*Senior Security Engineer

Ascend Learning is a national leader in data driven, online educational solutions for learners, educators and employers in high-growth, licensure-driven professions spanning healthcare, fitness and wellness, skilled trades, insurance and financial services. We are passionate about accelerating learning while impacting job readiness, employment success and employee retention with the belief that our work changes lives.

Our culture is intentionally results-driven and selfless with a relentless focus on our customers. We believe in trust, transparency, freedom and responsibility with a commitment to meritocracy, inclusion and diversity of thought. Continual investment in our over 1500 employees is also a core principle realized through ongoing professional development and providing opportunities to grow, develop and lead. Ascend Learning is headquartered in Burlington, MA with additional office locations and remote workers in cities across the U.S.

The Senior Security Engineer will contribute to the achievement of P&L objectives for the business through the delivery of critical Technology & Operations deliverables and services. This is a lead position and in this critical role the candidate will provide incident response and technical security oversight and guidance to ensure Ascend Learning SOC, alert, and incident response processes are followed. The candidate will provide deep information security expertise for projects within many of the information systems disciplines and will provide security guidance to multiple technical teams. This individual will possess a thorough understanding of emerging technologies and our current business strategy and will be able to offer and recommend solutions. This position will not directly manage employees.

This position can work hybrid from one of our Ascend Learning office locations: Leawood, Kansas or Minneapolis, Minnesota or Gilbert, Arizona or Burlington, Massachusetts. Remote considered for this opportunity.

Core Responsibilities

• Functions as the SecOps SME in Incident Response, reporting to the SecOps Manager. Leads security incident calls, determines triage next steps, documents actions, analyzes logs and evidence, determines root cause, and makes recommendations for service recovery.
• Responds and works SOC and security tool alerts and ensures all alerts are being worked by less senior team members as part of daily responsibilities.
• Works directly with external security vendors and various technology team members across the organization to investigate incidents and facilitate next steps.
• Mentor other engineers in incident triage best practices and makes recommendations to security leaders.
• Supports the technical implementation, configuration, and operations of various defensive security tools in order to defend against current and emerging attack types.
• Contributes to various security initiatives such as process improvement, procedure documentation, attack mapping, security tool configuration changes and testing.
• Participates in the team security incident on-call rotation.
• Reachable after normal business hours for high priority security incidents.

Education and Experience

• Applicants should possess 8+ years of professional, industry related experience in Information Security.
• 5+ years of SOC experience performing incident response functions or working security incidents is required. Relevant Experience includes - Incident Response, Network Security, Endpoint Security, Cloud Security, or working in a SOC.
• Strong experience independently developing processes to solve complex issues and implementing new security programs based on current industry best practices.
• 3+ years of operational experience in Network Security is required.
• Experience working with the MITRE ATT&CK framework and a strong understanding of high priority TTPs is required.
• 3+ years of experience investigating security incidents in one of the following solutions is preferred (EDR Platforms, Email Security Platforms, SIEM - QRadar or Splunk).
• 3+ years of experience working with Splunk queries, regex, log analysis, malware, and large amounts of data is desired.
• Experience threat hunting, ethical hacking and/or pen testing is desired.
• Certifications: Incident Handler or CEH certifications are preferred.
• Bachelor's degree in information systems, Computer Science or related field is preferred.

Skills and Abilities

• Ability to work under pressure and after hours as needed to resolve security incidents.
• Self-starter and ability to work effectively in a fast-paced and dynamic environment.
• Proactive attitude towards anticipating problems, implementing solutions, and accomplishing goals.
• Highly detail oriented, process minded and driven by continuous improvement attitude.
• Excellent interpersonal skills as well as strong verbal and written communication skills; comfortable leading meetings and cross-team efforts.
• Willingness to perform various roles when required in order to achieve results.
• Comfortable educating employees on security best practices with technical and non-technical backgrounds.

Ascend Learning, LLC is proud to be an equal opportunity employer (M/F/Vets/Disabled). No agency or search firm submissions will be accepted. Applications for U.S. based positions with Ascend Learning, LLC must be legally authorized to work in the United States and verification of employment eligibility will be required at the time of hire.

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