Cyber Defense Engineer

Zelis

Cyber Defense Engineer leading complex security initiatives at Zelis to enhance cyber defense operations. Collaborating on threat mitigation and managing tools within a cybersecurity context.

Posted 4/30/2026full-timeRemote • Florida, Massachusetts, Texas • 🇺🇸 United StatesMid-LevelSenior💰 $127,000 - $160,550 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

AWSAzureCloudCyber SecurityGoogle Cloud PlatformPython

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Leads complex security initiatives and provides expert guidance on threat mitigation, compliance, and architecture.
Builds, manages, and enhances tools, automations, and data systems that power cyber defense operations.
Involves hands-on work with security technologies, developing workflow efficiencies, supporting detection engineering, ensuring high-quality security data, and mentoring teammates to strengthen overall team capability.
Identify capability gaps, propose solutions, and design modern defensive approaches.
Build or enhance automated workflows to reduce manual effort, improve reliability, and accelerate detection/response.
Maintain, optimize, and troubleshoot security platforms, custom tools, and log pipelines across the enterprise.
Oversee the lifecycle of security data—ingestion, transformation, normalization, and quality control across systems.
Support detection engineering through maintenance, testing, and improvement of detection logic, rules, dashboards, and data sources.
Guide junior engineers and analysts on tools, processes, automation practices, and new capabilities.
Tune, fix, integrate, or enhance security tools.
Build or update automation scripts/workflows for incident response, threat intelligence, and vulnerability management.
Maintain data pipelines by validating log sources, troubleshooting gaps, updating parsers, and improving normalization.
Review and build detection rules/alerts, collaborating with analysts to reduce noise and improve performance.
Work with IT, cloud, networking, and security teams to deploy solutions or resolve tool issues.
Write documentation, improve runbooks, and share lessons learned.
Support teammates through technical guidance and demonstrations.
Participate in discussions on innovation, process improvement, and future engineering projects.
Perform additional tasks as assigned.

Requirements

What you’ll need

Bachelor of Computer Science, Engineering, Information Security, Information Technology, or 4+ years of equivalent experience.
4+ years of enterprise level cybersecurity detection, response, or engineering experience.
Ability to collaborate across enterprise teams within a cybersecurity context
Strong oral/written communication skills with experience in cybersecurity technical process documentation.
Demonstrated passion for cyber defense and commitment to maintaining technical proficiency
Proven innovation and non-traditional problem solving
Advanced knowledge of SIEM, SOAR, malware sandboxing and related tools
Experience building or maintaining automation scripts or workflows (e.g., Python, PowerShell, Bash, APIs).
Ability to diagnose and solve complex technical issues across tools, data flows, and integrations.
Experience mentoring or training others on tools, techniques, or processes.
Strong problem-solving mindset with an interest in improving systems and workflows.
Understanding of detection logic, threat behaviors, and MITRE ATT&CK.
Advanced cybersecurity certifications (e.g., GCFA, GCIA, GNFA, GCTI, GREM, GCIH, GCFA, GPEN, OSCP, etc.).
Experience with cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP) and associated security tooling.
Advanced Proficiency in scripting and high-level programming languages (Python, PowerShell, bash, etc.)

Benefits

Comp & perks

401k plan with employer match
Flexible paid time off
Holidays
Parental leaves
Life and disability insurance
Health benefits including medical, dental, vision, and prescription drug coverage

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

cybersecurity detectionincident responseautomation scriptsPythonPowerShellBashSIEMSOARmalware sandboxingdetection logic

Soft Skills

collaborationoral communicationwritten communicationproblem solvingmentoringinnovationtechnical guidanceprocess improvementteam capability strengtheningpassion for cyber defense

Certifications

GCFAGCIAGNFAGCTIGREMGCIHGPENOSCP