About this role
Mercor is hiring SOC Investigation Specialist on behalf of high-growth technology and enterprise partners building next-generation SOC automation and AI-driven investigation systems. This role is ideal for experienced SOC analysts who can apply real-world investigative judgment to review, validate, and construct high-quality security investigations across SIEM, endpoint, cloud, and identity environments. --- Responsibilities - Review, monitor, and evaluate SOC alerts and investigation outputs based on predefined scenarios and criteria. - Distinguish true positives from false positives by validating investigative evidence and alert context. - Perform end-to-end security investigations when required, including log analysis, entity pivoting, timeline reconstruction, and evidence correlation. - Assess the correctness, completeness, and quality of SOC investigations produced by automated or human workflows. - Apply consistent investigative judgment while recognizing that multiple valid investigation paths may exist for the same alert. - Make clear binary determinations (e.g., ACCEPT / PASS) while also producing detailed ground-truth investigations when required. - Use Splunk extensively to pivot across logs, entities, and timelines, including reading and reasoning about SPL queries. - Maintain clear and accurate documentation of investigative steps, assumptions, evidence, and conclusions. - Collaborate with program leads and other expert annotators to uphold high-quality investigation and annotation standards. - Mentor or support other analysts where applicable, particularly in long-term or lead annotator roles. --- Requirements - 3+ years of hands-on experience as a SOC analyst in a production SOC environment (Tier 2 or above strongly preferred). - Strong understanding of alert triage, incident investigation workflows, and evidence-based decision-making under time constraints. - Mandatory hands-on experience with Splunk, including: - Conducting investigations using Splunk - Reading, understanding, and reasoning about SPL queries - Pivoting between logs, entities, and timelines - Proven ability to evaluate SOC investigations and determine whether conclusions are valid, incomplete, or incorrect. - Strong investigative judgment and comfort making decisive evaluations. - Fluent English (written and spoken) with strong documentation and communication skills. --- Nice to Have - Experience with Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR) tools such as CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, or SentinelOne. - Experience analyzing cloud security logs and signals: - AWS (CloudTrail, GuardDuty) - Azure (Activity Log, Defender for Cloud) - GCP (Cloud Audit Logs) - Familiarity with Identity & Access Management platforms such as Okta Identity Cloud or Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD). - Experience with email security tools like Proofpoint or Mimecast. - SOC leadership or mentoring experience. - Basic scripting experience (Python or similar). - Security certifications (optional): GCIA, GCIH, GCED, Splunk certifications, Security+, CCNA, or cloud security certifications. --- Why Join - Work on cutting-edge SOC automation and AI-driven investigation systems. - Apply real-world SOC expertise to shape how future security teams investigate and respond to threats. - Take ownership of high-impact investigative evaluations and ground-truth security cases. - Collaborate with experienced SOC practitioners, security engineers, and AI teams. - Join Mercor’s global network of vetted security professionals.
