Varsity Tutors, a Nerdy Company
Security Engineer - Detection & Response
Varsity Tutors, a Nerdy Company, Indianapolis, Indiana, us, 46262
Overview
You are an AI-powered Security Engineer responsible for identifying and responding to malicious or suspicious activity across our environment with speed and confidence. This role leads the engineering work behind these capabilities—designing scalable systems to detect threats and trigger automated responses. You will integrate AI into detection and response workflows to accelerate rule development, streamline enrichment, and reduce investigation time, with human validation ensuring precision and alignment. As a cloud-first SaaS company relying on a broad portfolio of SaaS tools, we generate large volumes of event data across identity, endpoint, infrastructure, and collaboration systems. The scale and complexity of this telemetry demand improved detection engineering and automation. This is a platform engineering role focused on building and operating a modern detection pipeline integrated with security automation workflows. You will use Python, structured data, and widely adopted frameworks for mapping adversary behaviors and response logic to drive faster, more effective security outcomes. This role is not a support or triage position but a strategic contributor to our security infrastructure. About Nerdy
At Nerdy (NYSE: NRDY) - the company behind Varsity Tutors - we\'re redrawing the blueprint of learning. Our Live + AI platform fuses real-time human expertise with proprietary generative-AI systems, setting a new bar for measurable academic impact at global scale. We recruit technologists and operators who turn ambiguous problems into shipping code and iterate rapidly, with data-driven decision making. Fortune favors the bold. Join us. Responsibilities
Implement and operate detection systems, including a scalable cloud-native SIEM platform supporting ingestion from identity, endpoint, SaaS, and infrastructure sources. Develop and maintain detection coverage maps aligned to MITRE ATT&CK techniques, threat modeling, and incident history. Leverage AI to accelerate detection rule creation, enrichment, and triage insights, and conduct AI-assisted threat hunting to surface novel behaviors and codify them as deterministic detections. Build detection observability tools and dashboards to monitor rule effectiveness, alert volumes, and system performance. Design and implement SOAR workflows and automated response playbooks with built-in observability, rollback, and reliability controls. Leverage AI within SOAR for adaptive enrichment, workflow generation, and documentation, while continuously tuning automation based on incident outcomes. Lead incident response activities as part of the incident commander rotation, and drive continuous improvement of runbooks and playbooks using lessons learned and AI support for timelines and summaries. Collaborate cross-functionally with engineering and business stakeholders to embed detection and response into system design, operational processes, and organizational priorities. Qualifications
Required:
5+ years in security engineering, detection engineering, or threat-focused automation roles. Strong knowledge of MITRE ATT&CK framework, detection logic, and IOC/IOA patterns. Familiarity with MITRE D3FEND for defense-in-depth and response playbook design. Hands-on experience designing, deploying, or managing SIEM platforms (vendor-neutral mindset preferred). Strong Python scripting skills for integrations, enrichment logic, and playbook development. Experience working with structured data formats such as JSON, YAML, logs, and metrics. Familiarity with SaaS logging constraints and cloud-native telemetry, preferably AWS. Understanding of event-driven architecture and API-driven integrations. Demonstrated ability to use AI tools to accelerate scripting, generate or translate detection rules, or assist with enrichment workflows, always with human validation for accuracy. Comfortable working autonomously and cross-functionally to deliver reliable detection outcomes. Preferred:
Experience building or maintaining detection pipelines using Elastic, Panther, or similar platforms. Experience with detection-as-code practices, managing detection logic as version-controlled code with testing and CI/CD. Experience writing detection rules in formats such as Sigma, including contributing to open-source or internal detection libraries. Experience with MITRE frameworks: ATT&CK (adversary techniques), D3FEND (defensive techniques), and ATLAS (AI-related attacks). Experience with OWASP guidance on application telemetry and detection (e.g., AppSensor, Logging Cheat Sheet). Additional
The Bottom Line: If you\'re driven by impact, energized by ownership, and excited to help shape what\'s next, you\'ll thrive here. We move fast, think big, and reward those who deliver. This isn\'t a traditional corporate environment – it\'s a place to do meaningful work of your career. Seniority level: Mid-Senior level | Employment type: Contract | Job function: Information Technology | Industries: Technology, Information and Internet
