Junior SOC Analyst

Location: Remote – must be UK based
Salary: £25,000 – £28,000 DOE
Hours: Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5.30pm
Contract: Permanent, full time

Are you trying to get your first real opportunity in cyber security, but finding every “junior” role still seems to want years of experience?

Have you already started building your knowledge through a cyber security degree, Open University course, Microsoft, Cisco, Fortinet or CompTIA studies, home labs or your own learning?

Do you really want to build a career within a Security Operations Centre, learning how to investigate threats and security incidents, rather than simply getting any job in IT?

This is an entry-level cyber security opportunity with a growing technology consultancy and established Security Operations team.

You do not need several years of commercial experience. In fact, we are particularly interested in people at the very beginning of their career who have the right technical foundations, curiosity and enthusiasm to learn.

Previous successful hires into the team have come from completely non-traditional backgrounds, including candidates with no commercial IT experience who had been studying cyber security independently. What matters is being able to demonstrate that cyber security is a career you have actively chosen and started working towards.

What Will You Be Doing

You will join an established team of around 15 people and work alongside the SOC Lead and experienced security professionals, supporting customers across a variety of industries including financial services and real estate.

Initially, you will be learning from the team and developing the skills needed to become a fully fledged SOC Analyst. As your knowledge develops, this will include areas such as:

• Monitoring and reviewing security alerts
• Learning how to distinguish genuine threats from false positives
• Investigating potential security incidents
• Understanding logs and identifying unusual activity
• Working with SIEM and security monitoring technologies
• Learning Microsoft Sentinel and the wider Microsoft security stack
• Understanding when incidents need to be escalated
• Supporting security reporting and documentation
• Developing your knowledge of incident response
• Working alongside experienced analysts and engineers on real customer environments

You will not be expected to know all of this on day one. The purpose of the role is to teach you.

What Are We Looking For

We are looking for somebody with the foundations and potential to develop, rather than somebody who already knows everything. You may have recently completed, or currently be studying towards, something such as:

• A degree or Open University course in cyber security, computing or a related subject
• AZ-900 or another Microsoft certification
• CCNA or networking studies
• Fortinet training
• CompTIA Security+ or Network+
• Other recognised cyber security training

Alternatively, you may simply have been building your knowledge yourself through home labs, practical projects and independent study.

Some previous IT, MSP, MSSP or SOC experience would certainly be useful, but commercial cyber security experience is not essential. Exposure to Microsoft Sentinel, another SIEM platform or Microsoft Defender would also be a bonus rather than a requirement.

More importantly, we want somebody who:

• Is fascinated by cyber security and security operations
• Enjoys investigating problems and understanding why something has happened
• Is naturally curious and asks questions
• Has a good basic understanding of IT, networking and security
• Can explain technical information clearly
• Is methodical and pays attention to detail
• Is willing to learn from more experienced members of the team
• Has already taken their own steps towards developing a career in cyber security
• Wants to build a long-term career within a SOC environment

Training and Progression

You will be joining a business that actively supports training and professional development. Depending on your existing knowledge, this could include working towards certifications such as:

• AZ-900
• SC-200
• CompTIA Security+

The aim is to develop the successful candidate into a fully fledged SOC Analyst. From there, your career does not necessarily have to stop within Security Operations – if you develop a particular interest or aptitude for security engineering, there will also be opportunities to broaden your skills and develop technically.

This is therefore not simply a first cyber security job. It is an opportunity to join an experienced team that can help you build the foundations of a long-term career.

Working Hours

The normal working week is Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5.30pm. There may occasionally be situations where some flexibility outside normal working hours is required, so we are looking for somebody comfortable with that when needed.

One Final Point

We expect this role to attract people from lots of different backgrounds. You do not need to have followed the traditional route into technology and you do not need a CV full of commercial cyber security experience. However, we will want to understand what you have already done to develop your knowledge.

So whether that is your degree, certifications, home lab, Microsoft Learn, networking study, practical cyber security exercises or something you have built yourself, tell us about it.

If cyber security is genuinely the career you want to build, we would like to hear from you.