Red, Blue and Purple Teams: Security Roles Explained

Oct 9

3 min read

Updated: Oct 15

Security job titles confuse a lot of hiring managers. Red team, blue team, purple team. They sound like a game, but each one is a different job with different skills. Hire the wrong colour and you get a talented person in the wrong seat. This guide explains each team, the roles inside it and when your business needs one.

Red team: the attackers

A red team plays the attacker. Their job is to break in, the way a real criminal would, so you find the gaps before someone else does.

Common roles:

Penetration tester
Red team operator
Offensive security engineer
Application security tester

Skills to look for: exploit development, social engineering, web and network testing, and clear written reports. A great red teamer explains what they found so the business can fix it.

When you need one: many businesses start by hiring an external firm for yearly penetration tests. An in-house red team makes sense when you have a large attack surface, strict regulation or frequent releases.

Blue team: the defenders

A blue team protects the business every day. They monitor systems, detect attacks and respond when something goes wrong.

Common roles:

SOC analyst
Security engineer
Detection engineer
Incident responder
Cloud security engineer
Threat hunter

Skills to look for: SIEM and logging tools, cloud security, incident response and calm judgment under pressure. The best blue teamers automate the repetitive work so they can focus on real threats.

When you need one: as soon as you hold customer data or run production systems in the cloud. Most first security hires sit on the blue side.

Purple team: attackers and defenders working together

A purple team is less a separate team and more a way of working. Red and blue share what they learn in real time. The red side runs an attack, the blue side checks whether they caught it, and both improve the defences together.

Common roles:

Purple team lead
Detection engineer
Adversary emulation engineer
Security engineer with both offensive and defensive experience

Skills to look for: experience on both sides, strong communication and a habit of turning test results into new detections. These people are rare, so expect a longer search.

When you need one: when you already have both red and blue capability and want them to improve faster.

Other colours you may hear

White team: sets the rules for exercises and judges the results.
Yellow team: the builders. Developers and architects who design security into the product.
Orange team: yellow and red together. Attackers teach developers how their code gets broken.
Green team: yellow and blue together. Developers build logging and monitoring in from the start.

Which one should you hire first?

For most startups and scaleups, the first hire is a blue team security engineer with strong cloud skills. They secure the platform, set up monitoring and handle incidents. Red team work is often bought from a specialist firm until the business is larger.

Established businesses with a security team in place often hire next for detection engineering or an in-house offensive capability. A purple team approach follows once both sides exist.

Write the right job ad

Avoid vague titles like Cyber Security Specialist. Name the team, the main job and the tools. A blue team ad and a red team ad attract different people, and the right people skip ads that do not describe their work.

For more on interviews and where to find candidates, read our guide on how to hire a senior security engineer in Australia.

How Staff Hunter helps

Staff Hunter recruits red, blue and purple team talent for startups, scaleups and established businesses in Australia. We find people through direct headhunting. See our cyber security recruitment page, or book a 30-minute call to talk through your role.

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