2+ years of hands-on experience in cloud security, information security operations, or similar roles monitoring alerts, investigating incidents, and working within AWS and/or Azure environments. Practical cloud security knowledge with demonstrated ability to navigate cloud environments, understand misconfigurations, and think like an attacker. Builder mindset with AI-assisted development skills to write scripts and automate repetitive tasks. Security operations foundation: understand how to triage alerts, distinguish true positives from noise, investigate incidents methodically, and communicate findings clearly. Strong organizational skills and time management to juggle multiple security investigations simultaneously and prioritize effectively. Some experience with offensive security, including infosec testing tools, OWASP Top 10, and penetration testing concepts. Comfort across technical domains: basic scripting ability, Linux command line navigation, understanding of application concepts (APIs, containers, databases), and some experience with infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform or CloudFormation.