Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Information Security Operations Analyst

🎯 Role Definition

The Information Security Operations Analyst is responsible for monitoring, detecting, triaging, and responding to security incidents across enterprise environments. This role operates within the Security Operations Center (SOC) or security operations team to manage alerts from SIEM and EDR platforms, conduct threat hunting and forensic analysis, coordinate incident response with internal stakeholders, and help maintain security tooling and playbooks. The analyst ensures timely remediation of security events, contributes to continuous improvement of detection coverage, and supports compliance and risk-reduction initiatives.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

SOC Analyst Level 1 / Junior SOC Analyst
Network or Systems Administrator with security responsibilities
IT Support Engineer transitioning into cybersecurity

Advancement To:

Senior Security Operations Analyst
Incident Response Team Lead
Threat Hunter / Threat Intelligence Analyst
Security Engineer (Detection & Response)
SOC Manager

Lateral Moves:

Cloud Security Engineer
Vulnerability Management Analyst
Compliance / GRC Analyst
Forensic Analyst

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Continuously monitor security alerts and telemetry across SIEM, EDR, IDS/IPS, cloud-native security services, and network detection systems; prioritize, triage, and investigate alerts to determine scope, impact, and severity.
Lead incident triage and response activities for confirmed security incidents: contain, eradicate, recover, and document all stages of the incident lifecycle in alignment with the incident response plan and playbooks.
Develop, tune, and maintain detection use cases, correlation rules, dashboards, and alerts in SIEM platforms (e.g., Splunk, QRadar, Azure Sentinel) to reduce false positives and improve detection fidelity.
Perform deep-dive forensic analysis on endpoints and servers using EDR tools (e.g., CrowdStrike, Carbon Black, SentinelOne), including memory analysis, artifact collection, timeline reconstruction, and IOC discovery.
Conduct proactive threat hunting using telemetry, log aggregation, and threat intelligence sources; craft hypotheses, run queries, escalate findings, and convert hunts into repeatable detection logic.
Investigate and analyze logs from diverse sources (Windows Event Logs, Linux syslog, network devices, firewalls, proxies, cloud audit logs) to identify suspicious patterns, lateral movement, and data exfiltration.
Coordinate cross-functional incident response with IT ops, network teams, application owners, legal, communications, and senior leadership to ensure timely remediation and business continuity.
Create and maintain incident response runbooks, playbooks, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and post-incident reports including root cause analysis and actionable remediation recommendations.
Integrate and operationalize threat intelligence feeds and indicators of compromise (IOCs) into detection tooling, enrichment services, and case management workflows to accelerate detection and response.
Manage security ticketing and case management in tools such as ServiceNow, Jira, or SOAR platforms; ensure accurate documentation, status updates, and SLA adherence.
Utilize SOAR platforms (e.g., Demisto, Phantom) to automate repetitive triage tasks, enrichment workflows, and containment actions while maintaining human oversight where needed.
Execute vulnerability discovery validation and coordinate with vulnerability management teams to verify exploitability, prioritize remediation based on contextual risk, and track mitigation efforts.
Perform packet captures and network traffic analysis (PCAP) to validate suspected command-and-control, exfiltration, or lateral movement activity and escalate network-level mitigations as required.
Provide endpoint hardening recommendations, patch validation, and configuration checks; collaborate with system owners to remediate misconfigurations and reduce attack surface.
Support cloud security monitoring and investigations in AWS, Azure, and GCP environments—review CloudTrail, VPC Flow Logs, GuardDuty alerts, and cloud-native SIEM integration.
Validate and test detection coverage for MITRE ATT&CK techniques by authoring detection tests, performing red-team / purple-team exercises, and translating outcomes into new or improved detections.
Participate in security drills, tabletop exercises, and incident simulations; capture lessons learned and drive improvements to people, process, and technology.
Maintain up-to-date knowledge of current threat actor TTPs, malware families, and vulnerabilities; produce briefings and recommendations for technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Collaborate with compliance and audit teams to provide evidence, logs, and reporting for regulatory frameworks (e.g., NIST CSF, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, HIPAA) and internal security metrics.
Manage onboarding and tuning of new security tools, integrations, and telemetry sources; ensure proper log ingestion, normalization, and retention for effective monitoring.
Conduct endpoint and network compromise assessments for suspected breaches, provide containment guidance, and support eradication activities including host-level remediation and re-imaging.
Track and report SOC metrics and KPIs (MTTR, MTTD, alert volume, false positive rate) and use metrics to prioritize improvements in tooling and workflows.
Mentor junior analysts, lead shift handovers, and ensure continuity of monitoring across shifts in a 24/7 SOC model where applicable.
Maintain up-to-date documentation for detection logic, investigation playbooks, escalation paths, and environment diagrams to expedite future investigations.

