SEC595: Applied Data Science and AI/Machine Learning for Cybersecurity Professionals


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Contact UsOrganizations are seeking skilled professionals to fill exciting new roles in the evolving cybersecurity landscape. Explore the hottest opportunities and chart your path to a thriving career.
For aspiring and current cybersecurity professionals exploring cybersecurity careers, bridging the cybersecurity skills gap is the key to unlocking the most exciting and in-demand cybsersecurity career opportunities. The 2024 SANS | GIAC Research Report highlights that the industry urgently needs a qualified cybersecurity workforce with a blend of strong fundamentals and hands-on experience. By enrolling in a structured cybersecurity program and earning certifications aligned with top roles, you can stand out in a highly competitive cybersecurity job market and advance into strategic, technical, or leadership positions.
Whether you're pursuing a technical path as a security analyst, engineer, or officer, or eyeing a security career in leadership, threat intelligence, or risk management, there are clearly defined career pathways that help you move forward confidently.
Download the "20 Coolest Cybersecurity Careers" poster to explore pathways to these rewarding roles and discover how you can chart your journey to becoming a top-tier cybersecurity professional.

View our recommended roles and courses.
A Threat Hunter applies new threat intelligence against existing evidence to identify attackers that have evaded real-time detection mechanisms. This role requires several skills, including threat intelligence, system and network forensics, and investigative development processes. Threat hunting shifts incident response from a reactive investigative process to a proactive approach, uncovering adversaries or their footprints using emerging intelligence. Their work often reveals adversaries who have remained undetected for extended periods, helping organizations address long-term security threats.









As a Red Teamer, your challenge is to approach problems and situations from an adversary’s perspective. The primary goal is to strengthen the Blue Team by testing and measuring the organization’s detection and response policies, procedures, and technologies. Red Teamers provide a comprehensive assessment of an organization’s preparedness for a sophisticated attack by testing not just the defenses, but also the defenders themselves.








Digital Forensic Analyst uses advanced forensic skills to examine a wide range of digital media involved in investigations. This role requires expertise in evidence collection, as well as computer, smartphone, cloud, and network forensics. Analysts must also possess an investigative mindset. These experts analyze compromised systems or digital media to uncover the facts of what occurred. Digital evidence often contains footprints that physical forensic data or crime scene cannot provide.








In this role, you bring a deep understanding of both defensive (“Blue Team”) and offensive (“Red Team”) cybersecurity practices. Your responsibilities include organizing and automating adversary technique emulations, identifying potential new log sources and use cases to enhance SOC detection coverage, and recommending security controls to improve resilience against adversarial techniques. Additionally, you play a crucial role in fostering effective communication and collaboration between traditional defensive and offensive roles.




Malware analysts face attackers’ capabilities head-on, ensuring the fastest and most effective response to and containment of a cyber-attack. They delve deep into malicious software to understand the nature of the threat—how it infiltrated, the vulnerabilities it exploited, and actions, intentions, and potential impact. Whether extracting signatures for improved detection or generating threat intelligence to share across the industry, malware analysts are an indispensable investigative resource.





The CISO leads efforts to identify, develop, implement, and maintain processes that reduce information and IT risks across the organization. This role responds to incidents, establishing appropriate standards and controls, managing security technologies, and guiding the development, implementation, and enforcement of policies and procedures. The CISO is often responsible for information-related compliance initiatives, such as supervising efforts to achieve ISO/IEC 27001 certification for part or all of the organization. The CISO's influence typically extends across the entire organization, shaping its security posture and strategic priorities. Their leadership is essential to protecting the organization and aligning its security strategy with its overall mission and goals.









This role, which may go by various titles depending on the organization, requires a broad range of tasks and knowledge. The all-around defender, or Blue Teamer, often serves as the primary security contact in smaller organizations, taking on responsibilities such as engineering and architecture, incident triage and response, security tool administration, and more. This role is crucial, particularly in small to mid-size organizations that lack the budget for a full-fledged security team with specialized roles.





Security Architects and Engineers design, implement, and optimize a combination of network-centric and data-centric controls to balance prevention, detection, and response. These professionals take a holistic look at enterprise defense, building security into every layer of the organization. They balance business and technical requirements while adhering to security policies and procedures to implement defensible security architectures. A Security Architect and Engineer is a versatile Blue Teamer and cyber defender who possesses an arsenal of skills to protect an organization’s sensitive data—from endpoints to the cloud and across networks and applications.




