When forensics roles sit vacant for months, the problem often stems from a fundamental disconnect between security directors and eDiscovery leads. Each department approaches hiring through its own lens, creating competing priorities that derail recruitment efforts. Security teams focus on threat detection and incident response capabilities, while legal teams prioritise litigation readiness and data preservation expertise. This misalignment leads to confused job descriptions, conflicting interview feedback, and ultimately failed hires that waste valuable time and resources.
The solution lies in collaborative hiring practices that bridge the gap between cybersecurity and eDiscovery requirements. When these teams work together from the outset, they create stronger forensics departments that serve both security and legal objectives effectively. This approach transforms recruitment from a departmental challenge into a strategic advantage.
Why security directors and eDiscovery leads struggle with forensics hiring
The challenges begin with role definition confusion. Security directors typically seek candidates who can respond to active threats, analyse malware, and strengthen network defences. Meanwhile, eDiscovery leads need professionals who understand litigation holds, chain of custody procedures, and court-admissible evidence standards. When these requirements are not clearly reconciled, job descriptions become either too broad to attract qualified candidates or too narrow to meet both departments’ needs.
Several key factors contribute to these persistent hiring challenges:
- Communication breakdowns: Security teams use technical language that doesn’t translate to legal contexts, while legal teams may not grasp the technical complexity of cybersecurity investigations
- Competing timelines: Security directors face pressure to fill roles quickly for operational readiness, while eDiscovery leads require thorough vetting to ensure candidates can withstand legal scrutiny
- Territory disputes: Unclear reporting structures and budget allocation create hesitation from both departments to fully invest in recruitment
- Risk tolerance differences: Security teams prioritise rapid response capabilities, while legal teams focus on methodical evidence handling that meets court standards
These disconnects create a cycle where neither department gets the forensics support they need. Security teams end up with professionals who lack legal expertise, while legal teams struggle with hires who cannot handle complex technical investigations. The result is prolonged vacancies, frustrated stakeholders, and compromised organisational capabilities in both cybersecurity and litigation readiness.
How collaborative hiring transforms forensics team building
Joint recruitment efforts produce significantly better outcomes than siloed approaches. When security directors and eDiscovery leads collaborate throughout the hiring process, they create comprehensive candidate assessments that evaluate both technical capabilities and legal acumen. This dual perspective helps identify professionals who can excel in both investigative and litigation contexts.
Collaborative hiring delivers measurable improvements across multiple areas:
- Enhanced role clarity: Joint discussions reveal overlapping requirements and help prioritise skills that serve both security and legal objectives
- Accelerated decision-making: Simultaneous evaluations replace sequential reviews, reducing time-to-hire in competitive talent markets
- Improved retention rates: Candidates understand expectations for both departments, leading to better role fit and longer tenure
- Cross-functional knowledge transfer: Security directors gain legal insights while eDiscovery leads develop technical appreciation, strengthening both teams
- Unified candidate experience: Consistent messaging and coordinated interviews demonstrate organisational maturity to top-tier candidates
This collaborative approach fundamentally shifts the hiring dynamic from a zero-sum competition between departments to a strategic partnership that benefits the entire organisation. Teams that embrace this methodology consistently report shorter hiring cycles, higher-quality candidates, and stronger working relationships that extend well beyond recruitment activities.
Building the perfect forensics job description together
Start by conducting joint requirements-gathering sessions where both teams identify their must-have versus nice-to-have qualifications. Security directors should outline technical skills such as network forensics, memory analysis, and incident response procedures. eDiscovery leads need to specify legal requirements such as evidence handling, documentation standards, and courtroom testimony experience.
Create a unified skills matrix that maps forensics competencies to both security and legal objectives. This visual tool helps prioritise requirements and identify areas where skills overlap. For example, data recovery expertise serves both malware analysis and litigation support purposes, making it a high-priority qualification.
Draft role descriptions that speak to both audiences without becoming unwieldy. Use clear section headers to organise security-focused and legal-focused responsibilities separately, while highlighting collaborative aspects of the role. Avoid jargon that might confuse candidates from either background.
Include realistic advancement pathways that acknowledge both career tracks. Forensics professionals often come from either security or legal backgrounds, so showing how the role can develop towards senior security positions or legal specialisation helps attract diverse candidates.
Set clear reporting expectations by defining how the role interacts with both departments. Whether the position reports to security with dotted-line relationships to legal, or vice versa, candidates need to understand their place in the organisational structure.
Interview strategies that work for both teams
Effective forensics interviews require structured approaches that assess capabilities across both security and legal domains while maintaining consistency and fairness for all candidates.
Key interview strategies include:
- Joint panel interviews: Include representatives from both security and legal teams to enable real-time discussion and demonstrate organisational collaboration to candidates
- Scenario-based questioning: Present realistic forensics situations requiring both technical analysis and legal consideration, such as data breach investigations with litigation potential
- Standardised evaluation criteria: Establish agreed-upon definitions for strong, acceptable, and weak responses across key competencies before interviews begin
- Practical exercises: Use sample evidence or case studies that require technical analysis and legal documentation to assess real-world problem-solving abilities
- Clear decision protocols: Define processes for handling disagreements between departments about candidate suitability to prevent delays and relationship strain
These structured approaches ensure that both departments can thoroughly evaluate candidates while maintaining efficient hiring timelines. The combination of collaborative assessment and practical testing provides a comprehensive view of how candidates will perform in the complex dual-purpose role that modern forensics positions require.
Building effective forensics teams requires more than just finding qualified individuals. It demands organisational alignment between security and legal functions that extends well beyond the hiring process. When security directors and eDiscovery leads collaborate effectively, they create forensics capabilities that strengthen both cybersecurity defences and legal preparedness.
The investment in collaborative hiring pays dividends through reduced turnover, faster incident response, and stronger litigation readiness. Most importantly, it establishes the foundation for ongoing partnership between security and legal teams that benefits the entire organisation. At Iceberg, we understand these complex dynamics and help organisations navigate the intersection of cybersecurity and eDiscovery talent requirements. Our collaborative approach ensures that forensics hires serve both security and legal objectives from day one.
If you are interested in learning more, reach out to our team of experts today.