Secondary Functions

Assist with security architecture reviews and provide operational input to secure design and deployment decisions for new systems and services.
Support vulnerability scanning programs by validating false positives, assisting with proof-of-exploit testing, and helping with prioritization of remediation.
Contribute to baseline security automation efforts such as automated containment for high-confidence alerts and enrichment pipelines for IOC enrichment.
Participate in cross-team initiatives to harden identity and access management (IAM), MFA rollouts, and privileged access monitoring.
Help produce compliance artifacts and respond to audit evidence requests by extracting relevant logs, control evidence, and remediation timelines.
Support secure onboarding/offboarding activities by validating account provisioning logs, reviewing privileged access changes, and monitoring for anomalous behavior.
Deliver regular security awareness briefings and technical guidance to engineering teams to reduce risky configurations and improve observability.
Evaluate and pilot new security tooling or detections; provide proof-of-concept findings and recommendations to management for investment decisions.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

SIEM technologies: Splunk, Azure Sentinel, IBM QRadar, Elastic Stack — advanced search/query, dashboarding, alert tuning, ingestion pipelines, and data normalization.
Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR): hands-on use and tuning with CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne, Carbon Black, or similar for hunting and remediation.
Incident response and digital forensics: host and memory analysis, artifact collection, timeline reconstruction, and evidence preservation.
Threat hunting and detection engineering: creating Sigma rules, KQL/SPL/SQL/DSL queries, and translating MITRE ATT&CK techniques into detections.
Network analysis and packet capture: tcpdump, Wireshark, Zeek/Bro, and understanding of network protocols to identify suspicious traffic patterns.
Cloud security monitoring: AWS CloudTrail, GuardDuty, Azure Monitor, GCP Cloud Logging, and cloud-native alerting/investigation practices.
SOAR automation: experience with automation playbooks in Demisto, Phantom, or native integrations to accelerate triage and response.
Vulnerability management tools: Tenable, Qualys, Rapid7 — triage, risk contextualization, and remediation tracking.
Log analysis and parsing: Fluentd, Logstash, Filebeat, or equivalent tools for normalization and enrichment; proficiency with JSON, Syslog formats.
Scripting and automation: Python, PowerShell, Bash for automating investigations, enrichment, and reporting.
Identity and access monitoring: Azure AD, Okta, AWS IAM — detect anomalous sign-ins, privilege escalation, and service account abuse.
Security frameworks and compliance knowledge: NIST CSF, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, CIS Controls — mapping detections to controls and audit readiness.
Familiarity with MITRE ATT&CK and threat intelligence platforms: MISP, Anomali, Recorded Future, or open-source feed integration.
Logging and monitoring infrastructure: understanding of log retention, storage, indexing cost optimization, and pipeline reliability.
Ticketing and collaboration platforms: ServiceNow, Jira; clear case documentation and SLA management.

Soft Skills

Strong analytical and investigative mindset with attention to detail and the ability to synthesize disparate telemetry into a coherent incident narrative.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills to produce clear incident reports, executive summaries, and technical recommendations.
Ability to work under pressure and prioritize multiple active incidents while maintaining accuracy and composure.
Collaborative team player who can coordinate across IT, engineering, legal, and business units to drive incident resolution.
Customer-focused attitude, delivering timely and business-aware security guidance to stakeholders.
Continuous learner mentality, staying current with threat trends, new tools, and detection methodologies.
Good time management and task-tracking skills to ensure follow-through on remediation and post-incident action items.
Mentoring and training capability to uplift junior analysts and share operational best practices.
Ethical judgment and sound decision-making when handling sensitive data and privacy concerns.
Adaptability to changing threat landscapes and evolving toolsets, with a bias for pragmatic solutions.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Security, Cybersecurity, Computer Engineering, or related technical discipline OR equivalent work experience in security operations.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Cybersecurity, Information Assurance, or Computer Science.
Industry certifications such as CISSP, CISM, GCIA, GCIH, OSCP, or GIAC certifications that demonstrate hands-on IR/hunting capability.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Cybersecurity / Information Security
Computer Science / Software Engineering
Network Engineering / Systems Administration
Digital Forensics / Incident Response

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2–5 years of hands-on experience in security operations, SOC, incident response, or related cybersecurity roles.

Preferred:

3+ years of experience working in a SOC or security operations role with demonstrated incident handling, SIEM and EDR operational experience.
Proven track record of leading medium-to-high severity incident responses, conducting threat hunts, and improving detection pipelines.
Experience with cloud-based environments (AWS, Azure, GCP) and hybrid enterprise architectures.
Familiarity with regulatory and compliance requirements relevant to the organization’s industry (e.g., PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOX).
Strong portfolio of detection rules, playbooks, and post-incident reports or contributions to security automation.

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