Senior Cyber Security Architect

Job Title: Senior Cyber Security Architect

Reporting to: Cyber & Technical Advisory

Salary: £60,000-£80,000

Job Type: Permanent, full time

Location: Home based (This role will require regular UK travel and at times need you to stay away from home)

Since our establishment in 1990, Methods has partnered with a range of central government departments and agencies to transform the way the public sector operates in the UK.

Our mission is to improve and safeguard public-facing services. We apply digital thinking to ensure the future of our public services is centred around our citizens.

Methods are experts in delivering secure, resilient cyber and information services – keeping systems and data safe.

The Cyber Security Consultant will have the following responsibilities:

• Ability to research, articulate, pitch complex and innovative security advice, at both business and technical levels, for new or existing problems, with the objective to justify and communicate decisions directly to key customer stakeholders including senior management.
• Able to understand and comprehend the impact of decisions, balancing requirements and deciding between approaches.
• Develop vision, principles and strategy for security for multiple projects or technologies; working in a particular field as subject matter expert, to support a team in delivering engagements at scale, which may require subtle security needs and requirements, contributing to development of information security policy, standards, procedures and guidelines.
• Effective business acumen and an understanding of the cyber security challenges faced by client, with the objective to develop our cyber assurance practice, by supporting business development and practice management.
• Experience of identifying and applying security risk and familiarity with common control frameworks, with the ability investigating major breaches of security and recommending appropriate control improvements.
• Maintaining awareness of key business and industry trends and understanding how they impact responses to cyber risk, with the contribution of the development of our team through training and coaching.
• Managing, delivering, leading cyber security and cyber risk assignments, with the management of portfolio of clients, across a variety of sectors and locations, including producing documentation, presentation, reports, recommendations and quality assuring, for the work produced by team members and being the point of escalation for lower grade roles.
• Providing our clients with trusted advice, rooted in a pragmatic and agnostic understanding of their business situation and objectives, to help them navigate complex, risk-driven cyber decisions.
• Working as a subject matter expert in your particular field, owning and delivering initiatives to embed quality through learning and other activity, working seamlessly and collaboratively with colleagues and clients from other service lines, supporting a team or colleagues to deliver engagements at scale, with the appropriate reach and influence across the teams and communities.
• Managing diverse teams within an inclusive team culture where people are recognised and encouraged for their contribution.

Minimum Requirements:

• An experienced consultant with a background in Cyber Security.
• Minimum 5-7 years of experience in Information Security related positions.
• Minimum 3-5 years of experience in security architecture.
• Cyber Security Certification e.g ISC2 CISSP, ISC2 CCSP, ISACA CISM or similar.
• Certification in AWS or Azure for Architecture and Security or similar.
• IASME / Cyber Essentials Plus Certified.
• Expert knowledge of secure network architecture and technical design.
• Experience in creating secure architecture in either AWS and/or Azure.
• Experience providing expert strategy, risk and technical advice, guidance and support on cyber security, both in business-as-usual and for live and planned projects within our clients’ business.
• Expected to be the point of escalation for architects in lower grade roles and lead technical design of systems and services.
• Broad range of cyber and information security skills, knowledge and experience such as security threats and vulnerabilities that impact/and/or emanate from system hardware, software and other infrastructure components, and relevant strategies, controls and activities to prevent, mitigate, detect and resolve security incidents affecting system hardware, software and other infrastructure components.
• Experience in gap analysis for specific domains, identify gaps in existing capabilities, service maturity. Identify missing cybersecurity and cyber-resiliency capabilities in alignment with changing business needs, threat landscape and technical requirements to increase the quality of the selected solutions also including topics such as products’ convergence over time and products decommissioning.
• Expert knowledge of identifying, developing and communicating threat modelling and understanding the impact of decisions, balancing requirements and deciding between approaches.
• Research and apply innovative security architecture solutions to new or existing problems and be able to justify and communicate subtle design decisions.
• Able to develop vision, principles and strategy for security architects for projects or technologies.
• Demonstrably experienced in working as an effective member of a multi-disciplinary team and reach & influence a wide range of people across larger teams and communities.
• Excellent stakeholder management, presentation and communication skills, with the ability to interact with senior stakeholders across department and clients.
• Pro-active approach to personal and professional development.
• Must hold, or be able to hold, an HMG Security Check (SC) clearance.
• Ability to apply standards, practices, codes and assessment of certification programmes relevant to the IT industry and the specific organisation or business domain.
• Experience in writing and creating Cyber Security documents i.e. Risk Assessments, ESRM, DPIA etc and produce particular patterns and support quality assurance.
• Knowledge of the IT/IS infrastructure (e.g databases and LANs) and the IT applications and service processes used within own organisation, including those associated with sustainability and efficiency.
• Ability to use any tool or system which provides security access control (e.g Active Directory).
• Showing proficiency in the principles and application of cloud/virtualisation (including ownership responsibilities and security implications) and be able to use tools and systems to manage virtualised environments e.g Server/desktop virtualisation and SDDC (Software Defined Data Centre).

