Security Incident Manager

The information security manager (ISM) is a critical member of the chief information security officer's (CISO's) team. The ISM's role — which is a midlevel managerial position — is to act as an interface between the CISO's strategic and process-based activities and the work of the technology-focused analysts, engineers and administrators in the IT organization. The ISM must be able to translate the IT-risk requirements and constraints of the business into technical control requirements and specifications, as well as develop metrics for ongoing performance measurement and reporting.

The ISM is a leadership role that requires an individual with a strong technical background, as well as an ability to work with the IT organization and business management to align priorities and plans with key business objectives. The ISM will act as an empowered representative of the CISO during IT planning initiatives to ensure that security measures are incorporated into strategic IT plans and that service expectations are clearly defined. The ISM will also be responsible for working with business and IT stakeholders to balance real-world risks with business drivers such as speed, agility, flexibility and performance.

Expertise in leading project teams and developing and managing projects is essential for success in this role. In addition to supporting the CISO's policies and strategies, the ISM must be able to prioritize work efforts — balancing operational tasks with longer-term strategic security efforts. Other project management tasks will include resource balancing across multiple IT and security teams, task prioritizing and project reporting. Vendor relationship management — ensuring that service levels and vendor obligations are met — is also an important aspect of the position. ISMs are responsible for managing highly technical staff as they work to accomplish company and personal development goals and must, therefore, have proven leadership skills. Documentation and presentation skills, analytical and critical thinking skills, and the ability to identify needs and take initiative are key requirements of the ISM's position.

Responsibilities

The ISM's job is composed of a variety of activities, including very tactical, operational and strategic activities in support of the CISO's program initiatives, such as:

• Work with the CISO to develop a security program and security projects that address identified risks and business security requirements.

• Work with the CISO to develop budget projections based on short- and long-term goals and objectives.

• Manage a staff of information security professionals, hire and train new staff, conduct performance reviews, and provide leadership and coaching, including technical and personal development programs for team members.

• Assist resource owners and IT staff in understanding and responding to security audit failures reported by auditors.

• Manage production issues and incidents, and participate in problem and change management forums.

• Work with various stakeholders to identify information asset owners to classify data and systems as part of a control framework implementation.

• Serve as an active and consistent participant in the information security governance process.

• Provide support and guidance for legal and regulatory compliance efforts, including audit support.

• Consult with IT and security staff to ensure that security is factored into the evaluation, selection, installation and configuration of hardware, applications and software.

• Recommend and coordinate the implementation of technical controls to support and enforce defined security policies.

• Research, evaluate, design, test, recommend or plan the implementation of new or updated information security hardware or software, and analyze its impact on the existing environment; provide technical and managerial expertise for the administration of security tools.

• Work with the enterprise architecture team to ensure that there is a convergence of business, technical and security requirements; liaise with IT management to align existing technical installed base and skills with future architectural requirements.

• Manage outsourced vendors that provide information security functions for compliance with contracted service-level agreements.

• Manage security projects and provide expert guidance on security matters for other IT projects.

• Assist and guide the disaster recovery planning team in the selection of recovery strategies and the