Senior Cybersecurity Incident Response Specialist

Job description

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 behaviour 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: o Executive summary o Incident timeline o Scope and impact o Root cause o Attack vector o IOCs and TTPs o Investigation findings o Containment and remediation actions o Control gaps o Corrective and preventive recommendations o Lessons learned • 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. 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.