Varonis Systems Team Lead - MDR interview questions

I come with over a decade of experience in Incident Response (GIACx4), including the last five years in MDR management. Naturally, a Team Lead role in MDR felt well aligned with my background and a reasonable lateral move, if nothing else. The process, however, was surprising. I was never contacted by the People team, which typically gathers basic information such as salary expectations and alignment. Instead, I was sent a technical challenge with a one-week timeframe, which I completed in under an hour. This was followed by scheduling the second-round technical interview. During the interview, I encountered a disconnect in expectations. For example, when discussing process hollowing, I provided a GCFA-level explanation. I described it as a classic code injection technique where a process is created in a suspended state, its legitimate memory is unmapped and replaced with malicious code, and execution is resumed. The response I received was: “All that is OK, but go more technical.” At that point, the discussion seemed to hinge on recalling specific Windows API calls from memory. While those details are certainly useful, they are not something most professionals memorize, nor do they necessarily reflect real-world expertise. In my own experience interviewing candidates, I would consider a high-level, accurate explanation sufficient to demonstrate understanding. Overall, the interaction suggested a mismatch in expectations and interviewing approach. There also appeared to be an element of friction during the discussion that impacted the overall experience. From what I observed, the MDR function at Varonis may benefit from stronger leadership alignment and more structured interview practices. For candidates evaluating opportunities, it is worth considering whether the environment provides the kind of learning and collaboration that helps you grow.