Senior Manager - Cyber Defense

Overview

United Airlines is seeking a Senior Manager – Cyber Defense to lead the operation of the Cyber Security Operations Center (CSOC) in direct partnership with Cyber Defense leadership. This role coordinates across Incident Response, Cyber Threat Intelligence, Threat Detection Engineering, and the broader Cybersecurity and Digital Risk organization to deliver measurable security outcomes. The goal is to scale people, process, and AI-driven technology capabilities to detect, triage, and respond to threats with speed, consistency, and analyst precision.

Join United’s Cyber Defense and Digital Risk (CDR) team as part of a global airline operating in hundreds of locations with millions of customers. The team’s mission is to embed cybersecurity and digital risk management into every aspect of the business, protect operations, enable secure and resilient systems, manage threats and vulnerabilities, and ensure swift response and recovery. United offers a competitive benefits package aimed at keeping you healthy, happy, and well-traveled.

• Own the performance of a 24/7 analyst organization — set the standard, maintain accountability, and foster a culture of continuous improvement.
• Develop analysts and team leads through coaching, feedback, and stretch assignments; lead hiring to complete the CSOC build and retain talent.
• Build and operationalize processes, playbooks, and AI-assisted workflows to scale alert volume without proportional headcount growth.
• Own the CSOC metrics framework — define and track MTTA, triage quality, false positive rates, AI agent performance, and analyst development KPIs; use data to drive decisions.
• Maximize the value of existing security investments, identify capability gaps, and build a case for prioritized investments.
• Represent United’s CSOC in engagements with law enforcement, legal counsel, and cyber insurers during incidents and program reviews, providing operational clarity and defensible documentation.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree required
• 5+ years of work experience with 3 years in Cybersecurity disciplines such as Incident Response, CSOC, or Cyber Defense
• Ability to work with urgency and sound judgment under pressure; rapidly assess ambiguous situations and drive toward resolution
• Experience building and sustaining a 24/7 CSOC operational cadence
• Drive cross-functional initiatives in complex environments and maintain ownership of outcomes
• Ability to translate complex security concepts for non-technical audiences and present performance metrics to executives
• Identify trends in alerts and AI performance and implement operational improvements
• Build trust with stakeholders and lead through fatigued shifts while briefing executives as needed
• Working knowledge of AI and machine learning concepts applied to security operations; ability to evaluate AI outputs and enforce human-in-the-loop governance

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree in a STEM field
• PMP, CISSP, CISM, CISA, GC

The base pay range for this role is $ to $. The base salary range is dependent on factors such as experience, education, and skills. This position is eligible for bonus and/or long-term incentive compensation awards. Benefits include medical, dental, vision, life, disability, parental leave, 401(k), and flight privileges.

United Airlines is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We recruit, employ, train, compensate, and promote without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, veteran status, or any other protected category under applicable law. Reasonable accommodations are available for applicants and employees with disabilities. To request an accommodation, contact