What to expect on your 2026 SOC Workforce Study interview

The 2026 SOC Workforce Study examines how enterprise security leaders are reshaping front-line security work — analyst roles, team capacity, retention, and the evolving role of AI in the SOC. The findings will be published in Q3 2026 as a research report. Contributors receive the report directly, before public release.

CISOs, SOC Directors, Heads of SecOps, and Detection Engineering leaders at Fortune 2000 enterprises across financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, technology, government, and energy.

Meridian Advisory leads the research independently. Dropzone AI is the funding partner for this edition — they work specifically on autonomous Tier-1 alert triage. This is the standard model commissioned research follows (Forrester TEI, IDC InfoBriefs, S&P Pathfinder) — sponsor named upfront, editorial independence preserved.

How this works in practice

• Dropzone does not see your raw transcript
• The research questions, analysis, and published findings are Meridian's
• Attribution in the report is your choice — named or anonymous
• If something you raise on the call overlaps meaningfully with what Dropzone works on, Gary will mention them at the end and offer an optional introduction. No pressure either way.

20-30 minutes total

When we wrap all interviews, contributors get invited to a closed-door virtual roundtable to compare notes on the findings. Peer-only, no vendors in the room. ~60 minutes. You're in unless you tell us otherwise — we'll send the date as we get closer.