SOC Investigation Specialist Talent Network

Mercor is hiring SOC Investigation Specialist on behalf of high-growth technology and enterprise partners building next-generation SOC automation and AI-driven investigation systems. This role is ideal for experienced SOC analysts who can apply real-world investigative judgment to review, validate, and construct high-quality security investigations across SIEM, endpoint, cloud, and identity environments.

Responsibilities

• Review, monitor, and evaluate SOC alerts and investigation outputs based on predefined scenarios and criteria.

• Distinguish true positives from false positives by validating investigative evidence and alert context.

• Perform end-to-end security investigations when required, including log analysis, entity pivoting, timeline reconstruction, and evidence correlation.

• Assess the correctness, completeness, and quality of SOC investigations produced by automated or human workflows.

• Apply consistent investigative judgment while recognizing that multiple valid investigation paths may exist for the same alert.

• Make clear binary determinations (e.g., ACCEPT / PASS) while also producing detailed ground-truth investigations when required.

• Use Splunk extensively to pivot across logs, entities, and timelines, including reading and reasoning about SPL queries.

• Maintain clear and accurate documentation of investigative steps, assumptions, evidence, and conclusions.

• Collaborate with program leads and other expert annotators to uphold high-quality investigation and annotation standards.

• Mentor or support other analysts where applicable, particularly in long-term or lead annotator roles.

Requirements

• 3+ years of hands-on experience as a SOC analyst in a production SOC environment (Tier 2 or above strongly preferred).

• Strong understanding of alert triage, incident investigation workflows, and evidence-based decision-making under time constraints.

• Mandatory hands-on experience with Splunk, including:

  • Conducting investigations using Splunk

  • Reading, understanding, and reasoning about SPL queries

  • Pivoting between logs, entities, and timelines

• Proven ability to evaluate SOC investigations and determine whether conclusions are valid, incomplete, or incorrect.

• Strong investigative judgment and comfort making decisive evaluations.

• Fluent English (written and spoken) with strong documentation and communication skills.

Nice to Have

• Experience with Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR) tools such as CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, or SentinelOne.

• Experience analyzing cloud security logs and signals:

  • AWS (CloudTrail, GuardDuty)

  • Azure (Activity Log, Defender for Cloud)

  • GCP (Cloud Audit Logs)

• Familiarity with Identity & Access Management platforms such as Okta Identity Cloud or Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD).

• Experience with email security tools like Proofpoint or Mimecast.

• SOC leadership or mentoring experience.

• Basic scripting experience (Python or similar).

• Security certifications (optional): GCIA, GCIH, GCED, Splunk certifications, Security+, CCNA, or cloud security certifications.

Why Join

• Work on cutting-edge SOC automation and AI-driven investigation systems.

• Apply real-world SOC expertise to shape how future security teams investigate and respond to threats.

• Take ownership of high-impact investigative evaluations and ground-truth security cases.

• Collaborate with experienced SOC practitioners, security engineers, and AI teams.

• Join Mercor’s global network of vetted security professionals.