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Information Technology | Incident Analyst / Responder

Incident Analyst / Responder

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

An Incident Analyst or Responder investigates an IT-related incident: an unplanned interruption to a service, a reduction in the quality of a service, or an event that has not yet impacted the service to the customer. Works to restore a normal service operation as quickly as possible and to minimize the impact on business operations.

Job Outlook

There were 213 Incident Analyst / Responder job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 6328 in the United States.

In combination with other careers in the Cyber / Information Security Engineer / Analyst industry, which includes the Incident Analyst / Responder career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:

Salary

Many new Incident Analyst / Responder jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.

National

The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $115,207.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $114,903.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Incident Analyst / Responder postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $101,004.

Education and Experience

Posted Incident Analyst / Responder jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.

Education LevelPercentage
Associate's Degree0%
Bachelor's Degree67.98%
Master's Degree10.82%
Doctoral Degree1.33%
Other6.75%

Posted Incident Analyst / Responder jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Years of ExperiencePercentage
0 to 2 years10.68%
3 to 5 years55.35%
6 to 8 years23.79%
9+ years10.17%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Incident Analyst / Responder positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.

Baseline Skills

A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.

  • Communication (52.31%)
  • Operations (35.79%)
  • Leadership (33.87%)
  • Investigation (33.71%)
  • Management (31.72%)
  • Problem Solving (28.65%)
  • Information Technology (23.06%)
  • Coordinating (22.31%)
  • Research (16.4%)
  • Incident Reporting (15.77%)

Defining Skills

A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.

  • Cyber Threat Intelligence (36.63%)
  • Cyber Incident Response (15.92%)
  • Malware Analysis (20.58%)
  • EnCase (Digital Intelligence Software) (8.66%)
  • Cyber Threat Hunting (24.69%)
  • Cyber Security (49.53%)
  • Incident Response (73.32%)
  • Computer Science (37.91%)
  • Digital Forensics (17.01%)
  • Forensic Toolkits (8.41%)
  • Incident Management (37.51%)
  • Network Forensics (9.72%)
  • Triage (22.83%)
  • Information Technology Infrastructure Library (14.24%)
  • Scripting (15.03%)

Necessary Skills

A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.

  • Service Improvement (3.38%)
  • Workflow Management (6.91%)
  • MITRE ATT&CK Framework (13.82%)
  • Cyber Defense (10.15%)
  • Endpoint Detection And Response (19.29%)
  • Amazon Web Services (11.54%)
  • Auditing (9.4%)
  • Automation (13.87%)
  • Penetration Testing (5.31%)
  • Change Management (5.13%)
  • Technical Support (6.44%)
  • Microsoft Azure (12.51%)
  • Linux (22.78%)
  • Intrusion Detection Systems (6.68%)
  • Python (Programming Language) (16.52%)
  • Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) (5.76%)
  • Security Controls (13.35%)
  • Unix (5.94%)
  • Information Systems (9.11%)
  • Standard Operating Procedure (11.93%)
  • Operating Systems (14.77%)
  • Forensic Sciences (21.15%)
  • Crisis Management (3.45%)
  • Firewall (16.62%)
  • Data Analysis (9.3%)
  • Network Security (11.59%)
  • Risk Management (6.08%)
  • Intrusion Detection And Prevention (7.48%)
  • IT Service Management (10.68%)
  • Log Analysis (10.84%)
  • Event Management (6.47%)
  • Project Management (9.56%)
  • Service Management (3.98%)
  • Process Improvement (11.28%)
  • Root Cause Analysis (11.42%)
  • Windows PowerShell (9.24%)
  • Splunk (20.1%)
  • Problem Management (12.54%)
  • Security Information And Event Management (SIEM) (29.03%)
  • ServiceNow (10.84%)
  • IT Security (10.08%)
  • Vulnerability (27.56%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

  • Network Traffic Analysis (5.81%)
  • Incident Communication (2.7%)
  • Certification Structure Oversight Committee (CSOC) (2.04%)

Salary Boosting Skills

A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.

  • Cyber Incident Response (19.54%)
  • Network Traffic Analysis (7.13%)
  • Incident Communication (3.32%)
  • Malware Analysis (25.25%)
  • Cyber Threat Hunting (30.3%)
  • Digital Forensics (20.87%)
  • Incident Response (89.95%)
  • Log Analysis (13.3%)
  • Splunk (24.66%)

Alternative Job Titles

Sometimes employers post jobs with Incident Analyst / Responder skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:

  • Cyber Threat Hunter
  • Incident Response Analyst
  • Incident Manager
  • Cybersecurity Incident Response Analyst
  • Incident Response Consultant
  • Major Incident Manager
  • Incident Response Manager
  • Incident Responder
  • Incident Response Engineer
  • Incident Management Analyst

Similar Occupations

If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.

Common Employers

Here are the employers that have posted the most Incident Analyst / Responder jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

  • GAF Materials Corporation (299)
  • The College Board (178)
  • Marriott International (173)
  • CrowdStrike (167)
  • Mindpoint Group (167)
  • Dell Technologies (136)
  • Red River (107)
  • NavitsPartners (95)
  • Leidos (82)
  • Peraton (79)

North Carolina

  • GAF Materials Corporation (10)
  • TEKsystems (8)
  • Truist Financial (8)
  • Bank of America (7)
  • LPL Financial (6)
  • NavitsPartners (5)
  • Allegis Group (5)
  • Mindpoint Group (5)
  • MetLife (5)
  • Insight Global (4)

NC State Programs Relevant to this Career

If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!