Lead - SME (Email Abuse)

Job Description Role Summary: The Subject Matter Expert (SME) – Mail Operations will serve as a technical and operational expert supporting email operations, spam/abuse mitigation, and Trust & Safety workflows. The role will be responsible for handling complex and escalated cases, providing subject matter guidance to analysts, monitoring emerging email abuse trends, and supporting operational excellence in a 24x7 environment. Key Responsibilities: Act as the Subject Matter Expert for email operations, spam, phishing, spoofing, abuse, and related Trust & Safety workflows. Provide real-time guidance and support to analysts in handling complex, high-risk, and escalated email abuse cases. Review complex cases and ensure decisions are aligned with defined policies, procedures, and security protocols. Monitor trends related to spam, phishing, spoofing, malware, account abuse, and other forms of email-based threats, and identify emerging patterns. Support incident investigations, root cause analysis (RCA), and corrective/preventive actions for operational and quality issues. Conduct regular knowledge-sharing, coaching, calibration, and refresher sessions for analysts to improve process understanding and decision accuracy. Support Team Leaders and Operations Managers with quality, productivity, SLA, and operational performance insights. Leverage Splunk and other relevant tools to monitor operational trends, investigate incidents, track KPIs, and generate actionable insights. Demonstrate a strong understanding of SPF, DKIM, DMARC, SMTP, email headers, and email infrastructure to support investigations and troubleshooting. Identify process gaps and recommend process improvements, automation opportunities, and workflow optimizations. Support the development and maintenance of SOPs, process documentation, knowledge articles, and troubleshooting guides. Participate in calibration sessions and quality reviews to drive consistency and accuracy across the team. Partner with cross-functional teams, including Trust & Safety, Security, Engineering, Product, Quality, and Operations, to resolve complex issues and improve workflows. Support new-hire training, nesting, upskilling, and ongoing capability-building for the operations team. Stay current on evolving email threats, abuse patterns, authentication standards, and industry best practices, and translate relevant insights into operational improvements. Support 24x7 operations, including shift-based activities, escalations, and critical incident management as required. Qualifications 4+ years of experience in email operations, Trust & Safety, email security, SOC, cybersecurity operations, or a related domain. Strong understanding of SMTP, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, email headers, DNS, and email infrastructure. Hands-on experience with Splunk, including dashboard usage, log analysis, monitoring, and investigation. Strong knowledge of spam, phishing, spoofing, malicious emails, email abuse, and threat vectors. Demonstrated experience handling complex investigations, escalations, and incident analysis. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to identify patterns and determine appropriate actions. Experience conducting RCA, trend analysis, quality reviews, and process improvement initiatives. Strong communication and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to explain technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences. Ability to work independently, make sound decisions, and provide real-time operational guidance in a fast-paced environment. Experience working in a 24x7 operational setup is preferred. Preferred Skills: Experience in email security, cybersecurity, Trust & Safety, or abuse prevention. Knowledge of SIEM tools, threat intelligence, log analysis, and security monitoring. Familiarity with automation, scripting, or data-analysis tools. Experience working with large-scale email platforms or cloud-based email environments. Relevant certifications in cybersecurity, email security, or cloud technologies would be an advantage. Company Description At Sutherland we are a group of energetic and driven individuals. If you are looking to build a fulfilling career and are confident you have the skills and experience to help us succeed, we want to work with you!