IT Sec Operations Lead

Team: Information Security 

Position overview

The IT Sec Operations Lead will lead Squarepoint’s global security operations capability, covering threat monitoring, detection and response, incident management, forensic readiness, cyber recovery, and vulnerability operations. The role will protect the firm’s proprietary research, source code, models, data and trading technology while enabling a fast-moving engineering environment.

Responsibilities

• Own the Security Operations strategy, operating model, roadmap, service standards and day-to-day effectiveness.

• Lead oversight of SOC and MDR services, aligning monitoring and detection coverage to Squarepoint’s priority threats and critical assets.

• Drive detection engineering and threat hunting across endpoint, identity, network, cloud, SaaS, Linux, containers, repositories and data flows.

• Lead material cyber incidents, coordinating investigation, containment, eradication, communications and recovery across relevant teams.

• Maintain and exercise response playbooks for insider threat, IP theft, ransomware, identity or cloud compromise, supplier compromise and data-integrity events.

• Establish forensic-readiness, evidence-handling and investigation practices suitable for legal, regulatory and disciplinary needs.

• Work with Technology teams to establish rapid containment actions, secure restoration criteria and cyber-recovery assurance.

• Provide operational leadership for vulnerability and exposure management, using risk-based prioritisation, service levels and escalation.

• Define clear security operations metrics and executive reporting, and ensure actions from incidents and exercises are tracked to closure.

• Build and develop the internal team and govern specialist providers through measurable outcomes and continuous improvement.

Required qualifications

• Significant experience leading security operations, detection and response, incident response or cyber defence in a complex technology environment.

• Proven experience leading serious cyber incidents across technical, operational, legal, compliance and senior stakeholder groups.

• Strong practical knowledge of SIEM, EDR/XDR, MDR/SOC services, detection engineering, threat hunting, identity and cloud telemetry, and incident case management.

• Experience with incident playbooks, crisis exercises, containment, recovery, digital forensics and evidence handling.

• Experience managing security service providers and translating tooling and contracts into measurable operational outcomes.

• Ability to build capable teams, set priorities and deliver through influence across organisational boundaries.

• Clear written and verbal communication, including concise reporting of risk, decisions and operational performance.

• Working knowledge of NIST CSF and MITRE ATT&CK, or equivalent incident-handling and threat-informed defence practices.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience in quantitative finance, trading technology, investment management or another environment protecting high-value intellectual property.

• Knowledge of Linux, Kubernetes, cloud platforms, identity infrastructure, repositories, data platforms or high-performance computing.

• Experience integrating cyber response and recovery with operational resilience, business continuity and disaster recovery.

• Relevant certifications such as CISSP, GCIH, GCFA, GNFA or CISM, or equivalent practical experience.

What we value

We are looking for someone who is calm under pressure, technically credible, pragmatic and collaborative. You should be comfortable creating structure in an evolving environment, making ownership explicit and focusing on measurable risk reduction rather than process or tooling for its own sake.