Security Operations Engineer

Security Operations Engineer

Job Summary: Talent Software Services is in search of a Security Operations Engineer for a contract position in Round Rock, TX. The opportunity will be for one year with a strong chance for a long-term extension.

Position Summary: Work on cybersecurity challenges that are diverse and highly complex, with a particular emphasis on security operations. Select methods and techniques for identifying and advocating effective security solutions. Specialise in security operations in one or more areas, including network, host, database, application, event management, cloud, cryptography, identity, and other emerging technologies. Participate in reviews of available tools, technologies, and processes to secure all aspects of the enterprise. Maintain and optimize tools, processes, documentation, reporting, and technologies, and define success criteria for their effective usage. Deploy tools, processes, documentation, and technologies, and define success criteria for their effective usage.

Primary Responsibilities/Accountabilities:

• Prioritize own work and may have duties instructing, directing, assigning, and overseeing work of more junior team members.
• Develop appropriate solutions to provided problems, specializing in security operations in one area.
• Address cybersecurity problems that have medium to high complexity, with a particular emphasis on security operations.
• Select methods and techniques for identifying and advocating effective security solutions.
• Maintain and optimize tools, processes, documentation, reporting, and technologies, and define success criteria for their effective usage.
• Participate in reviews of available tools, technologies, and processes to secure all aspects of the enterprise.
• Play a critical hands-on role in operating and improving enterprise observability and security telemetry platforms.
• Work deeply with Cribl, Elastic, and Corelight to build reliable data pipelines, troubleshoot complex data flow issues, and improve platform performance and resilience.
• Balance execution with technical leadership, acting as a trusted contributor and mentor within the engineering team.
• Design, support, and optimize log and telemetry pipelines using Cribl, including routing logic, transformations, enrichment, and performance tuning.
• Engineer and operate Elastic environments, performing advanced troubleshooting, ingest pipeline tuning, index lifecycle management, and platform health monitoring.
• Support and enhance Corelight NDR deployments, including sensor operations, data validation, and integration with downstream analytics platforms.
• Lead troubleshooting efforts for complex logging and pipeline issues across ingestion, transport, parsing, and storage layers.
• Perform and guide platform lifecycle activities including upgrades, scaling, capacity planning, and configuration management.
• Own log onboarding efforts for new applications and infrastructure, working directly with partner teams to define requirements and validate data quality.
• Contribute to standards, onboarding patterns, and operational best practices that improve platform reliability and consistency.
• Provide operational support during incidents and maintenance windows, serving as a technical escalation point for less experienced engineers.
• Mentor mid-level engineers and review configurations and changes to ensure quality and adherence to platform standards.

Qualifications:

• 5–7 years of hands-on experience operating enterprise logging, monitoring, or security telemetry platforms.
• Strong hands-on experience with Cribl, including pipeline design, tuning, troubleshooting, and operational support.
• Strong experience administering and engineering Elastic platforms, including ingestion architecture, performance optimization, and reliability troubleshooting.
• Experience supporting network telemetry or NDR technologies, such as Corelight or equivalent tools.
• Advanced Linux and Windows system administration skills.
• Proficiency in Bash, Python, or similar scripting languages for automation, tooling, and operational efficiency.
• Experience operating logging and monitoring platforms in large-scale, cloud, hybrid, or highly distributed environments.
• Strong understanding of observability and security telemetry concepts, including data health, throughput, latency, and retention.