Senior Manager, Penetration Testing

Sophos; United States; Remote; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Sophos seeks an experienced leader for their Japan-based Red Team, responsible for guiding a skilled group of offensive security experts. This strategic role involves collaborating closely with sales and ensuring delivery excellence while maintaining a culture of premium customer service. Applicants should have significant experience in cybersecurity, leadership capabilities, and fluency in Japanese. Sophos operates with a remote-first model and values diversity in its team, encouraging candidates to apply regardless of whether they meet every qualification listed.

Benefits

Diversity and inclusion networks

Annual charity initiatives

Global fitness competitions

Wellbeing days for employees

Qualifications

• 7+ years in cybersecurity leading offensive/defensive teams.
• Experience managing high-performing teams.
• Fluent Japanese proficiency required.

Responsibilities

• Lead a high-performing team delivering offensive security engagements.
• Manage a P&L, including forecasting and backlog management.
• Drive business priorities and delivery best practices.

Skills

Cybersecurity

Leadership

Communication

Interpersonal Skills

Problem Solving

Education

Professional degree relevant to cybersecurity or equivalent work experience

Job description

About Us

Sophos is a global leader and innovator of advanced security solutions for defeating cyberattacks. The company acquired Secureworks in February 2025, bringing together two pioneers that have redefined the cybersecurity industry with their innovative, native AI-optimized services, technologies and products. Sophos is now the largest pure-play Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider, supporting more than 28,000 organizations. In addition to MDR and other services, Sophos’ complete portfolio includes industry-leading endpoint, network, email, and cloud security that interoperate and adapt to defend through the Sophos Central platform. Secureworks provides the innovative, market-leading Taegis XDR/MDR, identity threat detection and response (ITDR), next-gen SIEM capabilities, managed risk, and a comprehensive set of advisory services. Sophos sells all these solutions through reseller partners, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) worldwide, defending more than 600,000 organizations worldwide from phishing, ransomware, data theft, other every day and state-sponsored cybercrimes. The solutions are powered by historical and real-time threat intelligence from Sophos X-Ops and the newly added Counter Threat Unit (CTU). Sophos is headquartered in Oxford, U.K. More information is available at www.sophos.com.

Role Summary

Sophos is looking for a Japan-based leader on the Sophos Red Team in Japan to lead a well-established, high-performing team of offensive security professionals. Our culture is a unique mix of low ego–high energy, highly technical, and motivated professionals with a passion for cybersecurity. This leadership position will partner closely with the Director of APJ North/Japan and will work collaboratively with global practice leadership and other cross-functional partners to achieve service delivery excellence. The ideal candidate will have experience leading offensive security teams. As a business leader, this role will be responsible for achieving select practice metrics (Revenue, Margin, NPS/customer satisfaction, etc.) and partnering closely with sales, marketing, and other organizations to help grow the practice. This is a strategic leadership position that requires strong local leadership presence through team meetings, all-hands, strategy sessions, and other workshops to ensure the team’s delivery is customer-delighting and at the bleeding edge.

What You Will Do

• Help develop and lead a multi-year service, delivery, as well as support with financial strategy, to meet company objectives and reinforce our position as an industry leader in offensive security.
• Lead a high-performing team of technical consultants delivering a variety of offensive security engagements (penetration testing, application security testing, full-scale Red Team, etc.)
• Help manage a P&L, including forecasting, backlog management, utilization, and scheduling
• Partner with the sales organization and other business development leaders and be seen as a “go-to” for complex adversarial testing needs
• Build and advance cross-functional relationships within Sophos that include the Incident Response Team, Counter Threat Unit, Marketing, and Sales.
• Identify opportunities – people, process, and technology -- to improve efficiencies within the team
• Represent the Sophos Red Team services portfolio; identify and champion new services, capabilities, and offers; provide thought leadership; and develop an associated go-to-market strategy for the services in the portfolio
• Drive teams to consensus on business priorities, delivery best practices, and implementation of new ideas. Willingness to change, to contribute ideas, listen to others, and learn from others. Challenge the status quo.
• Foster career development and champion career development opportunities for the team (conferences, training, certifications, mentoring, etc.)
• Own NPS/customer satisfaction and ensure practice meets/exceeds expected targets. Maintain a culture of premium customer service

What You Will Bring

• 7+ years in the cybersecurity industry leading offensive, defensive, or research teams, preferably in dynamic and fast changing environments
• Presales and post-sales delivery experience at the SME Level
• Demonstrated ability to manage high-performing teams as well as maintain and enhance a strong team culture.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with experience – ideally briefing executive management level also.
• Experience working with global, remote, multi-cultural teams.
• Ability to prioritize, delegate, and complete tasks within tight timeframes to meet deadlines.
• Strong interpersonal skills, self-starting, proactive, motivated, team player.
• Results-oriented and customer-focused.
• Ability to demonstrate initiative and good judgment in resolving issues.
• Effective at managing conflict and negotiating with stakeholders, with support from senior leaderships.
• Experience mentoring and leading technical teams in a matrixed consulting environment.
• Fluent Japanese proficiency in running a business is required

Desirable

• 7+ years of information security experience.
• Professional degree relevant to cybersecurity or equivalent work experience.
• Technical or professional certifications, such as OSCP, OSWP, OSEP, OSWA, OSWE, CEH, GPEN, GCPN, GWAPT, CISSP (and the list goes on…) are a plus.
• Experience working with sales in scoping engagements, creating proposals, etc.
• Participation in cybersecurity industry forums and events, including speaking events and written publications (white papers, blogs, etc.).

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Ready to Join Us?

At Sophos, we believe in the power of diverse perspectives to fuel innovation. Research shows that candidates sometimes hesitate to apply if they don't check every box in a job description. We challenge that notion. Your unique experiences and skills might be exactly what we need to enhance our team. Don't let a checklist hold you back –we encourage you to apply.

What's Great About Sophos?

· Sophos operates a remote-first working model, making remote work the primary option for most employees. However, some roles may necessitate a hybrid approach. Please refer to the location details in our job postings for further information.

· Our people – we innovate and create, all of which are accompanied by a great sense of fun and team spirit

· Employee-led diversity and inclusion networks that build community and provide education and advocacy

· Annual charity and fundraising initiatives and volunteer days for employees to support local communities

· Global employee sustainability initiatives to reduce our environmental footprint

· Global fitness and trivia competitions to keep our bodies and minds sharp

· Global wellbeing days for employees to relax and recharge

· Monthly wellbeing webinars and training to support employee health and wellbeing

Our Commitment To You

We’re proud of the diverse and inclusive environment we have at Sophos, and we’re committed to ensuring equality of opportunity. We believe that diversity, combined with excellence, builds a better Sophos, so we encourage applicants who can contribute to the diversity of our team. All applicants will be treated in a fair and equal manner and in accordance with the law regardless of gender, sex, gender reassignment, marital status, race, religion or belief, color, age, military veteran status, disability, pregnancy, maternity or sexual orientation. We want to give you every opportunity to show us your best self, so if there are any adjustments we could make to the recruitment and selection process to support you, please let us know.

Data Protection

If you choose to explore an opportunity, and subsequently share your CV or other personal details with Sophos, these details will be held by Sophos for 12 months in accordance with our Privacy Policy and used by our recruitment team to contact you regarding this or other relevant opportunities at Sophos. If you would like Sophos to delete or update your details at any time, please follow the steps set out in the Privacy Policy describing your individual rights. For more information on Sophos’ data protection practices, please consult our Privacy Policy Cybersecurity as a Service Delivered | Sophos