Principal Incident Response Analyst

About the role

Principal Incident Response Analyst

North - Remote

The Principal Incident Response Analyst is a seasoned, deeply experienced incident response expert who runs North’s most complex security incidents from detection through recovery, without supervision.

Incident response is the primary area of expertise for this role, complemented by strong secondary expertise in detection engineering and tertiary expertise in threat hunting. The Principal Incident Response Analyst serves as the top escalation point for security incidents, sets the technical standard for how the organization investigates and contains threats, and mentors other engineers and analysts on incident handling practice. This role works closely with the SOC, IT, and engineering teams, and represents the deepest incident response expertise on the security team, operating across our payment processing environment.

What You'll do:

Incident Response

Serve as the principal escalation point and lead investigator for the most complex, highest-severity, and novel security incidents, running them end to end without supervision

Independently triage, investigate, contain, eradicate, and recover from security incidents spanning endpoint, network, cloud, identity, and application layers

Lead full-scope forensic investigations of compromised hosts, accounts, applications, and cloud infrastructure, and reconstruct complete attack timelines from initial access through impact

Translate complex investigation findings into clear narratives for engineering teams and clear executive-level narratives for leadership

Own and continuously evolve incident response process, documentation, and playbooks, incorporating lessons learned from real incidents

Lead root cause analysis and structured post-incident reviews, and drive cross-team remediation of systemic gaps

Serve as the senior technical lead during major incidents, coordinating across IT, legal, compliance, and executive leadership as needed

Provide case-level guidance and mentorship to other incident responders and SOC analysts during live incidents

Participate in or lead on-call rotation for critical incident response as needed

Detection Engineering

Translate incident findings and root cause analysis directly into new or improved detection logic, closing the loop between investigation and prevention

Write, tune, and validate detection content in the SIEM/NG-SIEM platform, focused on techniques observed in real investigations and threat hunts

Maintain and improve coverage and gap analysis against the MITRE ATT&CK framework, informed by incident and hunt findings

Review detection logic for accuracy and false-positive rate, and partner with the detection engineering team on rule quality

Contribute documentation of known coverage and detection gaps surfaced through incident response and hunting work

Threat Hunting

Conduct proactive, hypothesis-driven threat hunts based on incident trends, emerging adversary TTPs, and threat intelligence

Use hunt outcomes to surface undetected compromises, validate detection coverage, and strengthen incident response readiness

Prioritize hunts against the techniques and attack paths most relevant to a payments/fintech environment

Partner with threat intelligence sources and feeds to inform hunt hypotheses and target selection

Document hunt methodology, findings, and follow-on actions, including new detections and updated incident response playbook material

Cross-Functional & Leadership

Represent incident response in cross-org planning, tabletop exercises, and architecture reviews

Lead complex, ambiguous incident-related investigations and initiatives independently from scoping through delivery

Mentor other engineers and analysts on incident response, detection engineering, and threat hunting practices

Partner with cloud, network, and identity teams to close visibility and telemetry gaps identified during incidents and hunts

Stay current on threat intelligence, adversary TTPs, and vulnerabilities relevant to a payments/fintech environment

Communicate findings, coverage gaps, and recommendations clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, including leadership

Develop and maintain procedure and policy documentation supporting incident response operations

What we need from you :

Bachelor's degree in a technical field, or equivalent professional experience

7+ years of hands-on information security experience, with deep, demonstrated subject-matter expertise in incident response, and strong working proficiency in detection engineering and threat hunting

Demonstrated track record independently leading complex, high-severity security incidents from detection through recovery, without supervision

Experience mentoring or providing technical leadership to other security engineers and analysts

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate technical findings for non-technical stakeholders and leadership, including during active incidents

Deep, hands-on expertise leading end-to-end incident response (triage, containment, eradication, recovery, and root cause analysis) on complex or novel incidents, independently

Advanced digital forensics skills across endpoint, network, cloud, and identity sources, including memory and disk forensics

Advanced experience with EDR/XDR platforms and log analysis across diverse sources: endpoint, network, cloud, and identity

Strong working knowledge of detection engineering: writing, tuning, and validating detection content in a SIEM or NG-SIEM platform (e.g., CrowdStrike NG-SIEM, Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel)

Working proficiency in hypothesis-driven threat hunting methodology, informed by threat intelligence and the MITRE ATT&CK framework

Deep working knowledge of the MITRE ATT&CK framework and its practical application to incident response, detection gap analysis, and hunt prioritization

Strong scripting or automation experience (Python, PowerShell, or similar) applied to security use cases AND/OR experience using LLM coding tools such as Claude Code, Gemini CLI, or Codex

Solid understanding of networking, cloud infrastructure (AWS especially, but also Azure and GCP), Windows/Linux systems, and identity platforms

Working knowledge of PCI-DSS or a comparable compliance framework

Demonstrated ability to lead high-pressure, ambiguous, cross-functional incident investigations with minimal oversight

License and Certification: Relevant hands-on experience and demonstrated subject-matter expertise are weighted more heavily than certifications for this role. Any of the following are preferred.

GIAC Certified Forensic Analyst (GCFA)

GIAC Certified Incident Handler (GCIH)

GIAC Network Forensic Analyst (GNFA)

GIAC Cyber Threat Intelligence (GCTI)

Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP)

Offensive Security Incident Response (OSIR)

CompTIA CySA+

Salary range: $150,000-$180,000

Pay within this range varies by work location and on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. We look forward to discussing your salary expectations and our full total rewards offerings throughout the interview process.

Please note: North is a US based company and no sponsorship is available for this position at this time.

Who we are:

North , and our family of companies, are committed to helping entrepreneurs grow their businesses. As an end-to-end payment solutions company, we provide everything business owners need to get paid, whether they serve customers in a physical storefront, online, or both. We pride ourselves on being large enough to offer customized solutions to our enterprise-level clients while remaining agile enough to take an award-winning, hands-on approach to personal service that our merchants won’t find anywhere else.

Let’s go North, together! Our most important resource is our people. Join our diverse team of innovators and do-ers and make your mark on the future of payments technology. We're proud to offer benefits that help our team members further their overall well-being through unique initiatives that are both personally and professionally fulfilling.

At North, we celebrate diversity and create an inclusive environment for everyone. We are an equal opportunity employer.

To learn more about North, and our family of companies, visit our website: north.com

Posting text as published by NAB NorthAB.

The evidence behind this listing

Workplace

Remote Matched in posting text

Seniority

staff+ From the job title

Employment type

Not established

Location as listed

US - Remote, United States of America

Pay and work authorization

Stated pay

$150k–180k/yr AI reading of the posting

Visa sponsorship

Not offered

Security clearance

Not established

Citizenship

Not established