Job Purpose:

The Senior SOC Analyst at United States International University – Africa plays a pivotal role in safeguarding the university’s information systems and data from security threats. This role involves proactive monitoring, incident detection, analysis, and response to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of our systems. The Senior SOC Analyst will work collaboratively with other IT Division technical team to maintain and enhance the security posture of the university.The Senior SOC Analyst at United States International University – Africa plays a pivotal role in safeguarding the university’s information systems and data from security threats. This role involves proactive monitoring, incident detection, analysis, and response to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of our systems. The Senior SOC Analyst will work collaboratively with other IT Division technical team to maintain and enhance the security posture of the university.

Key Responsibilities

• Security Monitoring: Work in 24*7 shifts performing real time monitoring of security alerts generated by various security tools deployed by USIU Africa’s IT &Digital Services Division, and rrespond to generated security alerts within the time window as defined in procedural SLAs and/or Policies.
• Incident Response and Management: Investigate security incidents to discover the source and scope, develop and implement incident response plans to mitigate security threats, conducting vulnerability and risk assessments exercises and collaborate with internal teams to manage and remediate security incidents.
• Security Tools and Technologies: Maintain and optimize security tools, including SIEM, IDS/IPS, and EDR) solutions to identify, correlate and monitor security events and alerts in order to identify and respond to potential threats and security incidents.
• Log Analysis: review system logs from different log sources, analyze behavior for policy violations, and take corrective action.
• Threat Intelligence Research: Learn new attack patterns, proactively research and monitor security information to identify potential threats that may impact the University
• Compliance: Managing General IT Controls ITC Assist in developing and implementing incident response procedures, and ensuring the University Information Security efforts comply relevant industry standards and regulations.

Job Specifications

Academic Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree in Information Security or related field
• Master’s degree in Information Security or related field
• Four (4) years of experience in a dedicated full-time information security role, with at least two (2) of those years serving in a security operations center role

Professional Certifications

• Relevant professional qualification – CISSP, CEH, CHFI
• Relevant industry certifications (e.g., CISSP, CISM, CEH,LPT, OCSP) highly desirable.
• Member of a relevant professional body
• Work Experience Required

Competencies:

• Advanced knowledge and experience in deployment and management of IT Security monitoring tools, such as SIEMs, SOAR, enterprise antivirus, endpoint detection and response systems et cetera.
• Extensive experience implementing Security Operations in higher education environment would be desirable but not mandatory
• Have strong knowledge of networks, firewalls, intrusion detection systems, web proxies, and
• Windows and Linux systems and administration both on premise and cloud environment.
• Familiarity with Information Security and privacy best practices and related laws, particularly within the context of higher education
• Experience with and implementation of standards-based risk management frameworks (i.e. NIST SP-800, ISO, NIST CSF, etc.)

Other competencies

• Have excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to present complex technical information in a clear and concise manner to a variety of audiences
• Demonstrate high levels of integrity
• Exceptional problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills