Junior Engineer Specialist

Help Build the Defences That Stop Cyber Threats in Their Tracks.

Ready to take your cyber security career beyond monitoring and into engineering?

We're looking for a Junior Detection Engineer to join our growing Cyber Security team, helping to design and develop the detections that identify threats before they become incidents. Working alongside experienced Detection Engineers, SOC Analysts, Security Architects and Platform Engineers, you'll play a key role in strengthening the monitoring capabilities that protect critical customer environments.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone with a foundation in security operations, SIEM technologies or threat detection who's eager to develop deeper technical expertise in Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk, detection engineering, automation and cloud security.

This role offers a clear pathway into specialist detection engineering, giving you hands-on experience with enterprise-scale security platforms, advanced threat detection and modern cyber defence technologies.

You'll be supported by experienced cyber professionals, encouraged to develop new skills and given the opportunity to make a real impact in protecting critical environments from emerging threats.

Based on site in Farnborough 3 days per week.

Eligible for SC Clearance.

What You'll Be Doing:

As a Junior Detection Engineer, you'll help transform cyber threat intelligence and monitoring requirements into practical detection content that keeps organisations secure.

You'll:

• Build, test and fine-tune detections across Microsoft Sentinel and Splunk.
• Develop and improve KQL and SPL queries to identify suspicious activity.
• Analyse alerts and reduce false positives to improve monitoring quality.
• Support onboarding and validation of security telemetry and log sources.
• Troubleshoot detection issues and optimise detection effectiveness.
• Create and maintain clear technical documentation.
• Explore automation and scripting to improve repeatable processes.
• Work closely with SOC teams to understand how detections perform in real-world investigations.
• Develop expertise in attacker techniques, cyber threats and modern detection strategies.

What you will bring:

• Knowledge of security monitoring, SOC operations or alert investigation.
• Exposure to Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk or another SIEM platform.
• Understanding of KQL, SPL or similar query languages.
• Interest in detection engineering and cyber threat detection.
• Awareness of cloud technologies and modern IT infrastructure.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.

It would be great if you had:

• Experience in cyber security operations, infrastructure or cloud support.
• Knowledge of MITRE ATT&CK.
• Scripting experience with PowerShell or Python.
• Exposure to Logic Apps, automation, CI/CD or Infrastructure as Code.
• Security certifications or relevant cyber qualifications.

Employment Type: Full Time, Permanent

Location: Hybrid: 3 days on site inFarnborough.

Security Clearance Level: Eligible for SC Clearance.

Internal Recruiter: Jane

Salary: To £40K

Benefits: 25 days annual leave with the option to buy additional days, private health care, life assurance, pension.

Loved reading about this job and want to know more about us?

Sopra Steria’s Aerospace, Defence and Security business designs, develops and deploys digital solutions to Central Government clients. The work we do makes a real difference to the client’s goal of National Security, and we operate in a unique and privileged environment. We are given time for professional development activities, and we coach and mentor our colleagues, sharing knowledge and learning from each other. We foster a culture in which employees feel valued and supported and have pride in their work for the customer, delivering outstanding rates of customer satisfaction in the UK’s most complex safety- and security-critical markets.

We embrace difference as a source of creativity, innovation and competitive advantage and are striving to become a more diverse organisation. We welcome applications from people with a diverse variety of backgrounds and identities. We are committed to equality of opportunity for all and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation or marital status. We have partnered with Vercida, the UK's largest diversity and inclusion focused careers site, where all our vacancies are available in an accessible format.

If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, to enable you to perform to the best of your ability, please let us know when completing your application. We participate in the Disability Confident scheme and are committed to offering an interview to any candidate with a disability, who meets the minimum criteria for the role. If you believe this could apply to you, please let us know when completing your application.