[Hiring] Cyber Security Analyst @State of Colorado

Role Description

Are you looking for a fulfilling career that capitalizes on your passion for cybersecurity? Do you want to engage in challenging work where you can protect Coloradans’ privacy and livelihood? Join the Colorado Governor’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) as a Cyber Security Analyst within our Chief Information Security Office (ISO). As a member of the Security Operations Center, you'll collaborate with team members to identify and respond to cyber threats facing state systems, investigate security alerts, and contribute valuable insights that support our insider threat monitoring program.

You will apply established playbooks and procedures to resolve issues rather than setting response strategy independently, ensuring that the most complex, novel, or high-severity incidents are seamlessly handed up to the Senior Cyber Security Analyst (Tier 3) or ISO Leadership for advanced handling.

Essential Functions

• Incident Investigation & Response:
  • Investigate assigned or escalated security alerts using SIEM/EDR and related tooling; determine scope and likely root cause using established procedures.
  • Execute containment and remediation steps per existing playbook. Escalate to the Senior Cyber Security Analyst when a playbook doesn't cover the scenario or the incident meets or exceeds the established severity thresholds.
• Insider Threat Monitoring Support:
  • Monitor alerts generated by the insider threat detection tooling; flag anomalous user activity or access patterns for the Senior Analyst's review.
• Incident Documentation:
  • Document investigation steps, findings, and actions taken in the case management system, in enough detail for the Senior Analyst's after-action review and periodic reporting to draw on.
• Depth of Accountability:
  • Decides independently: which playbook applies to a given alert; triage priority within assigned caseload; routine tool usage.
  • Escalates: anything outside playbook coverage, anything at or above the defined severity threshold, and any decision that would commit OIT to a leadership-facing action.
• Forensic & Malware Triage Support:
  • Collect and preserve evidence from compromised systems in a forensically sound manner, under the Senior Analyst's direction, following the NIST SP 800-86 chain-of-custody discipline.
  • Perform first-pass malware and artifact triage — checking samples against known-bad indicators and threat intelligence using established tools — and hand off anything requiring deeper reverse-engineering to a Senior Analyst.

Qualifications

• A minimum of three (3) years of professional experience in the Information Technology field with an emphasis on event examination and incident response.

Requirements

• Additional appropriate education will substitute for the required experience on a year-for-year basis, but cannot completely substitute for these qualifications.
• Training or Certification related to the work assigned to the position will be assigned credit towards substitution for experience and/or education, but cannot completely substitute for these qualifications.

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated Experience in performing computer forensic examinations, reporting, and remediation recommendations.
• Understanding of industry best practices in cyber incident response processes and a proven track record of executing them.
• Experience in developing, documenting, and maintaining security procedures.
• Knowledge of enterprise infrastructure, including servers, cloud infrastructures, routers, switches, firewalls, and associated protocols.
• Professional certifications such as CompTIA Security+, CISSP, GSEC, CEH, or other equivalent credentials from recognized standards bodies.

Conditions of Employment

• OIT employees must comply with any screening procedures in place at state agency locations where they might perform work.
• A pre-employment background check will be conducted as part of the selection process.
• This position may require travel within the specified geographic area, and to locations across the state as needed.

Supplemental Information

• If this posting indicates “remote from anywhere in CO” in the title, periodic reporting to the primary state work location designated for the position is required.
• While candidates from out of state will be considered for this role, the candidate selected for the position must relocate and reside in Colorado on the first day of their new position.