How to Write a Winning Cybersecurity Job Description

Whether you’re in healthcare or online retail, cybersecurity matters. And each new addition to your cybersecurity team plays a vital part in protecting your business and staff from online attacks. So, you should feel confident that you’re bringing on the right people. And the search for skilled cybersecurity talent starts with an interesting and enticing job description.

We know using ChatGPT to write job descriptions is popular, and while it may serve as a starting point, AI still struggles to generate job descriptions that are fine-tuned to the unique needs, wants, and culture of your company. Trust us, we tested it.

That’s why we’ve put together this brief guide to building a winning cybersecurity job description with a couple of examples. Let’s get started!

Cybersecurity Job Title

The job title may not seem like a huge deal, but it’s really the first impression of your cybersecurity job description. Think of the job title like it’s a subject line in an email—what should you say to get someone’s attention?

But don’t just consider excitement when assigning a title to your cybersecurity job description. It needs to be clear, concise, and accurate to their duties. And when possible, it should also be a title that translates across industries. Sometimes, companies may have different titles for the same job description, making the meaning confusing and yielding applicants that are unqualified.

Do some market research and pick a standard job title for your role that qualified applicants can immediately recognize.

Summary of the Role and Responsibilities

Now that you’ve gotten their attention with a strong, accurate job title, it’s time to tell them what this cybersecurity opportunity entails.

Start by summarizing the role with the following info:

Key function: What cybersecurity goal will this person achieve?
Job purpose: How will this role support company initiatives?
Partners: Who will they work with in this role? What teams?
Expectations: Are there any special expectations you’ll want them to meet?

Candidates are 17% less likely to apply for a role when it is vague or confusing, so an informative summary could help increase the number of applicants to your role.

This step in creating a job description is vital to attracting a substantial list of cybersecurity candidates, but it’s also important in ensuring that you have a qualified pool of applicants, too.

Breakdown of Day-to-Day

After summarizing the role, you need to provide a more detailed breakdown of its day-to-day responsibilities. This is where you get into the nitty-gritty of the job description, so candidates can picture themselves in this cybersecurity role.

The challenge for this section is presenting these details in a way that is digestible and easy to understand. Our advice? Don’t underestimate the power of bullet points.

Breaking down daily tasks into bullet points can make it easier for readers to grasp the scope of this role. You also want to clearly lay out all expectations for the role to potentially avoid quiet quitting in the future.

Cybersecurity Qualifications

What does your next cybersecurity hire need to be successful? What skills, expertise, or certifications are missing from your teams? What technologies and software does your cybersecurity team regularly use?

The answers to these questions need to be captured in the qualifications section of your job description. But there are two types of cybersecurity qualifications—the must-haves and the nice-to-haves—and it’s important that you break them down accordingly.

Required

The first list of qualifications should be those that are the highest priority—the required qualifications. These are the must-haves and the tools or knowledge a cybersecurity candidate needs to properly fill the open position.

Another way to think of required skills is by looking at the list of duties you outlined in the previous step. If you’re hiring a cybersecurity expert who is running and analyzing penetration tests, that’s a required skill to be qualified for this role and should be included in the job description.

Example:

If you’re hiring a security architect, the required qualifications will likely include:

Penetration testing
Vulnerability scanning
Risk analysis
And knowledge of security tactics such as Identity & Access Management or Principle of Least Privilege

These are skills that security architects must have to successfully tackle their responsibilities, so they should be included in your required qualifications section.

Preferred

Preferred qualifications are the nice–to–haves. These are skills and abilities that are a bonus that can make a candidate more competitive. But not having these qualifications wouldn’t necessarily put someone out of the running.

For cybersecurity roles, preferred qualifications may be certain certifications or experience with specific technologies that aren’t necessary but would still make the candidate an asset to your team.

Example:

Let’s consider a security architect again. Maybe you only require associate or beginner level certifications to ensure they have the foundational knowledge they need. However, it would be preferable to have a candidate with senior or professional level certifications such as:

Certified Information Systems Security Professional
Certified Network Defense Architect
And professional certifications through major providers like Microsoft, Google, or Amazon Web Services

These may not be necessary to fill the role, but this level of tested knowledge would certainly be a bonus to your cybersecurity team.

Envisioning the Company

IT workers have a 10.2 percent lower job stay rate than non-IT workers. Most of them cite culture as their reason for leaving a job.

So, it’s safe to say that an encouraging work environment is at the top of a lot of cybersecurity candidates’ criteria today. That’s why it’s important for companies to show off their culture and give applicants a glimpse into what it would be like to join the team.

You want candidates to be able to see themselves at your company! Use this section to help them do just that.

When describing your company, you should outline the following:

Company culture and environment
Commitment to DEIB
Team values
Company mission or vision statement
Benefits and workplace perks
Optional activities like happy hours or lunches

This section isn’t just about enticing candidates though—it can also help you hire someone who is a good culture fit. If they don’t align with your company’s values or mission, they probably won’t apply for the role. Protecting culture is as important as securing the right talent, so don’t count this part out.

What’s Next?

A successful cybersecurity job description can help you feel confident when making your next hire. Because when the job description is clear and accurate, you’re one step closer to connecting with talent that is experienced, knowledgeable, and a major asset to your cybersecurity teams.

But we know the job description is also just the first step of many in finding that perfect candidate. So, let us take it from here. Fill out the form below to connect with our staffing experts—they can find the right fit for your team.