Associate Director DDIT ISC CSOC Engineering

CSOC Engineering will be an integral part of the Novartis Cyber Security Operations Center (CSOC). The CSOC is an advanced global team passionate about the active defense against the most sophisticated cyber threats and attacks. By leveraging various tools and resources, the CSOC Engineer Lead will help to proactively detect, investigate, and mitigate both emerging and persistent threats that pose a risk to Novartis networks, systems, users, and applications.

The main objective of the CSOC Engineering Lead is to design, develop, implement, and manage dataflow pipelines and integrate them with SIEM platforms such as Sentinel and Splunk. The Data onboarded to SIEM will be Crucial for CSOC Analysts and the content development and SOAR Engineers to develop monitoring alerts and automation playbooks.
Collaboration with internal and external stakeholders, including Novartis internal teams, external vendors, and Product/Platform engineers, will be a crucial aspect of this role. The CSOC Engineering Lead will work closely with these stakeholders to understand and integrate various datasources. This may involve utilizing services such as Cribl, Syslog NG, Azure Monitoring Agent, Universal Forwarder etc. to list a few.
Furthermore, the CSOC Engineering Lead will work in close partnership with the CSOC stakeholders, including TDR, THR, Forensic, Content Development, and SOAR teams. Their expertise and collaboration will be instrumental in quickly resolving any Data onboarding requests or issues that arise.
Overall, the CSOC Engineering Lead role is pivotal in ensuring the proactive defense of Novartis critical assets, systems, and infrastructure against the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats.

• Onboarding Lead
  • Lead and manage a geographically distributed team of Skilled Engineers, providing guidance and support while leveraging their diverse skillsets and personalities.
  • Evaluate and review performance metrics and KPIs to ensure the Onboarding team is meeting targets and delivering efficient and effective results.
  • Take accountability for the teams performance in various areas, including but not limited to data onboarding to:
    • SIEM platforms such as Sentinel and Splunk
    • Supporting audit requests and reports
    • Engaging with product teams to address technical challenges
    • Managing stakeholders commitments
  • Act as the primary point of contact for first-level escalations, addressing any issues or concerns that arise and ensuring timely resolution.
  • Develop and maintain comprehensive documentation to facilitate knowledge sharing and ensure quality outcomes are consistently achieved.
  • Drive a culture of continuous improvement and innovation within the team, identifying opportunities to optimize processes and enhance efficiency.
  • Serve as a subject matter expert in onboarding processes and play an active role in guiding the team and providing expertise whenever needed.

• Data Onboarding and Technical Management
  • Evaluate and onboard new data sources, performing data analysis for identifying anomalies and trends, and developing dashboards and visualizations for data reporting.
  • Collaborate with CSOC engineers, Threat Hunters, and CSOC Analysts to gather requirements and develop solutions.
  • Troubleshoot and provide support for onboarding issues with platforms like Sentinel, Splunk, and Cribl.
  • Validate and ensure proper configuration and implementation of new logics with security system and application owners.
  • Perform data normalization, establish datasets, and develop data models.
  • Manage backlog of customer requests for onboarding new data sources.
  • Detect and resolve issues in various data sources, implementing health monitoring for data sources and feeds.
  • Identify opportunities for automation in data onboarding and proactively detect parsing/missing-data issues.

• Maintaining and Improving Data Onboarding team perforemence according set KPIs.
• Evaluate and review Team performance.
• Identify technology and process gaps that affect CSOC services; propose solutions and make recommendations for continuous improvement.

• Essential:
  • University working and thinking level, degree in business/technical/scientific area or comparable education/experience.
• Desirable:
  • Professional information security certification, such as CISSP, CISM or ISO 27001 auditor / practitioner is preferred. Professional (information system) risk or audit certification such as CIA, CISA or CRISC is preferred
  • Preferably one or more Splunk certification.
    

• 8+ Years work experience..
• Strong managing skills.
• Good general security knowledge.
• Strong knowladge ot security tools.
• Experienced IT administration with broad and in-depth technical, analytical and conceptual skills.
• Experience in reporting to and communicating with senior level management (with and without IT background, with and without in depth risk management background) on incident response topics.
• Excellent written and verbal communication and presentation skills; interpersonal and collaborative skills; and the ability to communicate information risk-related and incident response concepts to technical as well as nontechnical audiences.
• Excellent understanding and knowledge of general IT infrastructure technology and systems.
• Proven experience to initiate and manage projects that will affect CSOC services and technologies.

• Good understanding of pharmaceutical industry. Good understanding and knowledge of business processes in a global pharmaceutical industry.

• Understanding of Splunk, Sentinel and Cribl architecture.
• Understanding of security systems (such as AV, IPS, Proxy, FWs etc.).
• Understanding of CSOC use-case designing
• Understanding of Scripting and Development
• An understanding of error messages and logs displayed by various software.
• Understanding of network protocols and topologies.
• Strong technical troubleshooting and analytical skills.
• A knowledge of the MITRE ATT&CK framework is a beneficial .
• Ability to prioritise workload.
• Excellent written and spoken English.
• Calm and logical approach.

• High level of personal integrity, and the ability to professionally handle confidential matters and exude the appropriate level of judgment and maturity.
• Ability to handle competing priorities, and seeking consensus when stakeholders have different or even contradicting opinions.

• Fluency (written and spoken) in English