Regardless of the industry, you’ll agree that the appropriate framework and leadership can facilitate better outcomes.
The same is true in cybersecurity.
Security Development & Management involves developing, implementing, and overseeing secure systems, strategies, and processes, which are the foundation for a robust security posture.
By establishing a framework, your organization can define and enforce consistent security policies. This provides a roadmap for all teams to follow when addressing security risks, deploying controls, and responding to incidents.
And there’s cybersecurity management.
Effective management drives a security-focused culture, promotes security awareness, and facilitates appropriate resource allocation for security initiatives.
Security Development & Management jobs encompass professionals responsible for developing reliable systems and ensuring smooth collaboration among the security workforce.
Security Dev & Management Jobs
Appropriate Security Development and Management helps your organization create a unified cybersecurity strategy. This means your data, networks, and computer systems will remain safe regardless of how the organization’s infrastructure evolves.
Security Dev & Management professionals have a little bit of everything. This is essential since their jobs require leading security teams and implementing security processes.
Below, we’ll discuss the key jobs and roles in the Security Development and Management specialization.
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)
The CISO is a senior executive overseeing overall information technology (IT), information security, and data security operations.
Their role cuts across every aspect of the organization. For example, CISOs must align cybersecurity and business objectives.
They do this by working closely with all departments to ensure seamless integration of security controls into business processes and technologies.
Responsibilities of a CISO
If you’re looking for a Chief Information Security Officer, here are some of the key responsibilities you should expect them to play:
Developing a strategic vision for IT, InfoSec, and data security.
Defining requirements for a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy.Overseeing the implementation of security policies, tools, solutions, risk assessment, and incident response.Managing the overall security posture of the organization.Creating budgets by effectively allocating resources.Ensuring the team adheres to compliance regulations and legal requirements.Facilitating smooth collaboration among all teams.Supervising security maintenance and monitoring of live production environments.Provides expert oversight on security awareness training of the organization’s workforce, including staff who aren’t in the cybersecurity unit.
In many organizations, all unit managers report to the CISO.
For instance, when the offensive security (link to the page) team identifies vulnerabilities or severe risks, they must report their findings and recommendations to the CISO, who then reviews and acts upon these reports.
In other organizations, teams may report to the Security Manager, who then reports to the CISO. Regardless of the reporting structure, it’s clear that the CISO is involved in everything.
This involvement in the organization's entire security scope makes it necessary for CISOs to have relevant experience in multiple IT security-related roles.
Product Owner
A Product Owner in a Scrum team is directly responsible for the final product.
In a Security Development and Management environment, they are called the Cybersecurity Product Owner. This professional is particularly needed when the organization plans to build a new product or start a campaign.
For example, your organization may want to build an app, add a security feature, or update security patches.
In that case, the Product Owner must develop and communicate the goal, product backlog items and ensure the backlog maximizes business and customer value.
Responsibilities of a Product Owner
The Product Owner practically represents the customer to a Scrum team. They typically understand the market and customer needs. In their mind, they want a product that is built, designed, and implemented to get the best value.
Here are ways a Product Owner’s responsibilities can contribute to product development:
Creating and Communicating the Project Vision
The Product Owner works closely with all stakeholders, such as customers, business managers, and the cybersecurity team, to create a project vision that aligns with business objectives.
This includes communicating the context, goals, and scope of the project.
They ensure the vision is clearly communicated to all parties, including their roles in actualizing it.
Defining Security Requirements
In a Security Development and Management setting, Product Owners can contribute by defining security requirements.
For example, they outline the necessary security controls and configurations. More importantly, they translate these requirements into actionable user stories and tasks for the development team.
Setting Priorities and Managing the Backlog
Here, the Cybersecurity Product Owner is responsible for what is being done, why, who is doing it, and in what order. They work closely with the cybersecurity team to prioritize security-related tasks.
Product Owners set priorities by ensuring critical security tasks receive the most priority during development.
In addition, they manage the backlog by collaborating with other team members who understand the customer's needs. The Product Manager will continually update or reprioritize tasks depending on the production stage or when new information/risks emerge.
Provides Regular Updates
Product Owners work closely with internal and external stakeholders. They ensure everyone has regular updates about the product’s development and release date.
Evaluate Feedback After Every Iteration
At every iteration, the Product Owner must gather stakeholders' feedback and adapt them to the product backlog.
Due to the Product Owner’s roles, leadership and communication skills are crucial to any candidate.
SCRUM Master
Scrum is an Agile framework used when developing complex projects. A Scrum master is similar to a coach who guides the team using Agile project management principles.
In Agile, teams use short development cycles known as sprints, which result in continuous iteration (CI). This approach can help your team increase productivity by 30 percent.
