investigations using SIEM, NDR, EDR, packet analysis tools, and forensic artifacts.
• Provide expert investigative support for large‑scale or complex incidents where technical detections may not be available.
• Guide analysts during high‑severity incidents and act as the primary interface with client leadership and internal stakeholders.
• Oversee threat intelligence intake and ensure IOCs, adversary behaviors, and campaign indicators are integrated into SOC detections.

Detection Engineering & Threat Analytics

• Develop and optimize SIEM correlation rules, dashboards, and monitoring logic.
• Enhance playbooks and automation pipelines to improve consistency and reduce analyst workload.
• Ensure ongoing alignment to evolving threat actor TTPs, including insider threat and APT‑style behaviors.
• Integrate new data sources into SOC detection pipelines and validate alert efficacy.

Required Qualifications

• 8 years of cybersecurity experience, with 3+ years leading SOC or IR teams.
• Hands‑on experience triaging alerts, logs, events, and incident artifacts across enterprise environments.
• Strong experience with one or more of the following technologies: SIEM (Splunk, Elastic), NDR (ExtraHop), EDR/XDR (Trellix), and packet analysis tools.
• Demonstrated ability to lead incident response for high‑severity cybersecurity events.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced experience in threat hunting, analytics, and adversary behavior profiling.
• Certifications such as CISSP, GCIH, GCIA, GCED, CEH, or similar.
• Experience building SIEM/SOAR automations and custom detection content.
• Familiarity with malware triage, static/dynamic analysis, and IOC development.
• Experience leading SOCs supporting federal missions or high‑tempo operational environments.
• Exposure to cloud security monitoring (Azure, AWS, GCP) and SaaS logging integrations.

Compensation

The base pay range for this position in the following locations is $126,300—$243,100 USD: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Washington, Vermont, the District of Columbia, and the city of Cleveland.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

We believe that no one should be discriminated against because of their differences. All employment decisions shall be made without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, citizenship status or any other basis as protected by federal, state, or local law. Our rich diversity makes us more innovative, more competitive, and more creative, which helps us better serve our clients and our communities. For details, view a copy of the Accenture Federal Services Equal Opportunity Policy Statement.

Accenture Federal Services is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. Additionally, as an affirmative action employer for Veterans and Individuals with Disabilities, Accenture Federal Services is committed to providing veteran employment opportunities to our service men and women.

Other Employment Statements

Applicants for employment in the US must have work authorization that does not now or in the future require sponsorship of a visa for employment authorization in the United States.

Candidates who are currently employed by a client of Accenture Federal Services or an affiliated Accenture business may not be eligible for consideration.

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