Lead Associate Principal, Cyber Defense

To be considered for this position, applications and resumes are accepted only through our careers site by directly applying to the posted job. We do not accept unsolicited resumes or sales solicitations from staffing agencies. Any OCC employee wishing to submit a referral must do so through their Workday account. Any resume submitted outside of an active job posting will not be considered for employment.

What You'll Do:

Lead the charge in protecting our organization from evolving cyber threats. As Lead Associate Principal, Cyber Defense, you'll drive the analysis of threats and vulnerabilities, lead a team of security professionals, and own the strategy for how we defend our enterprise. You'll take initiative to launch and lead security projects — assembling teams to remediate threats, incidents, and compliance gaps — while sharpening how we monitor third-party feeds and forums for emerging risks. You'll also guide regulatory compliance from documentation through testing and report key metrics directly to senior leadership. If you want a role where your leadership and expertise shape an organization's entire security posture, this is it.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each primary duty satisfactorily.

Perform duties across several Cyber disciplines, activities may include:

Incident Management and Security Analysis:

• Lead cyber security incident responders in response activities including investigation, coordination, review, and reporting.

• Oversee technical analysis of security events while coordinating incident response activities with internal and external teams.

• Ensure and directly oversee the collection and preservation of data associated with cyber security incident response activities following industry best practices and established procedures.

• Develop and support briefings to OCC senior management as a trusted incident responder.

Security Monitoring & Analysis:

• Prioritize and identify security risks, threats and vulnerabilities of networks, systems, applications, and new technology initiatives.

• Lead systems management team to operationalize remediation efforts for gaps identified.

• Develop and implement security monitoring roadmaps for OCC technologies, applications, SaaS, and other cloud-hosted solutions. These roadmaps will direct efforts on implementation of monitoring use cases and measurement of monitoring capabilities.

• Manage, implement, and validate security monitoring use cases, mapping to frameworks, technical configuration for security tools, etc.

Security Device Administration

• Subject matter expert on security tools including appliances, hosted systems, and SaaS – including health checks, version updates, and content development.

• Validate content changes to security tools are appropriate from other analysts and teams.

• Report on and enhance current metrics surrounding security tool capabilities and efficacy.

• Subject matter expert in the systems lifecycle --- performing upgrades, implementation of new technologies, and enhancement identification. 

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Confer with and advise subordinates on administrative policies and procedures, technical problems, priorities, and methods.

• Advise management selecting and scheduling employee training classes, conferences, and seminars.

Qualifications:

The requirements listed are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the primary functions.

• Proven team leadership and project management skills, with the initiative to drive solutions across diverse skillsets and work independently or with local/remote staff, vendors, and consultants.

• Skilled in security assessments and control implementation based on standards like NIST, COBIT, ISO, ITIL, and the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.

• Strong oral and written communication, analytical, and judgment skills, with the ability to engage effectively with all levels of management in both formal and informal settings.

Technical Skills:

Demonstrated proficiency in:

• Implementation and maintenance of security platforms (Splunk, Crowdstrike, Symantec DLP) and vulnerability assessment tools (Qualys, Nessus, nmap), including incident response playbook development and remediation management.

• Proficiency with network sniffers/packet tracing tools (Ethereal, tcpdump, etc.), preventative/detective technologies (EDR, network-based analysis), and Web Application Firewalls.

• Strong background in encryption technologies (PGP, PKI, X.509) and directory services/LDAP security (Active Directory, CA Directory).

• Experience across client/server platforms (Solaris, Windows, Linux) and OS hardening procedures, plus proxy/caching services.

• Knowledge of LAN/WAN routing and high availability protocols (OSPF, BGP4/iBGP, EIGRP, NSRP), cloud security tools (AWS, Azure, GCP), and SOAR tools/concepts.

• Some experience scripting and leveraging APIs to integrate security monitoring tools, with knowledge of Generative and Prompt AI.

Education and/or Experience:

• Minimum five years hands-on security operations experience including interdisciplinary experience with four or more of the following: Cyber Threat Analysis, Digital Computer Forensics, Incident Response, Application Security, Operating Systems Security, Cryptographic Controls, Networking, Programming languages, Incident Response.

• Technical experience and comprehensive knowledge of threat actor capabilities, intentions, methodologies, and motives.

• Familiarity with computer network exploitation and network attack methodologies while maintaining an understanding of the relationship these activities have with the financial services industry and critical infrastructure.

• Industry knowledge of leading-edge security technologies and methods.

• Shift work and working in an on-call response capacity is required including availability for 24 x 7 on-call support responsibilities.

• Previous people/project management experience is a plus.

Certificates or Licenses:

• None

About Us

The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) is the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization. Founded in 1973, OCC is dedicated to promoting stability and market integrity by delivering clearing and settlement services for options, futures and securities lending transactions. As a Systemically Important Financial Market Utility (SIFMU), OCC operates under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. OCC has more than 100 clearing members and provides central counterparty (CCP) clearing and settlement services to 19 exchanges and trading platforms. More information about OCC is available at www.theocc.com.

Benefits

A highly collaborative and supportive environment developed to encourage work-life balance and employee wellness. Some of these components include:

• A hybrid work environment, up to 2 days per week of remote work
• Tuition Reimbursement to support your continued education
• Student Loan Repayment Assistance
• Technology Stipend allowing you to use the device of your choice to connect to our network while working remotely
• Generous PTO and Parental leave
• 401k Employer Match
• Competitive health benefits including medical, dental and vision

Visit https://www.theocc.com/careers/thriving-together for more information.

Compensation

• The salary range listed for any given position is exclusive of fringe benefits and potential bonuses. If hired at OCC, your final base salary compensation will be determined by factors such as skills, experience and/or education.
• In addition, we believe in the importance of pay equity and consider internal equity of our current team members as part of any final offer.
• We typically do not hire at the maximum of the range in order to allow for future and continued salary growth. We also offer a substantial benefits package as noted on www.theocc.com/careers
• All employees may be eligible for a discretionary bonus. Discretionary bonuses are based on various factors, including, but not limited to, company and individual performance and are not guaranteed.

Salary Range

Incentive Range

This position is eligible for an annual discretionary incentive compensation award, for which the target range is listed above (see Incentive Range). The amount of such award, if any, will be based on various factors, including without limitation, both individual and company performance.

Step 1
When you find a position you're interested in, click the 'Apply' button. Please complete the application and attach your resume.  

Step 2
You will receive an email notification to confirm that we've received your application.

Step 3
If you are called in for an interview, a representative from OCC will contact you to set up a date, time, and location. 

For more information about OCC, please click here.

OCC is an Equal Opportunity Employer