While the Product Owner clearly outlines and communicates the project vision, the Scrum Master helps the team streamline their workflow to make achieving the common goal easier. This facilitates a cross-functional team.
They also help individuals self-organize while ensuring conflicts are resolved amicably through open discussion.
The Scrum Master plans daily meetings, sprints, and retrospective sessions. They also educate the team about the scrum framework and prevent unnecessary distractions from the project.
In Software Development & Management environments, a Scrum Master allows cybersecurity teams to be high-functioning, ship value to customers regularly, and ensure individuals focus on what they do best.
If you’re looking for a more organized and focused team, a Scrum Master’s role may help. The ideal candidate must have communication, problem-solving, organization, and motivation skills.
Scrum Masters must also be proficient and experienced in Agile project management and business analysis.
Security Manager
The Security Manager oversees the overall security operations of your organization. They head cybersecurity teams, including offensive and defensive security (link to the page).
As such, they must collaborate with each department’s managers to determine specific security needs. Other responsibilities of a Security Manager include the following:
Responsibilities of a Security Manager
Contributes to developing and implementing security policies and technologies.Ensures the availability, integrity, and confidentiality of the organization’s resources.Develop work schedules, allocate tasks, and monitor each personnel’s performance.Ensures compliance with regulatory requirements.Sources and provides tools needed for security teams to perform their duties and schedules routine maintenance and upgrades.Receives reports from department managers and collaborates with the CISO to take appropriate steps.Manages the security awareness and training of the workforce.
Security Managers also contribute to incident response and mitigation. They monitor security systems and networks, perform in-depth analysis of event logs, and prevent breaches from happening again.
SOC Analyst Tier 4
The Security Operations Analyst has a hierarchical structure (Tier 1, 2, and 3). SOC Analysts are primarily part of the defensive security unit. However, the SOC Analyst Tier 4 is much more of a Manager than an Analyst in their day-to-day activities.
This professional usually starts from Tier 1 before moving to the management level. So, they are expected to have vast threat intelligence and security monitoring experience.
Tier 4 Analysts oversee the entire SOC operations and guide lower-tied analysts. They mainly get involved when there’s a complex or advanced incident.
If your organization is an industry that experiences regular and critical cyber-attacks, it’s important to hire a SOC Manager.
Tier 4 Analysts also receive reports from lower-level analysts. They review these reports and use them to make security decisions. In addition, SOC Managers are in charge of the Security Operations Center’s tech stack. They recommend and procure the tools needed while developing procedures and strategies.
SOC Managers are masters of threat hunting, digital forensics and incident response (DFIR), scripting and automation, and malware analysis.
They are proficient in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools, Endpoint Security, Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS), and threat intelligence platforms like MISP.
Security DevOps Engineer
DevOps combines cultural philosophies, best practices, and tools to automate processes between software development and IT teams. This helps the organization deliver apps and services at high velocity.
When you add security, it becomes Secure DevOps or DevSecOps.
Security DevOps Engineers are tasked with integrating security into the DevOps development process. They ensure that security is incorporated into the software development lifecycle at every stage.
This means they implement security controls, processes, and tools in the DevOps environment.
Responsibilities of a Security DevOps Engineer
Security DevOps Engineers are focused on ensuring the team considers the security of the software being developed from the onset till it's deployed.
If you’re building an app where security is critical from the onset, a DevSecOps Engineer is the person to call. Besides what we discussed above, here are some other responsibilities of a Security DevOps Engineer:
Collaborate with the development and operations teams to establish security requirements, including secure coding practices, infrastructure designs, and configurations. They must also conduct regular tests to validate those requirements.Improve security awareness within the DevOps environmentConduct regular security assessments and threat modeling during development.Supports the DevOps teams to establish a robust security strategy that is aligned with agile methodologiesCollaborate with the research team to set up the development, Quality Assurance (QA), and Production environments.Monitors and responds to security events within the DevOps environment.Integrate security into continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline.
As cybersecurity is an ever-growing industry with new threats, Security DevOps Engineers must stay in the loop of new threats. This will help them integrate more secure strategies into software development.
Conclusion
The above jobs are part of the Security Development and Management unit, meaning they will often overlap. However, each professional has their unique focus and expertise to ensure a robust security posture.
It’s crucial to analyze your specific requirement, and the project stage is crucial to determine which professionals your team currently needs.
Are you looking to hire experienced professionals for your Security Development and Management needs? WebSec is a superior security staffing provider that allows you to choose expert cybersecurity professionals for any security needs.
Closing in on a decade of experience, our Security Development & Management specialists help you oversee Agile teams and deliver secure products. Need more information? Our easy-to-use platform allows you to customize the seniority of your prospective Security Dev & Management personnel. Inquire now.