Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Hunting Team Leader

🎯 Role Definition

As the Hunting Team Leader, you will be the cornerstone of our proactive defense strategy. You are tasked with leading, mentoring, and scaling a world-class threat hunting team dedicated to finding the "unknown unknowns" within our digital ecosystem. This is a highly technical leadership role that requires a deep-seated passion for cybersecurity, an adversarial mindset, and the ability to translate raw threat intelligence and complex data into actionable hunting missions. You will be responsible for developing the team's capabilities, refining their tradecraft, and ensuring our organization stays several steps ahead of sophisticated attackers. Your success will be measured by your team's ability to uncover hidden threats, reduce adversary dwell time, and materially improve our overall security posture.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Principal Threat Hunter
Senior Incident Responder
Senior Security Engineer (with a focus on detection)
Threat Intelligence Lead

Advancement To:

Manager/Director of Security Operations
Director of Threat Management or Threat Intelligence
Principal Security Architect
Head of Cyber Defense

Lateral Moves:

Red Team Manager
Incident Response Manager
Security Architecture Lead

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of threat hunters, fostering a culture of continuous learning, collaboration, and proactive cyber defense.
Develop and execute a comprehensive, intelligence-driven threat hunting strategy aligned with the organization's risk profile and the latest adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs).
Oversee the entire lifecycle of a threat hunt, from hypothesis generation based on threat intelligence to data analysis, investigation, and reporting of findings.
Direct proactive hunting operations across a complex enterprise environment, including cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, GCP), on-premise networks, and endpoint fleets.
Serve as the senior technical escalation point for the hunt team, providing expert guidance on complex investigations, malware analysis, and digital forensics.
Design, build, and refine advanced detection analytics and hunting playbooks using security toolsets to identify anomalous and malicious activity that evades traditional security controls.
Continuously evaluate and improve the team's tradecraft, tooling, and methodologies to increase the speed, efficiency, and effectiveness of hunting operations.
Operationalize the MITRE ATT&CK framework and other models to structure hunts, map adversary behaviors, and identify gaps in security visibility and controls.
Champion the automation of repetitive hunting tasks and data collection processes through scripting (Python, PowerShell) to allow the team to focus on high-value analysis.
Collaborate closely with the Incident Response team to provide context and support during active security incidents, ensuring a seamless transition from hunt discovery to incident containment.
Partner with the Threat Intelligence team to consume, analyze, and operationalize intelligence reports, transforming IOCs and TTPs into concrete hunting hypotheses.
Develop and maintain strong relationships with the Security Operations Center (SOC), providing mentorship and developing a feedback loop to improve Tier 1/2/3 alerting and response.
Present hunting findings, strategic recommendations, and team metrics to senior leadership and technical stakeholders in a clear and compelling manner.
Drive the integration of new data sources and security technologies into the hunting platform to expand visibility and analytical capabilities.
Stay at the forefront of the cybersecurity landscape, researching emerging threats, attacker tools, and new vulnerabilities to inform and prioritize hunting activities.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis to answer complex questions from leadership or support other security functions.
Contribute to the organization's broader data strategy and security roadmap by identifying visibility gaps and recommending new technology investments.
Collaborate with business units and engineering teams to translate security needs and hunting requirements into tangible data logging and infrastructure improvements.
Participate in and contribute to sprint planning, agile ceremonies, and project management activities within the broader cyber defense team.
Author and publish internal technical documentation, including standard operating procedures (SOPs), playbooks, and knowledge base articles for the hunt team.
Represent the organization by participating in industry conferences, threat-sharing communities, and professional forums to build networks and gather intelligence.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Expert-level proficiency with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) platforms (e.g., Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, Elastic Stack) and crafting complex correlation queries (SPL, KQL, etc.).
Extensive hands-on experience with Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and Extended Detection and Response (XDR) tools such as CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, or similar platforms.
Deep understanding of network analysis, including packet capture (PCAP) analysis with tools like Wireshark, and interpretation of network flow data and proxy logs.
Strong scripting and automation capabilities using Python or PowerShell to parse data, automate tasks, and interact with APIs for security tool integration.
In-depth knowledge of the MITRE ATT&CK Framework and experience applying it to threat hunting, detection engineering, and security control validation.
Proficient with digital forensics and memory analysis techniques and tools (e.g., Volatility, SIFT Workstation, EnCase) to investigate compromised systems.
Strong familiarity with cloud security principles and logging mechanisms within major cloud service providers like AWS (CloudTrail, GuardDuty), Azure (Activity Logs, Defender for Cloud), and GCP.
Experience with static and dynamic malware analysis, sandboxing technologies, and reverse engineering concepts.

Soft Skills

Exceptional leadership, mentorship, and team-building abilities with a proven track record of developing technical talent.
Superior analytical and critical thinking skills, with the ability to piece together disparate pieces of information to form a cohesive narrative.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, capable of briefing both executive-level leadership and deeply technical analysts.
A strong sense of ownership, accountability, and the ability to manage multiple initiatives in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment.
Innate curiosity and a creative, adversarial mindset with a passion for uncovering hidden threats.
Strong collaborative spirit and ability to build effective working relationships across different teams and functions.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's Degree in a relevant field or equivalent demonstrated professional experience and industry certifications (e.g., GCIH, GCFA, GREM, OSCP).

Preferred Education:

Master's Degree in Cybersecurity, Information Security, or Computer Science.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Computer Science
Cybersecurity
Information Technology
Digital Forensics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

8+ years of experience in cybersecurity, with at least 5 years in a hands-on technical role such as threat hunting, incident response, or forensics, and at least 2 years in a formal or informal leadership capacity.

Preferred:

Direct experience building and/or leading a dedicated threat hunting team within a large enterprise.
Verifiable experience discovering and tracking Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) activity.