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How to hire a SOC analyst in the UK

Hiring a SOC analyst is harder than it looks. CVs read alike, certifications blur together, and the real test — how someone handles a live alert at 3am — is hard to see in an interview. Here's a practical approach.

1. Decide which tier you actually need

Tier 1 analysts triage alerts and escalate. Tier 2 analysts investigate in depth and decide what's real. Tier 3 analysts hunt threats, tune detections and lead incidents. Many job adverts ask for Tier 3 skills at Tier 1 budgets — and end up with no hire. Be honest about what the role does day to day.

2. Match skills to your tools

An analyst who has spent two years in Microsoft Sentinel will be productive faster in a Sentinel shop than someone with the same experience in a different SIEM. List your SIEM, EDR and ticketing tools in the brief, and treat hands-on experience with them as a strong plus rather than a hard requirement.

3. Look past the certificates

Certifications such as CompTIA Security+ or CySA+ show a baseline of knowledge, but they don't prove investigation skill. Ask candidates to talk you through a real alert they handled: what they saw, what they checked, what they ruled out, and why they escalated (or didn't).

4. Good interview questions

• "Walk me through the last suspicious sign-in alert you investigated."
• "How do you decide whether an alert is a false positive?"
• "What would you do if you suspected an incident but couldn't reach the on-call lead?"
• "Which detection rule would you tune first in a noisy environment, and why?"

5. Contract or permanent?

Contract analysts make sense when you need coverage fast, are extending hours, or are running a project such as a SIEM migration. In the UK, make sure the engagement is assessed properly for IR35 — see our plain-English IR35 guide.

6. Think about coverage, not just headcount

If the real problem is out-of-hours gaps, one more daytime analyst won't fix it. Analysts in other time zones, or a SOC-as-a-Service arrangement, can cover nights and weekends more cost-effectively.

Frequently asked questions

What qualifications should a SOC analyst have?

Common baselines include CompTIA Security+ or CySA+, but hands-on experience with SIEM and EDR tools and real alert investigation matters more.

Should I hire a SOC analyst on contract?

Contract works well for fast starts, extended coverage and projects. In the UK, check IR35 status for every engagement.