Security Operations Lead

Role

As Security Operations Lead, you'll lead our SecOps squad and own how Sword detects, investigates, and responds to threats. You'll help structure how this function operates — setting the direction on SIEM architecture, detection engineering, and incident response — and use automation and AI to scale a focused team across a fast-growing, multi-continent footprint. You'll be a core voice in our security strategy, and the systems, processes, and culture you build will set the bar for how Sword protects 700,000+ members.

To get to know more about our Tech Stack, check here.

What you’ll be doing

• Serve as the hands-on technical lead for Sword’s Security Operations Center. Setting the technical direction — architecting the SIEM, engineering detection logic, executing incident response, and building the technical roadmap to scale our defenses as the company grows.

• Own the SIEM end-to-end (architecture, data sources, normalization, retention, cost, and tuning) and evolve detection-as-code content aligned to MITRE ATT&CK and Sword’s threat model.

• Lead the SOC/CSIRT team technically — mentoring detection and response engineers, raising the bar on investigations, running on-call and escalation models, and acting as commander for major incidents.

• Set the strategy and technical direction for Sword’s Security Operations Center — defining the operating model, SIEM and detection architecture, incident response capability, and the roadmap to scale them as the company grows.

• Drive an AI- and automation-first transformation of security operations: design SOAR playbooks, agentic and LLM-assisted triage workflows, and ML-driven detection to reduce MTTD/MTTR, expand coverage, and let a lean team operate at enterprise scale.

• Lead high-severity incident response from detection through containment, eradication, recovery, and post-incident review, partnering with engineering, IT, legal, and executive stakeholders during critical events.

• Run the threat intelligence and threat hunting programs, converting emerging TTPs into new detections, proactive hardening, and informed risk decisions.

• Advanced Incident Response & Threat Hunting: Lead end-to-end incident investigations in Google SecOps, leveraging complex telemetry correlation to proactively hunt for threats, contain active incidents, and drive root-cause remediation.

• Define and report on SOC performance — MTTD, MTTR, coverage, automation rate, false-positive rate, on-call health — and use those metrics to drive measurable, continuous improvement.

• Influence security architecture and engineering decisions across the company, ensuring detection, response, and recovery are built into new products, platforms, and infrastructure from day one.

• Detection & Automation Leadership: Architect, refine, and maintain custom YARA-L detection rules and SOAR playbooks in Google SecOps to automate triage, alert enrichment, and initial incident response.

What you need to have

• Required: Public Trust Clearance - Candidates must be able to obtain and maintain a US public trust clearance.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, or equivalent professional experience.

• 7+ years experience in Security Operations

• Proven experience scaling a SOC through automation and AI — SOAR, hyperautomation, LLM-assisted triage, agentic workflows, or ML-driven detection — with measurable impact on MTTR, coverage, or analyst leverage.

• Hands-on experience structuring a SOC, either building one from the ground up or maturing one through significant transformation — SIEM selection, implementation or migration, detection engineering practice, runbook libraries, on-call rotations, and operating metrics.

• Deep SIEM expertise (Splunk, Sentinel, Google SecOps/Chronicle, Elastic, or similar) — ingestion architecture, detection-as-code, query optimization, and coverage-versus-cost tradeoffs.

  • Highly preferred: Google SecOps/Chronicle 

• Prior experience as the technical lead of a SOC or CSIRT team — owning the full incident response lifecycle, mentoring analysts and engineers, and acting as on-call/incident commander during major incidents.

• Strong incident response track record — leading high-severity investigations, root cause analysis, digital forensics, and post-incident reviews that produced durable improvements.

• Solid experience in cloud environments (AWS and/or GCP), with strong understanding of cloud-native threats and controls.

• Strong scripting and development skills (Python, Go, Bash, or similar) for building automation, integrations, and internal tooling.

• Working knowledge of EDR/XDR, identity, and network detection telemetry, and how to combine signals into high-fidelity detections.

• Fluency with security frameworks and standards (NIST 800-61, CIS Controls, MITRE ATT&CK, ISO 27001) and the judgment to apply them pragmatically.

• Background in threat modeling, adversary emulation, and risk-based alert tuning.

• Excellent communicator — able to brief executives during a Sev1, write a clear post-mortem, and translate technical risk into business language for non-technical audiences.

• Proven track record of leading cross-functional efforts in high-pressure situations and fostering collaboration across InfoSec, IT, and engineering.

• Forensics experience, investigating incidents and preserving digital evidence.

Public Trust Clearance

Candidates must be able to obtain and maintain a US public trust clearance. 
Please note that US citizenship is required to obtain and maintain a government security clearance.