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You are an AI-powered Security Engineer responsible for identifying and responding to malicious or suspicious activity across our environment with speed and confidence. This role leads the engineering work behind these capabilities—designing scalable systems to detect threats and trigger automated responses. You will integrate AI into detection and response workflows to accelerate rule development, streamline enrichment, and reduce investigation time, with human validation ensuring precision and alignment. As a cloud-first SaaS company relying on a broad portfolio of SaaS tools, we generate large volumes of event data across identity, endpoint, infrastructure, and collaboration systems. The scale and complexity of this telemetry demand improved detection engineering and automation. This is a platform engineering role focused on building and operating a modern detection pipeline integrated with security automation workflows. You will use Python, structured data, and widely adopted frameworks for mapping adversary behaviors and response logic to drive faster, more effective security outcomes. This role is not a support or triage position but a strategic contributor to our security infrastructure. About Nerdy
At Nerdy (NYSE: NRDY) - the company behind Varsity Tutors - we\'re redrawing the blueprint of learning. Our Live + AI platform fuses real-time human expertise with proprietary generative-AI systems, setting a new bar for measurable academic impact at global scale. We recruit technologists and operators who turn ambiguous problems into shipping code and iterate rapidly, with data-driven decision making. Fortune favors the bold. Join us. Responsibilities
Implement and operate detection systems, including a scalable cloud-native SIEM platform supporting ingestion from identity, endpoint, SaaS, and infrastructure sources. Develop and maintain detection coverage maps aligned to MITRE ATT&CK techniques, threat modeling, and incident history. Leverage AI to accelerate detection rule creation, enrichment, and triage insights, and conduct AI-assisted threat hunting to surface novel behaviors and codify them as deterministic detections. Build detection observability tools and dashboards to monitor rule effectiveness, alert volumes, and system performance. Design and implement SOAR workflows and automated response playbooks with built-in observability, rollback, and reliability controls. Leverage AI within SOAR for adaptive enrichment, workflow generation, and documentation, while continuously tuning automation based on incident outcomes. Lead incident response activities as part of the incident commander rotation, and drive continuous improvement of runbooks and playbooks using lessons learned and AI support for timelines and summaries. Collaborate cross-functionally with engineering and business stakeholders to embed detection and response into system design, operational processes, and organizational priorities. Qualifications
Required:
5+ years in security engineering, detection engineering, or threat-focused automation roles. Strong knowledge of MITRE ATT&CK framework, detection logic, and IOC/IOA patterns. Familiarity with MITRE D3FEND for defense-in-depth and response playbook design. Hands-on experience designing, deploying, or managing SIEM platforms (vendor-neutral mindset preferred). Strong Python scripting skills for integrations, enrichment logic, and playbook development. Experience working with structured data formats such as JSON, YAML, logs, and metrics. Familiarity with SaaS logging constraints and cloud-native telemetry, preferably AWS. Understanding of event-driven architecture and API-driven integrations. Demonstrated ability to use AI tools to accelerate scripting, generate or translate detection rules, or assist with enrichment workflows, always with human validation for accuracy. Comfortable working autonomously and cross-functionally to deliver reliable detection outcomes. Preferred:
Experience building or maintaining detection pipelines using Elastic, Panther, or similar platforms. Experience with detection-as-code practices, managing detection logic as version-controlled code with testing and CI/CD. Experience writing detection rules in formats such as Sigma, including contributing to open-source or internal detection libraries. Experience with MITRE frameworks: ATT&CK (adversary techniques), D3FEND (defensive techniques), and ATLAS (AI-related attacks). Experience with OWASP guidance on application telemetry and detection (e.g., AppSensor, Logging Cheat Sheet). Additional
The Bottom Line: If you\'re driven by impact, energized by ownership, and excited to help shape what\'s next, you\'ll thrive here. We move fast, think big, and reward those who deliver. This isn\'t a traditional corporate environment – it\'s a place to do meaningful work of your career. Seniority level: Mid-Senior level | Employment type: Contract | Job function: Information Technology | Industries: Technology, Information and Internet
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