Incident Response Manager: Facts, Skills, and Next Paths

An Incident Response Manager leads the team that detects, investigates, and contains cybersecurity threats. Day-to-day, you run the on-call program, drive automation to reduce manual triage, and coordinate with stakeholders across the organization. You also create reports that document incidents and improve future response.

Core responsibilities include managing cyber incidents from detection through remediation, analyzing network alerts, and applying defense strategies for various threat actors. This role sits in the security operations or safeguards team, reporting to senior security leadership. For example, at Anthropic you would own the operational backbone of the Safeguards team, while at the Federal Reserve Board you would direct cybersecurity tools like SIEM and intrusion detection systems. Other current openings include roles at SAP SE, Walmart, and Empower AI.

The median salary for this role is approximately $112,500. The most requested skills in current job postings are Incident Response (100% of postings), Cybersecurity (40%), and Analytics & Reporting (20%).