Cyber Security Engineer

About SMBC Group

SMBC Group is a leading global financial institution headquartered in Tokyo with a rich history spanning 400 years. The Group offers a wide array of financial services such as banking, leasing, securities, credit cards, and consumer finance. SMBC Group operates in nearly 40 countries, with over 130 offices and 80,000 employees globally. SMFG, the holding company of SMBC Group, is ranked among the top three banking groups in Japan and its shares are listed on the Tokyo, Nagoya, and New York stock exchanges.

In the Americas, SMBC Group serves corporate, institutional, and municipal clients through its commercial and investment banking services, with significant presence in countries including the US, Canada, and Ireland. The Group leverages capital strength and extensive Asia relationships to connect clients to local markets and its broad global network.

Role Overview

We are looking for a Cyber Security Engineer specializing in Threat Detection to join our dynamic Security Operations team based in Tralee. This position requires hybrid attendance at the office and involves leading efforts to enhance the Bank’s security monitoring, detection engineering, and cyber defense capabilities. The primary focus is developing and refining detection mechanisms across both cloud and on-premises environments to proactively identify, investigate, and mitigate security threats.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and optimize threat detection logic to increase visibility, improve alert accuracy, and enhance response effectiveness across diverse environments.
• Establish and maintain efficient data ingestion pipelines for security telemetry including logs from infrastructure, applications, endpoints, identity management, and cloud services.
• Collaborate with threat intelligence teams to convert new threat information into actionable detection strategies.
• Work closely with security analysts, incident responders, SOC engineers, and IT teams to investigate alerts, validate detection capabilities, and shorten detection and response times.
• Develop and fine-tune detection rules, signatures, correlation analyses, behavioral analytics, and alert thresholds to maximize detection precision and minimize false positives.
• Ensure alignment of detections with security frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK to drive measurable improvements in monitoring and response.
• Leverage automation, scripting, and detection-as-code methodologies to streamline detection content lifecycle management and improve scalability and consistency.
• Assess and identify enhancements for monitoring technologies, data sources, and analytical tools to boost detection coverage and operational performance.
• Ensure all detection engineering activities comply with applicable regulations, policies, and internal controls.
• Document detection methodologies, data sources, tuning adjustments, operational procedures, and incident response playbooks comprehensively.
• Continuously evaluate the effectiveness of cybersecurity controls and recommend improvements to fortify SMBC’s cyber resilience.

Qualifications and Skills

• At least 3 years of professional experience in cybersecurity, detection engineering, security operations center (SOC) engineering, or security analytics.
• Proficient in analyzing security telemetry including logs from endpoints, networks, identity platforms, cloud services, infrastructure, and applications.
• Experience with security tools such as cloud SIEM, UEBA, EDR, SOAR, and data lakes.
• Strong expertise in query languages and data analysis methods for investigating security incidents and crafting detection logic.
• Familiar with automation and scripting to develop detection-as-code pipelines and other repeatable security processes.
• Able to translate threat intelligence and adversary tactics into practical detection use cases.
• Knowledgeable in mapping detections to frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK.
• Hands-on understanding of Windows and Linux OS and common enterprise infrastructure and cloud platforms.
• Excellent troubleshooting and analytical abilities to identify root causes and recommend effective solutions.
• Capability to balance between operational tasks and project deliverables in a dynamic environment.
• Strong skills in documentation, communication, collaboration, and managing stakeholder relationships.
• Demonstrates meticulous attention to detail, ownership, and ability to work effectively within global teams.
• Additional experience in incident response, threat intelligence, vulnerability management, security engineering, or cloud security is advantageous.

Additional Information

This role follows a hybrid working model requiring attendance at the Tralee office while also offering flexibility to work remotely. Candidates must reside within a reasonable commuting distance to the office location. SMBC is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities during the application process upon request.