Access Control, Administrative Skills, Analysis Skills, Automation, Background Investigation, Bash Scripting, CISSP - Certified Information Systems Security Professional, Case Management, Change Control, Cloud Computing, CompTIA Security+, Computer Security, Continuous Improvement, Continuous Integration, Cost Control, Data Management, Data Modeling, Data Recovery, Documentation, Driver's License, Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Protection, GIAC - Global Information Assurance Certification, High Availability, Hunting, Identify Issues, Incident Response, Industry Standards, Information Technology & Information Systems, Information/Data Security (InfoSec), Internet Security, Knowledge Transfer, Linux Operating System, Maintain Compliance, Metrics, Microsoft Windows Operating System, Network Access Control (NAC), On Call, Onboarding, Operational Support, Performance Tuning/Optimization, Python Programming/Scripting Language, Regulatory Compliance, Regulatory Requirements, Reporting Dashboards, Risk, Scripting (Scripting Languages), Security Architecture, Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), Security Infrastructure, Software as a Service (SaaS), Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), Strategic Planning, Systems Administration/Management, Technical Support, Technical Writing, Telemetry, Test Plan/Schedule, Testing, Use Cases
Preference will be given to local candidates who can come to the office as needed for client and departmental meetings, trainings, and other onsite activities.
Pre-Employment Checks/ Mandatory Screening Requirements: These requirements are strictly enforced and non-negotiable. No exceptions can be granted. Candidates who cannot pass these requirements will not be eligible for hire. All applicants must successfully pass a full credit check and criminal background check during the initial hiring process. Once onboard, they must obtain and retain annual CJIS certification as part of the ongoing employment process.
- 7-year standard background check and credit history check
- Driving record (MVR)
- 10-panel drug screen
- E-Verify
- SLED check
Scope
This position will serve as a SIEM Engineer within the Agency's Division of Information Security. The successful candidate will show extensive experience successfully designing, implementing, maintaining, and optimizing Palo Alto Cortex XSIAM and Cortex XDR in large-scale, multi-tenant security environments.
This contractor will work with a large enterprise security team and a 24x7 Security Operations Center (SOC), assisting full-time security architects, engineers, and analysts with the design, implementation, integration, and continuous improvement of SIEM, XDR, detection, and response capabilities supporting multiple state agencies.
Successful Candidate
This contractor will be primarily focused on Cortex XSIAM and Cortex XDR engineering, administration, detection content, automation, and operational support while also providing important secondary support for Cribl data modeling, log pipeline design, parsing, normalization, enrichment, and ingestion.
The role requires hands-on experience supporting both security engineering and SOC operations, including multi-tenant onboarding, tenant-specific configurations, access controls, data separation, integrations, dashboards, reporting, incident response, threat hunting, playbooks, runbooks, standard operating procedures, and analyst enablement.
The candidate must be able to support strategic planning, solution design, implementation, troubleshooting, performance optimization, and continuous improvement of secure systems and services.
Mandatory Screening Requirements
These requirements are strictly enforced and non-negotiable. No exceptions can be granted. Candidates who cannot pass these requirements will not be eligible for hire.
All applicants must successfully pass a full credit check and criminal background check during the initial hiring process. Once onboard, they must obtain and retain annual CJIS certification as part of the ongoing employment process.
Daily Duties / Responsibilities
This position is 100% remote and will participate in a monthly on-call rotation supporting a 24x7 Security Operations Center serving multiple state agencies. Other after-hours work may be required as needed.
- Primarily assist in the planning, design, deployment, administration, and operational support of enterprise SIEM and XDR capabilities, including:
- Palo Alto Cortex XSIAM and Cortex XDR platform engineering, configuration, optimization, and troubleshooting
- Multi-tenant agency onboarding, tenant-specific configuration, role-based access, data segregation
- Dashboards and reporting
- Detection engineering, correlation rules, analytics, threat-hunting queries, watchlists, suppression logic, and false-positive reduction
- Secondarily assist in the planning, design, deployment, and operational support of log management and security data pipelines, including:
- Cribl data modeling, log pipeline design, routing, parsing, normalization, enrichment, filtering, replay, and ingestion
- Onboarding and health monitoring of cloud, endpoint, network, identity, SaaS, and custom application telemetry
- Log volume, retention, performance, and cost optimization while maintaining security and compliance requirements
- Integrations with ticketing, case management, notification, identity, threat intelligence, and other enterprise systems as needed
- Develop, test, deploy, and maintain automated response workflows and playbooks for enrichment, triage, containment, escalation, notifications, case management, and incident response.
- Create and maintain operational runbooks, standards, standard operating procedures, escalation matrices, troubleshooting guides, architecture diagrams, data flow documentation, use-case catalogs, and analyst knowledge articles.
- Support Tier 1 through Tier 3 SOC analysts and incident responders through platform troubleshooting, detection tuning, threat hunting, technical escalation, knowledge transfer, and shift handoffs.
- Monitor and report on ingestion health, platform availability, alert volumes, detection coverage, false positives, service levels, mean time to detect, mean time to respond, and tenant-specific operational metrics.
- Ensure high availability, resilience, backup, recovery, lifecycle management, and controlled change processes for SIEM, XDR, and supporting log pipeline services.
- Collaborate with security architects, engineers, analysts, and agency stakeholders to align solutions with business goals, industry-standard frameworks, regulatory requirements, and organizational risk tolerance.
Required Skills (Rank in Order of Importance)
- 5+ years of experience supporting large IT environments and/or system deployments.
- Hands-on Palo Alto Cortex XSIAM and Cortex XDR design, implementation, administration, and operational support.
- Experience engineering and supporting SIEM capabilities for multi-tenant environments and 24x7 Security Operations Center operations.
- Experience developing and tuning detections, correlation rules, analytics, threat-hunting queries, dashboards, reporting, and alert suppression logic.
- Strong experience creating and managing complex playbooks.
- Cribl data modeling, log pipeline design, parsing, normalization, enrichment, routing, and ingestion.
- Experience developing automation, integrations, playbooks, and response workflows using scripting languages such as Python and Bash.
- Experience onboarding and troubleshooting telemetry from cloud, endpoint, network, identity, SaaS, Linux, Windows, and custom application sources.
- Strong understanding of enterprise security architecture, incident response, networking, access control, secure system design, and industry-standard cybersecurity frameworks.
Preferred Skills (Rank in Order of Importance)
- Hands-on experience operating Cortex XSIAM and Cortex XDR in a large, multi-tenant environment.
- Hands-on Cribl administration, data modeling, and log pipeline optimization experience.
- Experience supporting Tier 1 through Tier 3 SOC analysts, threat hunting, incident response, and 24x7 operational handoffs.
- Familiarity with industry-standard security and compliance frameworks and experience developing playbooks, runbooks, procedures, and technical documentation.
Required Education / Certifications
- Bachelor's degree in an Information Technology or Information Security related field.
- 8+ years of relevant work experience may be substituted in lieu of education.
Preferred Education / Certifications- CISSP, Security+ or GIAC certification.
- Palo Alto Cortex, Cribl, or other relevant SIEM/security platform certification.