Lead Security Engineer; Offensive Security

Hiring near our Irving, TX Center of Excellence with a flexible environment.

Gartner information security teams are a group of passionate information security professionals dedicated to Protecting, Detecting, and Responding to threats. Our team is filled with lifelong learners who are consistently researching ways to better defend and stay ahead of the threats of tomorrow. We are a collaborative group, where good ideas come together whether they come from the most experienced or the newest members of the team.

As a Lead Purple Team Engineer on the Security Operations team, you will spearhead collaborative offensive and defensive security initiatives to identify and validate vulnerabilities in Gartner’s security controls, procedures and infrastructure. You will use your extensive knowledge of attacker tools and techniques (red team) to improve our capability to detect and respond to threats (blue team). You will play a key role in defending Gartner’s network and intellectual properties.

• Lead Purple Team operations by designing, planning and executing purple team exercises and activities that simulate real-world attack scenarios to test and improve detection and response capabilities.
• Work closely with teams such as the Security Operations Center (SOC), Threat Intelligence, and Detection Engineering to help identify and remediate gaps in existing controls.
• Develop new, and tune existing attack emulations based on use‑cases and strategy, drawing from threat intelligence and current events.
• Play a key role in Threat Modeling exercises.
• Assist and support SOC analysts during ad‑hoc Incident Response activities.
• Build and maintain tools and scripts to support purple team activities, including automation of attack simulations and telemetry analysis.
• Assist in the development of innovative and cutting‑edge detection content aligned with ATT&CK, Cyber Kill Chain, and various other cyber security frameworks.
• Bring your own ideas and solutions to a fast‑paced, growing, and evolving team centered around operational excellence.
• Act as a mentor to junior team members, promote knowledge sharing and contribute to the strategic direction of the Security Operations team.

• 5+ years of relevant Information Security or Penetration Testing experience.
• Deep understanding of offensive techniques and tools.
• Knowledge of MITRE ATT&CK, Cyber Kill Chain or other behavioral information security frameworks.
• Python, Bash, Power Shell or other scripting language experience.
• Bachelor’s in Computer Science, Information Security, Engineering, or commensurate experience in Information Security is preferred.
• Extensive experience in purple/red teaming with a strong technical foundation in offensive security and adversary emulation.
• Ability to design, build and scale automated security validation processes.
• Experience with Attack Emulation Platforms.
• Background in cybersecurity incident analysis and investigation.
• Experience utilizing security tools such as EDR (including live response), web proxy, WAF and email security tools.
• Knowledge of cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) skills.
• Ability to query using various query languages such as SPL, SQL, KQL.
• Ability to communicate effectively and possess excellent prioritization skills.
• Ability to automate tasks and code solutions to repetitive problems (Python, Power Shell, Bash).

• Penetration Testing skills.
• Experience working closely with defenders/Blue Team to identify and resolve problems.
• Experience implementing integrations between tools utilizing APIs.
• Experience using SIEM or XDR for log analysis and alert creation.
• Relevant certifications such as OSCP are a plus.
• Threat Hunting experience.

• Passion for security and solving tomorrow’s problems.
• Willingness to learn new technology platforms.
• Strong team player.
• Innovation mindset – takes opportunities to make existing processes more efficient and thinks “automation first.”

• Competitive compensation.
• Limitless growth and learning opportunities.
• Ongoing mentorship and apprenticeship; leadership courses, development programs, technical…