Secops Roles and Responsibilities for Your Secops Team

SecOps, the fusion of both the security team and operations team, is no longer a far-fetched idea; in fact, it’s now the norm. With companies bringing SecOps into their Security Operations Centers (SOCs), it’s crucial to be able to understand the roles and responsibilities of the SecOps team.

We’ve put together this list of common roles you can expect to include when outlining your SecOps team, including what responsibilities each position owns. Of course, these positions will vary depending on the size of your organization and the maturity of your SecOps team.

(This article is part of our Security & Compliance Guide. Use the right-hand menu to navigate.)

Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)

One of the most crucial members of the SecOps team is the person who is responsible for defining the entire organization’s security position. Whether this is the CISO or the more general Chief Information Officer (CIO), they should be the one who establishes the security strategy and policies, as well as any procedures necessary to ensure the company’s infrastructure and data is protected. This role might also include compliance, which requires additional policies, strategies, and procedures.

CISO responsibilities:

• Develop the entire security strategy
• Communicate interests and activities to the C-suite
• Oversee any compliance needs
• Ensure security strategy covers prevention along with detection and response
• Deeply know and understand the threat landscape

Security Manager

No matter the official title, often the Security Manager but not always, this individual oversees the security operations center as a whole. If your company doesn’t have a dedicated SOC, then this would be the person who is responsible for managing the security team, such as the Security Director or SecOps Lead.

The security manager creates a vision for developing the technology stack, hiring new members, and building updated processes. They should have significant experience with leading a security team and be able to offer both managerial supervision and technical guidance. For companies who do not have a designated CISO, the security manager would also have the responsibilities that are typically under the CISO umbrella.

Security Manager responsibilities:

• Oversee the SOC
• Create the vision for hiring strategies, technology, and security processes
• Establish the incident response plan
• Establish a vulnerability management program
• Hire necessary security personnel
• Communicate security and technology needs to the CISO
• Analyze and optimize orchestration and automation