While preventing breaches is the ultimate goal, one unwavering truth in information security is that a sufficiently determined attacker will eventually succeed. When a breach is identified, incident responders are called into action to locate the attackers, minimize damage, and remove them from the environment. This role requires quick thinking, solid technical and documentation skills, and the ability to adapt to evolving attacker methodologies.











As one of the highest-paid roles in the cybersecurity field, this position requires advanced skills and expertise. Cybersecurity Analysts/Engineers must excel in threat detection, analysis, and protection. This role plays a vital part in safeguarding an organization’s data and maintaining its integrity. With cyber attackers constantly using new tools and strategies, cybersecurity analysts and engineers must stay informed about emerging threats and techniques to mount a strong defense.















These resourceful professionals gather requirements from their customers and use open-sources intelligence (OSINT), primarily from internet resources, to collect data relevant to their investigation. They may research domains and IP addresses, businesses, people, issues, financial transactions, and other targets. Their mission is to gather, analyze, and report objective findings, providing with valuable insights to inform decision-making. They are the “finders of things” and “knowers of secrets.”



The Technical Director defines technological strategies in collaboration with development teams, assesses risk, establishes standards and procedures to measure progress, and participates in creating and strengthening the cybersecurity team. With an ever-growing array of technologies requiring specialized management, a global shortage of cybersecurity talent, an unprecedented shift to cloud environments, and increasingly complex legal and regulatory compliance requirements, the Technical Director plays a key role in ensuring the organization’s operational success.






The Cloud Security Analyst oversees cloud security and day-to-day operations. This role contributes to designing, integrating, and testing tools for security management, recommending configuration improvements, assessing the organization’s overall cloud security posture, and providing technical expertise to guide organizational decisions.






Security Operations Center (SOC) Analysts collaborate with security engineers and SOC managers to implement prevention, detection, monitoring, and active response measures. They work closely with incident response teams to address security issues quickly and effectively. With an eye for detail and a focus on anomalies, SOC analysts excel at seeing things that others miss.






Security Awareness Officers work alongside their security team to identify their organization’s top human risks and the behaviors that manage them. They develop and manage continuous programs to train and communicate with the workforce to promote secure behaviors. In highly mature programs, this role not only impacts workforce behavior but also creates a strong security culture across the organization. Human error has become one of the top drivers of incidents and breaches today, however, many organizations still focus solely on technical solutions. This role is pivotal in bridging the gap by addressing the human side of cybersecurity and is arguably one of the fastest-growing and most impactful fields in cybersecurity today.



In this role, you will work to find zero-day vulnerabilities—previously unknown weaknesses—in a wide range of applications and devices used by organizations and consumers. A Vulnerability Researcher and Exploit Developer’s missions is to find vulnerabilities before adversaries do. Without the expertise to research and find these types of vulnerabilities before the adversaries, the potential consequences can be devastating.



Application Penetration Testers probe the security integrity of an organization’s applications and defenses by evaluating the attack surface of web-based services, client-side applications, servers-side processes, and more. By mimicking the tactics of a malicious attacker, they work to bypass security barriers and identify vulnerabilities that could lead to unauthorized access, sensitive data exposure, or exploitation through techniques like pivoting and lateral movement.






This role combines offensive security operations with expertise in critical process control environments essential to modern life. Industrial Control Systems/Operational Technology (ICS/OT) Security Consultants discover vulnerabilities in industrial control systems and work with asset owners and operators to mitigate risks, ensuring essential systems are protected against adversarial exploitation.





A DevSecOps engineer develops automated security capabilities and integrates them into the DevOps pipeline using cutting-edge tools and processes. This role encompasses leadership in key areas such as vulnerability management, monitoring and logging, security operations, security testing, and application security, ensuring security is embedded throughout the software development lifecycle.




Media Exploitation Analysts use digital forensic skills to analyze a wide range of media involved in investigations. If you’re passionate about investigating computer crimes and recovering file systems that have been hacked, damaged, or used in crime, this role could be your ideal career path. In this position, you will assist in the forensic examinations of computers and media from various sources to develop forensically sound evidence.






Cybersecurity is booming, and investing in your skills now can unlock incredible career opportunities. There’s never been a better time to pursue a career in cybersecurity. With demand for cybersecurity professionals outpacing supply, this field continues to offer strong career opportunities despite shifting economic trends. The right training and certifications can set you apart and help you stand out in a competitive market.
Whether you’re just starting out, advancing your career, or staying ahead of new threats, SANS courses deliver immediate value.
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