Cyber Security Analyst

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join our growing ICT Department as a member of the InfoSec team, working in a dynamic and fast-paced environment with new challenges every day, based in our Manchester Head Office. Having rationalised our infrastructure and established a modern, cloud-first security stack, it is an exciting time to join the business as we mature our detection, response, and automation capabilities across a global estate. You will work collaboratively with the business and the wider IT team - Infrastructure, Network, Development, DevOps, and Service Desk - to provide security and governance for existing and new services.

The purpose of this role is to deliver the day-to-day security operations of the InfoSec Team and to act as a first point of escalation and support for our Junior and Graduate analysts. Reporting to the Associate Director - Cyber Security, you will work closely with other team members, IT colleagues, and the wider business to ensure a consistent approach to information and cyber security across all areas of IT.

You will analyse security events, investigate alerts, identify issues, and recommend and implement solutions, while keeping up to date with current threats, technologies, and techniques. You will be responsible for daily security operations, ensuring risks are identified and resolved in a timely manner. In practice, this means managing tickets and requests through Halo ITSM and working daily with Palo Alto Cortex XSIAM and XSOAR, Cortex XDR, Microsoft Purview, Mimecast, Abnormal, Nessus, and Microsoft 365.

You will participate in security investigations and incident response, responding to events involving malware, data loss, phishing, or network intrusion, and supporting our data protection and vulnerability management activity. You will work both independently and collaboratively, sharing knowledge openly and supporting your colleagues across all regions. You will follow security best practice, apply the principles of layered security, and serve as a trusted resource to the wider business on all matters of information and cyber security.

This is a customer-facing role, so you will be a strong communicator, able to explain complex concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences, with your input helping to shape and improve our day-to-day monitoring, detection, and response. You will be self-motivated, bringing the knowledge and experience gained in previous roles, genuinely passionate about data and cyber security, and committed to continued learning and professional development.

Key Objectives and Responsibilities

• Daily Operations & Incident Handling
• Manage day-to-day security tickets, requests, and alerts through Halo ITSM, meeting SLAs and making full use of existing automation.
• Monitor, triage, and investigate alerts within Palo Alto Cortex XSIAM, responding and escalating as required.
• Respond to security incidents involving malware, data loss, phishing, or network intrusion, following established playbooks and incident response processes.
• Manage email security operations across Mimecast and Abnormal, including releases, journal pulls, and reported-phishing investigations.
• Monitor threat feeds and threat intelligence, applying relevant findings to the environment.
• Maintain and tune detections, correlation rules, and Cortex XSOAR playbooks to reduce noise and improve response times.
• Identify opportunities for automation and continual improvement across monitoring and response workflows.
• Contribute to the development and upkeep of SOC processes, runbooks, and documentation.
• Run and interpret vulnerability scans using Nessus, tracking remediation through to closure with the relevant teams.
• Support endpoint security and patch compliance across the Windows and macOS estates, working with Intune, Jamf, Alectrona, and Cortex XDR.

Data Protection & Compliance

• Support and monitor the company’s Data Loss Prevention controls within Microsoft Purview, and data classification through Azure Information Protection labelling.
• Help maintain the evidence and controls that support the company’s accreditations, including ISO/IEC 27001, 27017, and 27018, Cyber Essentials Plus, and SOC 2.
• Learn and apply the principles of risk and information governance within the context of cyber security.

Experience and Technical Requirements

• Two or more years’ experience in a cyber security, SOC, or information security analyst role.
• Experience working within an ISO/IEC 27001 (or equivalent) accredited environment.
• Familiarity with ITIL service management processes, particularly Incident, Request, Change, and Problem management.
• Understanding of GDPR, data protection, and information governance.
• Hands-on experience with a SIEM platform (Cortex XSIAM, Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk, or equivalent).
• Experience with, or a strong aptitude to learn, SOAR and automation tooling (Cortex XSOAR).
• Experience with Endpoint Detection and Response (Cortex XDR or an equivalent EDR/XDR platform).
• Experience with email security platforms (O365, Mimecast, Abnormal, or equivalent).
• Understanding of Data Loss Prevention and data classification (Microsoft Purview and Azure labelling, or equivalent).
• Experience with vulnerability scanning and management (Nessus or equivalent).
• Working knowledge of endpoint management across Windows and macOS (Intune, Jamf).
• Strong knowledge of cloud environments, including Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Microsoft 365.
• Understanding of layered security, threat hunting, and incident response.

Qualifications

• A degree in a computer-related subject, or equivalent experience in cyber security.
• Holding, or actively working towards, relevant industry certifications (e.g. SANS GCIH, EC-Council CEH, ISC2 SSCP, CompTIA CySA+, Blue Team Level 1, Microsoft SC-200, or equivalent), with a genuine commitment to continued professional development.

Benefits

• 25 Days Holiday + Bank Holidays
• Day off for your birthday
• Health Shield Cash Plan
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Train Season Ticket Scheme
• Profit Share Scheme
• Contributory company pension scheme
• Access to the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)

51903MS

INDMANS

The Portfolio Group are acting on behalf of our client in recruiting for this position.