Senior SOC Analyst/Lead

ECS Corporate Services; Fairfax (VA); On-site; USD 135,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

ECS Corporate Services is seeking a Senior SOC Analyst (SOC Lead) to help develop processes, procedures, and automations for rapid ingestion, correlation, and analysis of event messages to identify IoCs. The ideal candidate has a mature 24x7 SOC background and is a thoughtful, continuous learner.

The role focuses on monitoring SIEM and on‑premises/cloud environments, leading incident investigations, and developing SOPs and playbooks.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in cybersecurity operations & incident response.
• 3+ years in a SOC environment and 2+ years in a leadership role.
• Ability to interpret complex cybersecurity topics and present information to executives and stakeholders.
• Experience with two or more analysis tools used in CIRT or similar investigations.
• Strong knowledge of SIEM, EDR, IDS/IPS, malware analysis, and vulnerability management.

Responsibilities

• Monitor and manage threats; investigate escalations from the SOC.
• Maintain SOPs, technical playbooks, and run books for SOC operations.
• Lead incident investigations, coordinate with SOC staff, and remediate IoCs.
• Develop reports to meet SOC leadership requirements and directives.
• Provide training and mentorship to SOC analysts to improve incident handling.

Skills

SOC leadership

Threat monitoring

Incident response

Stakeholder comms

Education

Bachelor's degree in cybersecurity

Tools

QRadar

Splunk

CrowdStrike

Tenable

Job description

Position Summary

ECS is seeking a Senior SOC Analyst (SOC Lead) with demonstrated experience supporting the development of processes, procedures, and automations to rapidly ingest, aggregate, correlate, normalize, analyze event messages to absurdly identify and respond to Indicators of Compromise (IoCs). The ideal candidate is a critical thinker and perpetual learner who is excited to solve some of our clients' toughest challenges. To be successful the candidate must have experience working in a mature 24x7x365 Security Operation Center.

Shift schedule

Wednesday - Saturday 3pm-1am (SUBJECT TO CHANGE).

Responsibilities

Provides subject matter expertise for monitoring and managing threats, disseminating information, and handling, responding to, and investigating all incident escalations from the Security Operations Center. Ensures all security incidents are tracked and documented appropriately. Continuously monitors SIEM and on-premises infrastructure/cloud applications for security events to threats & intrusions, including: SIEM alert queue Phishing email inbox Intel feeds via email and other sources (i.e., US-CERT, MS-ISAC) Incident ticketing queue (Resilient tickets) Ensures the SOC manager stays informed of any issues or incidents. Coordinates with SOC staff to conduct incident/policy violation investigations, report infractions, eradicate/mitigate/remediate Indications of Compromise (IoC), and perform continuous monitoring functions. Leads root cause analysis and post-mortem dialogue after significant events to capture lessons learned and define process or technology improvements. Owns the successful completion of all daily operational processes and procedures. Develops and maintains standard operating procedures (SOPs), technical playbooks and operational run books to support SOC operations and incident response activities. Conduct follow-up meetings of escalated or noteworthy cases and modifies SOPs and playbooks based on policies, standards and best practices learned from previous cases. Works in conjunction with SOC and infrastructure management teams to administer and manage the SOC security technologies. Evaluates Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) as a potential internal/external attach vector, develop recommendations to eliminate vulnerability/weakness if present. Work closely with Cyber Threat Intel to provide information on detection patterns for new upcoming threats. Oversees threat hunting initiatives and reviews hunt reports that are provided by SOC analysts. Provides training and mentorship to SOC analyst to improve the incident handling capabilities. Provides guidance for all internal stakeholders for reporting and visualizations that supports SOC goals and objectives to identify and correct gaps. Reconfigures analytic objects (e.g., fields, extractions, tags, event types, lookups, workflow actions, aliases). Develops reports for operational activities to meet SOC and cybersecurity leadership requirements and directives. Provides extensive knowledge of cybersecurity, incident response, digital forensic analysis and educate personnel on effective SOC searches, reporting, and visualization development.

General Description of Benefits

• Bachelor's degree in cybersecurity or related field.
• 5+ years of experience in cybersecurity operations & incident response, with at least 3+ years in a SOC environment and 2+ years in a leadership role
• Ability to interpret complex cybersecurity topics and effectively communicate or present information to various groups of stakeholders (Executives, SOC, etc.)
• In-depth knowledge of SIEM technologies (i.e. QRadar, Splunk), EDR (i.e. CrowdStrike), IDS/IPS, malware analysis, and vulnerability management tools (i.e.Tenable).
• Experiencing leading and mentoring junior analysts
• Experience with two or more analysis tools used in a CIRT or similar investigative environment.
• Ability to analyze and triage IoCs.
• Proven understanding of computer and network fundamentals
• Ability to perform in-depth research tasks and produce written summaries to include insights and predictions based on an analytical process.
• Knowledge of current cyber threats, trends, attack lifecycle, and various Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs)
• Industry-recognized certifications, such as CISSP, CISM, GIAC, or CEH, are preferred
• Excellent leadership, written and oral communication skills, and problem-solving skills
• Ability to handle high-stress situations with a calm and methodical approach

Salary

Salary Range: $135,000 - $150,000