Sr. Cyber Defense Specialist (Hybrid)

At Selective, we don't just insure uniquely, we employ uniqueness. Selective is a midsized U.S. domestic property and casualty insurance company with a history of strong, consistent financial performance for nearly 100 years. Recognized in Forbes Best Midsize Employers in 2025 and certified as a Great Place to Work® for the sixth consecutive year, Selective empowers employees to be their true, unique selves and contribute diverse talents, experiences, and perspectives to shared success. Together, we serve customers responsibly by helping to mitigate loss, keep them safe, and restore their lives and businesses after an insured loss occurs.

About the role

The ITS Cyber Defense Senior Specialist is a senior individual contributor and subject matter expert who strengthens the organization’s cyber defense posture through a blend of Security Operations Center (SOC), incident response, and security engineering expertise. This role protects enterprise information systems and data from intentional or accidental destruction, disruption, or modification while minimizing impact on legitimate access. The position independently leads and executes complex cybersecurity initiatives from planning through implementation, improves defensive controls and processes, drives detection and response activities for advanced threats, and serves as a trusted technical resource across IT, business teams, and external partners.

Responsibilities

• Serves as a senior subject matter expert and escalation point for Cyber Defense, providing technical leadership and mentorship to team members.
• Monitors, analyzes, investigates, and responds to security alerts and events across endpoint, network, identity, email, and cloud environments using enterprise security tools.
• Performs alert triage and case management, including validating events, distinguishing false positives from true threats, documenting findings, assessing impact, and escalating in accordance with established procedures.
• Supports and leads incident response activities, including scoping, evidence review, forensic support, documentation, containment actions, and escalation into formal incident response processes.
• Administers and improves Cyber Defense technologies such as EDR, SIEM, NAC, vulnerability management tools, and other monitoring and control platforms, including tuning, troubleshooting, upgrades, and optimization.
• Leads detection and response improvements by tuning alerts, reducing false positives, identifying visibility gaps, and implementing enhancements to tools, processes, and workflows.
• Independently manages technical and operational improvement initiatives, including tool enhancements, process optimization, and reporting improvements, while communicating progress to stakeholders.
• Partners with internal teams and external vendors to support troubleshooting, remediation, tool effectiveness, and implementation of Cyber Defense capabilities.
• Contributes to the development and enhancement of Cyber Defense policies, standards, procedures, and compliance alignment with regulatory and audit requirements.
• Participates in the IT Security on-call rotation and responds to high-priority events and incidents as required.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Information Systems, Risk Management, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 7+ years of progressive experience in information technology, information security, or risk-related roles.
• 5+ years of direct cybersecurity experience in areas such as security operations, incident response, cyber defense, detection engineering, or related security disciplines.
• Experience independently managing complex technical work, coordinating across teams, and driving security initiatives from assessment through implementation.
• Industry certifications such as CISSP, GIAC, GCIH, GCIA, GCFA, or equivalent are preferred.
• Working knowledge of applicable cybersecurity and privacy frameworks, standards, and regulations, including NIST Cybersecurity Framework (NIST CSF), SOX, HIPAA, and NYDFS 23 NYCRR 500.
• Availability to support after-hours or on-call activities when needed for incident response, security events, or critical business requirements.

Benefits

Selective Insurance offers a total rewards package that includes a competitive base salary, incentive plan eligibility at all levels, and a wide array of benefits designed to help you and your family stay healthy, achieve financial goals, and balance work and personal life. These benefits include:

• Comprehensive health care plans
• Retirement savings plan with company match
• Discounted Employee Stock Purchase Program
• Tuition assistance and reimbursement programs
• 20 days of paid time off

Pay

The actual base salary is based on geographic location, and the range is representative of salaries for this role throughout Selective's footprint. Additional considerations include relevant education, qualifications, experience, skills, performance, and business needs.

Pay Range: USD $130,000.00 - USD $176,000.00 /Yr.