Senior Manager - Cyber Defense

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Come join us to create what’s next. Let’s define tomorrow, together.

Connecting People. Uniting the World. There’s never been a more exciting time to join United Airlines! As a global company that operates in hundreds of locations around the world — with millions of customers and tens of thousands of employees — we have a unique responsibility to uplift and provide opportunities in the places where we work, live and fly.

We’re on a path to becoming the best airline in aviation history. Join our Cybersecurity and Digital Risk (CDR) team to help lead the industry in cyber safety, security and resilience. United's CDR team plays a critical role in protecting our operations by enabling secure and resilient systems, managing threats and vulnerabilities, and ensuring swift response and recovery. Our mission is to seamlessly embed cybersecurity and digital risk management into every aspect of our business.

We help drive progress and growth through trusted digital solutions, safeguarding assets and empowering our team, all while promoting a cyber-safe and secure environment that supports resilient airline operations.

United offers a competitive benefits package aimed at keeping you happy, healthy, and well-traveled. From employee-run "Business Resource Group" communities to world-class benefits like parental leave, 401(k), and privileges like space-available travel, United is truly a one-of-a-kind place to work. Are you ready to travel the world and help us keep our airline cyber safe? Apply today!

Job overview and responsibilities

The Senior Manager – Cyber Defense leads the execution of key operational and strategic priorities for United's Cybersecurity Operations Center in direct partnership with Cyber Defense leadership. This individual ensures operational alignment across Incident Response, Cyber Threat Intelligence, Threat Detection Engineering, and the broader Cybersecurity and Digital Risk organization, drawing on technical expertise and leadership experience to deliver measurable security outcomes.

This role is responsible for scaling people, process, and AI-driven technology capabilities to enable United to detect, triage, and respond to threats with greater speed, consistency, and analyst precision.

• Own the performance of a 24/7 analyst organization — set the standard, hold the line, and build a team culture where accountability and continuous improvement are the expectation, not the exception
• Develop analysts and team leads through deliberate coaching, honest feedback, and stretch assignments — with measurable growth as the proof point; lead hiring to complete the CSOC build and retain talent by making this a team people want to stay on.
• Build and operationalize the processes, playbooks, and AI-assisted workflows that allow the CSOC to scale alert volume without scaling headcount proportionally
• Own the CSOC metrics framework — define and track MTTA, triage quality, false positive rates, AI agent performance, and analyst development KPIs — and use that data to drive decisions, not just report them
• Maximize the value of existing security investments before recommending new spend; identify capability gaps across people, process, and tooling and build a credible case for investment prioritization
• Represent United's CSOC in engagements with law enforcement, legal counsel, and cyber insurers during active incidents and program reviews — bringing operational clarity and defensible documentation to every external interaction

• Bachelor's degree required
• 5+ years of work experience with 3 years in Cybersecurity disciplines such as Incident Response, CSOC, or Cyber Defense
• Operates with a high sense of urgency and sound judgment under pressure — able to rapidly assess ambiguous situations, cut through noise, and drive toward resolution whether the problem is a live incident, a failing AI agent, or a team…