The pathway
How you actually get there, here
How you become one varies far more by country than what one does. This is the UK route. Most people take one of these ways in; the right one depends on where you're starting from.
- 1
Senior Cybersecurity Support Analyst (L3) or Lead Cybersecurity Support Analyst (L4)
5-8 years in a senior analyst role, or 2-4 years as a lead.Skills to master
- Deep technical incident response, playbook design, informal team leadership/mentoring, strong communication with technical and non-technical audiences, proactive threat hunting.
You're ready to move on when
- Consistently leading complex incident investigations from start to finish.
- Successfully mentoring 2-3 junior analysts and seeing them grow.
- Proactively identifying and implementing process improvements for the SOC.
- Being the go-to person for complex technical questions within the team.
- 2
Security Consultant (with SOC focus)
7-10 years in consulting, with at least 3-5 years focused on security operations or incident response.Skills to master
- Client management, project delivery, security programme design, understanding of various SOC models, ability to quickly assess and improve security operations in different environments.
You're ready to move on when
- Successfully delivered multiple SOC design or improvement projects for clients.
- Strong ability to translate technical security needs into business requirements.
- Experience building and presenting compelling business cases for security investments.
- Comfortable operating in diverse technical and organisational contexts.
- 3
IT Manager with strong Security Background
8-12 years in IT management, with a clear focus and passion for cybersecurity.Skills to master
- People management, budget oversight, project management, understanding of IT infrastructure, and a demonstrable commitment to security best practices and incident handling.
You're ready to move on when
- Managed a team of IT professionals, including performance and development.
- Successfully overseen IT projects with significant security components.
- Demonstrated proactive efforts to improve security posture within their IT domain.
- Clear understanding of security principles and incident response processes.