Job Description – Senior Cybersecurity Incident Response Specialist
Experience: 8–10 Years
Function: Cybersecurity – Incident Response / DFIR
Role Level: Senior
Role Overview
We are looking for an experienced Cybersecurity Incident Response Specialist with 8–10 years of hands-on cybersecurity experience to manage and investigate security incidents across enterprise environments. The candidate will be responsible for end-to-end ownership of cybersecurity incidents, including triage, investigation, containment, eradication, recovery, Root Cause Analysis (RCA), malware analysis, and digital forensic analysis. The role also requires strong customer-facing skills to lead incident discussions, provide regular updates, explain technical findings, and present investigation outcomes and recommendations.
Key Responsibilities
Incident Response & Investigation * Take end-to-end ownership of cybersecurity incidents from initial detection through closure. * Lead investigation of Critical, High, and complex security incidents and coordinate response activities across relevant teams. * Perform incident triage, scoping, containment, eradication, recovery, and post-incident analysis. * Investigate incidents involving ransomware, malware, phishing, account compromise, credential theft, data exfiltration, insider threats, web attacks, lateral movement, privilege escalation, and other advanced threats. * Analyze security alerts and correlate information across EDR, SIEM, network, identity, cloud, email, and other security technologies. * Develop incident timelines and determine the attack vector, affected assets, compromised accounts, attacker activity, persistence mechanisms, and overall impact. * Identify Indicators of Compromise (IOCs), attacker Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs), and map findings to the MITRE ATT&CK framework. * Coordinate with SOC, Threat Hunting, Threat Intelligence, IT, Cloud, Network, IAM, Application, Legal, and other stakeholders during major incidents.
Root Cause Analysis (RCA) * Perform detailed Root Cause Analysis for security incidents. * Determine the initial attack vector, contributing factors, security/control gaps, and reasons existing preventive or detective controls did not stop or detect the activity earlier. * Conduct post-incident reviews and lessons-learned sessions. * Develop clear corrective and preventive actions based on investigation findings. * Track remediation recommendations with relevant stakeholders through closure. * Prepare comprehensive RCA reports suitable for technical teams, management, and customers.
Malware Analysis * Perform static and dynamic malware analysis to understand malicious file behavior and capabilities. * Analyze suspicious executables, scripts, PowerShell commands, documents, URLs, and other artifacts. * Identify malware persistence mechanisms, command-and-control activity, network indicators, file-system changes, registry modifications, and related behaviors. * Extract IOCs and behavioral indicators for threat hunting and detection engineering. * Perform malware sandboxing and behavioral analysis where required. * Provide recommendations for detection, containment, and prevention based on malware-analysis findings.
Digital Forensics * Perform digital forensic investigations on endpoints and other relevant systems. * Analyze Windows/Linux artifacts, event logs, file systems, registry artifacts, browser artifacts, authentication logs, memory artifacts, and other forensic evidence. * Perform disk and memory analysis where required. * Collect and preserve digital evidence following appropriate forensic procedures and chain-of-custody requirements. * Build forensic timelines and reconstruct attacker activities. * Determine the scope and impact of compromise using forensic evidence. * Document forensic findings clearly and maintain investigation evidence appropriately.
Customer & Stakeholder Management * Act as a key technical point of contact for customers during cybersecurity incidents. * Lead incident calls and communicate investigation progress, impact, containment status, risks, and next steps. * Provide timely and accurate incident updates to customers and internal leadership. * Translate complex technical investigation findings into clear business-level communication. * Manage customer expectations during high-severity and time-sensitive incidents. * Present RCA and forensic investigation findings to customers and senior stakeholders. * Handle technical questions and confidently explain investigation methodology, evidence, conclusions, and recommendations. * Coordinate with multiple internal and customer teams to drive incidents toward timely resolution.
Incident Reporting & Documentation * Prepare detailed incident investigation reports, including: * Maintain accurate incident records, evidence, investigation notes, and supporting documentation. * Contribute to the development and improvement of Incident Response playbooks, SOPs, investigation procedures, and escalation processes. * Executive summary * Incident timeline * Scope and impact * Root cause * Attack vector * IOCs and TTPs * Investigation findings * Containment and remediation actions * Control gaps * Corrective and preventive recommendations * Lessons learned
Required Technical Skills
The candidate should have strong hands-on experience in: * Cybersecurity Incident Response / DFIR * Security Incident Investigation * Root Cause Analysis (RCA) * Digital Forensics * Malware Analysis * Threat Hunting * Endpoint and Network Investigation * Windows and Linux Forensics * Disk and Memory Analysis * Log Analysis and Timeline Reconstruction * IOC and TTP Analysis * MITRE ATT&CK Framework * SIEM platforms such as Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, QRadar, or similar * EDR/XDR platforms such as CrowdStrike, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne, Cortex XDR, or similar * Network security technologies including Firewall, IDS/IPS, Proxy, DNS, VPN, and WAF * Cloud security investigation across AWS, Azure, and/or GCP environments * Identity and authentication-related investigations * Email and phishing investigations * Forensic and malware-analysis tools such as Volatility, Autopsy, FTK, EnCase, Wireshark, Sysinternals, YARA, Ghidra, IDA, or equivalent tools * Scripting/automation using Python, PowerShell, or similar technologies would be an advantage.
Required Experience * 8–10 years of overall cybersecurity experience, with significant hands-on experience in Incident Response, DFIR, SOC, Threat Hunting, or related security domains. * Demonstrated experience independently handling complex and high-severity cybersecurity incidents. * Strong experience conducting RCA and presenting investigation findings. * Hands-on experience with malware and forensic investigations. * Experience handling customer-facing security incidents and leading technical/customer incident calls. * Experience coordinating investigations involving multiple technical and business teams. * Ability to work effectively under pressure during Critical/High-severity incidents. * Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills.
Communication & Leadership Skills * Excellent verbal and written communication skills. * Strong customer-facing and stakeholder-management capabilities. * Ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders. * Ability to lead incident bridges/calls during critical incidents. * Strong documentation and report-writing skills. * Ability to take ownership, make investigation decisions, and drive incidents to closure. * Ability to mentor junior Incident Response/SOC analysts and provide technical guidance during investigations.