Desirable Skills & Experience:

• Certification in AWS/Google/Microsoft Certified Security specialist, architect.
• Security Certification e.g GDSA, SANS GIAC, CISSP-ISSAP or similar.
• Knowledge of evolving digital technology/applications e.g. AI/Digital twins/IoT.
• Knowledge of principles, practices, tools and techniques of IT auditing.
• Knowledge of offensive tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), ideally completed training and/or certifications (OSCP, CEH, Pentest+, etc.).
• Experience working on central government, local government and public corporations projects and deliverables.
• Experience in the discipline associated with data sets so large and/or complex that traditional data processing applications are inadequate. The data files may include structured, unstructured and/or semi-structured data, such as unstructured text, audio, video, etc. Challenges include analysis, capture, curation, search, sharing, storage, transfer, manipulation, analysis, visualisation and information privacy.
• Knowledge, application, implications and technical aspects of computer-mediated tools that allow people to create, share or exchange information, ideas, and pictures/videos in virtual communities and networks.
• Methods and techniques for preparing and presenting business cases, requests for proposal (RFP) invitations to tender (ITT) and statements of requirements/work both verbally and in writing.

Am I the right fit? We're looking for:

• Resilience
• Strong collaboration and team working
• Good Communication skills
• Genuine passion/commitment to improving public services
• A determined and tenacious approach to work
• A creative approach to problem solving
• Good listening and comprehension
• Great stakeholder management

Methods is passionate about its people; we want our colleagues to develop the things they are good at and enjoy.

By joining us you can expect:

• Autonomy to develop and grow your skills and experience
• Be part of exciting project work that is making a difference in society
• Strong, inspiring, and thought-provoking leadership
• A supportive and collaborative environment
• Flexibility to learn and grow
• This role will require you to have or be willing to go through Security Clearance. As part of the onboarding process candidates will be asked to complete a Baseline Personnel Security Standard; details of the evidence required to apply may be found on the government website Gov.UK. If you are unable to meet this and any associated criteria, then your employment may be delayed, or rejected. Details of this will be discussed with you at interview.

As well as this, we offer:

• Development: access to LinkedIn Learning, a management development programme and training
• Wellness: 24/7 Confidential employee assistance programme
• Social: office parties, pizza Friday and commitment to charitable causes
• Time off: 25 days a year
• Pension: Salary Exchange Scheme with 4% employer contribution and 5% employee contribution
• Discretionary Company Bonus: based on company and individual performance
• Life Assurance: of 4 times base salary
• Private Medical Insurance: which is non-contributory (spouse and dependants included)
• Worldwide Travel Insurance: which is non-contributory (spouse and dependants included)
• Benefits Platform: offering various retail and leisure discounts