Job Description

FLSA Status

Earliest Start Date

Immediately

Salary

Salary commensurate with experience

Hours per Week

40 hours weekly

Hiring Department

Required Application Materials

A resume is required to apply. Candidates under final consideration will also be required to submit professional references, college degree information, and employment history to an online third-party vendor.

About Us

For more than 140 years, The University of Texas System has improved the lives of Texans - and people all over the world - through education, health care, and research. The System consists of nine academic institutions, four health institutions, and The University of Texas System Administration. The institutions of the UT System employ more than 160,000 faculty, health care professionals, researchers, support staff, and student workers.

The UT System Administration is primarily based in Austin, Texas. It supports the missions of the System's thirteen institutions by providing financial, legal, planning, purchasing, government relations, communications, development, and other central services. Serving a growing state, the UT System Administration strives to provide a welcoming, supportive work environment that embraces different perspectives - not only because it enables the organization to be stronger, creative, and thoughtful, but because it is the right thing to do. To that end, UT System Administration embraces state laws on military and former foster children employment preferences.

Purpose of Position

The Security Administrator (Cyber Defense) provides hands-on cybersecurity protection and response capabilities for University Lands. This position safeguards UL's information assets by managing firewalls and network segmentation, overseeing vulnerability management across all systems, and leading response and recovery for cybersecurity incidents. Working closely with UT System's central Information Security Office, this role enhances and operates a local "branch SOC," providing dashboards, alerting, and investigative capabilities that integrate with enterprise-level monitoring.

Essential Functions

• Security Operations & Network Defense
  • Administer and tune next-generation firewalls, IDS/IPS, and segmentation policies.
  • Monitor and analyze alerts from SIEM, EDR, and firewall platforms.
  • Build and maintain dashboards and detection rules for local SOC visibility.
  • Perform packet-level and log analysis to identify malicious or anomalous activity.
  • Coordinate with UT System SOC to align alerting, escalation, and detection coverage.
• Vulnerability Management
  • Conduct regular vulnerability scans across servers, endpoints, and network infrastructure.
  • Interpret results, prioritize risk, and remediate or coordinate remediation.
  • Track remediation metrics and produce executive summaries of risk posture.
  • Apply configuration baselines and ensure patch management compliance.
• Incident Response & Recovery
  • Lead containment, eradication, and recovery during security incidents (e.g., ransomware, intrusion, data breach).
  • Maintain and execute incident response runbooks and evidence handling procedures.
  • Perform root-cause and post-incident analysis; recommend improvements.
  • Coordinate with central ISO and vendors for forensics or law-enforcement notifications.
• Security Engineering & Implementation
  • Implement and maintain security technologies such as MFA, enterprise EDR/XDR platforms, and vulnerability management systems.
  • Secure virtualization, network infrastructure, and server/storage systems.
  • Support zero-trust and micro-segmentation initiatives within on-prem and hybrid environments.
  • Collaborate on new system deployments to ensure secure design and compliance.
• Compliance & Risk Support
  • Assist in risk assessments, third-party security reviews, and audits.
  • Provide documentation and technical responses to TAC 202, UTS 165, and NIST CSF controls.
  • Maintain evidence repositories for audit readiness and continuous improvement.
• Collaboration & Awareness
  • Partner with Infrastructure, Client Services, and Solutions Development teams to ensure consistent security practices.
  • Provide technical input for user-awareness initiatives and IT security training.
  • Participate in after-hours response during critical incidents or maintenance windows.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Proficient in administering Windows and Linux systems, virtualization platforms, and enterprise network environments.
• Experience with vulnerability scanning tools, patch management platforms, and firewall configurations.
• Familiarity with cybersecurity frameworks and compliance standards such as NIST CSF.
• Capable of translating complex security issues into actionable tasks.
• Strong troubleshooting skills across multiple technology layers.
• Ability to work independently in a high-responsibility environment.
• Effective communicator with both technical and non-technical staff.
• This position requires the ability to maintain the security and integrity of UT System Administration and its infrastructure.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Cybersecurity, or a related field.
• Minimum of five (5) years' experience in IT Operations with a strong security component.
• Each additional year of experience over the required minimum may substitute for one year of college (30 semester hours) on a year-for-year basis.

This position requires the ability to maintain the security and integrity of UT System Administration and its infrastructure.

Preferred Qualifications

• Certifications such as Security+, SSCP, CISSP, or equivalent.
• Direct experience with firewalls, network segmentation, vulnerability management, and incident response.
• Hands-on experience with modern next-generation firewalls, enterprise vulnerability management platforms, and EDR/XDR solutions for endpoint and network defense.
• Familiarity with Microsoft Active Directory, Group Policy, and identity and access management best practices and administration.
• Experience supporting hybrid infrastructure environments (on-prem + cloud).
• Background in small team environments where multi-role flexibility is required.

Working Conditions

• May work around standard office conditions
• 10% Travel
• Requires occasional evening or weekend hours

Additional Information

The retirement plan for this position is Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS), subject to a minimum of 20 hours per week and at least 135 days in length. Participation in TRS is mandatory.

A background check will be conducted on candidates under final consideration. The background check may include any or all of the following: criminal history check, prior employment verification, education verification, professional references check, and motor vehicle records check. Background checks are conducted by third-party vendors. Upon request form the third-party vendor, candidates under final consideration must provide the required information for the background checks to be completed.

EO/AA Statement

The University of Texas System Administration is committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all qualified applicants and employees in all terms and conditions of employment. U. T. System will provide equal employment opportunity to all qualified persons and will not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, pregnancy, religion, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal or state laws.

For information on accommodations for individuals with disabilities, please contact the Office of Talent and Innovation at oti@utsystem.edu.

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