Senior Security Operations Engineer

This role is with a DeWinter Educational Technology Partner

Onsite a few days per week or as needed in Chelmsford, MA

12 Month + contract (or contract to hire, if desired)

As a Senior Security Operations Engineer, you will be a key individual contributor responsible for executing and continuously improving our core cybersecurity operations. You will play a vital role in protecting the educational data of millions of K-12 students and teachers.

This role blends hands‑on engineering, automated detection, threat monitoring, and incident response. You will partner closely with our cloud infrastructure, Dev Ops, and software engineering teams to ensure security is seamlessly integrated into our daily operations.

• Security Monitoring & Incident Response: Perform hands‑on monitoring, triage, and investigation of security alerts across AWS cloud environments, containerized applications, endpoints, and SaaS systems. Coordinate with our Managed Detection and Response (MDR) partner (
  Relia Quest
  ) to remediate escalated threats.
• Dev Sec Ops  & Automation: Collaborate with product engineering to integrate security practices early in the development pipeline. Build and maintain automated response workflows and detection scripts to reduce manual workload and alert fatigue.
• Vulnerability & Application Security Management: Administer and optimize our vulnerability scanning and Static Application Security Testing (SAST) tools (such as Checkmarx
  ). Partner with software developers to validate, prioritize, and track the remediation of identified flaws.
• Identity & Access Operations: Support Identity & Access Management (IAM) platforms (such as Ping Identity
  ), ensuring robust, secure single sign‑on (SSO) and federated access configurations for school districts and internal systems.
• Data Protection & Compliance: Monitor and configure Data Loss Prevention (DLP) controls to safeguard student and teacher data. Ensure operational alignment with student privacy frameworks, including FERPA and COPPA
  .
• Disaster Recovery Support: Support continuous posture testing, cloud backups, and ransomware containment strategies utilizing security recovery tools (such as Rubrik
  ).
• Continuous Improvement: Develop and maintain incident response runbooks, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and security engineering documentation.

• Experience: 5+ years of hands‑on experience in Cybersecurity Operations, Security Engineering, or a modern Cloud‑Native SOC environment.
• Cloud Infrastructure: Deep operational experience securing Amazon Web Services (AWS) environments (IAM, Cloud Trail, Guard Duty, VPC Security Groups).
• Application Security Tools: Hands‑on experience with SAST, DAST, or Software Composition Analysis (SCA) tools (e.g.,
  Checkmarx
  , Snyk, Veracode).
• Automation/Scripting: Proficiency in scripting languages (such as Python, Power Shell, or Bash
  ) to automate daily security tasks and integrations.
• Identity Management: Familiarity with enterprise IAM and SSO solutions (e.g.,
  Ping Identity
  , Okta) and authentication protocols (SAML, OIDC, OAuth).
• Communication: Excellent collaboration skills with the ability to translate complex security risks into actionable instructions for software development and IT teams.

• Relevant certifications:
  CISSP, AWS Certified Security Specialty, or GIAC (GCIH, GCIA, GCDA).
• Prior experience in the EdTech space or an environment governed by strict data privacy compliance (FERPA, COPPA, HIPAA, or SOC2).
• Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) security tools (e.g., Terraform scanning).