Director of Cybersecurity Operations

Job Title: Director of Cybersecurity Operations
Position level: Director
Location: Onsite, Raleigh, North Carolina
Certifications: Six Sigma, ITIL, GIAC, ECIH, CISSP, EnCE

The Director of Cybersecurity Operations is a senior-level leadership role reporting to the Sr Director of Cybersecurity Services. This Director will play a key role in leading the cybersecurity organization in incident response, threat intelligence, identity and access/Vulnerability management operations. This leader will drive efficiency, effectiveness, and continuous improvement within the cybersecurity function along with design and optimize cybersecurity processes, implement metrics, and ensure we are identifying, mitigating, and responding to threats. They will collaborate across security, IT, and business teams to mature security operations, enhance risk management, and align cybersecurity with broader business objectives.

The key responsibilities of the role include:

• This role will develop and implement a strategy for the Security Operations Center (SOC), Threat Intelligence, Threat Hunting, Incident Response, Crisis Management, Insider Risk, Digital Forensics, Exposure Management, and IAM Security Operations.
• You will also lead, coach, mentor, and develop a growing team of information security professionals.
• Cyber Defense Leadership: Provide technical leadership across cybersecurity incident management and the Security Operations Center (SOC), with a focus on enhancing incident handling processes, detection engineering, and threat mitigation capabilities
• Oversee crisis response for cyber incidents, ensuring seamless planning, escalation, and resolution of major incidents to minimize business impact
• Drive security capabilities by leveraging cloud-native tools, and advancing automation for detection engineering and response
• Integrated Security Operations: Oversee proactive Threat Intelligence and Threat Hunting efforts, ensuring effective integration of actionable intelligence into security processes
• Insider Risk & Forensics: Build and manage an Insider Risk program to detect and mitigate internal threats
• Lead Digital Forensics capabilities to support advanced investigations and evidence collection
• Vendor and Stakeholder Engagement: Engage with external vendors to ensure product effectiveness and build partnerships that align with business objectives
• Collaborate with internal teams to align security operations with organizational goals
• Operational Maturity: Develop clear documentation for processes, metrics, and outcomes, ensuring adherence to SLAs and compliance requirements
• Foster continuous improvement across all cybersecurity functions
• Extensive experience in partnerships with Managed Service Providers.
• Stay current and share best practices with operating companies on how to use modern methods to address security gaps
• Partner with legal and data protection officer to ensure consistent execution and measures for the laws and practices around data protection, globally.
• Facilitate and monitor key performance metrics and reporting frameworks to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of the program, facilitating resource allocation and increasing the maturity of the security
• Deep expertise in modern access operations methodologies with a passion for innovation and efficiency
• Demonstrated ability to identify gaps in current practices and architect solutions that become organizational standards
• Experience influencing without authority to drive adoption of best practices across diverse teams
• Strong foundation in IAM technologies with the agility to adapt to evolving platforms and tools
• Natural problem-solver who thrives on turning operational challenges into opportunities for improvement
• Outstanding communication skills with the ability to articulate complex concepts to both technical and business audiences
• Self-motivated individual who can work independently while fostering strong team collaboration
• Partner and collaborate with international and diverse teams to ensure seamless day-to-day business operations, effective handovers, and foster a unified team culture
• History of successfully implementing access operations frameworks in large companies

Qualifications:

• 10+ years of experience in cybersecurity, operations, or IT with a strong focus on operational excellence.
• Proven leadership experience in security operations, governance, or risk management.
• Strong background in process improvement methodologies (Lean, Six Sigma, ITIL, Agile).
• Experience with cybersecurity frameworks (NIST, ISO 27001, MITRE ATT&CK).
• Familiarity with security technologies (SIEM, SOAR, EDR, cloud security tools, vulnerability management).
• Excellent communication and leadership skills to drive alignment across security, IT, and business teams.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Certifications: CISSP, CISM, CISA, ITIL, Lean Six Sigma, PMP.
• Experience in large-scale, complex organizations or highly regulated industries.
• Expertise in cybersecurity automation and analytics.