Job summary
- Main area
- Cyber Operations
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8b
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 990-TD-CY-6822447-E
- Employer
- NHS England
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Wellington Place, Leeds / Hexagon House, Exeter
- Town
- Leeds / Exeter
- Salary
- £80,879 - £93,980.90 per annum, this includes a RRP payment of 30%
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 26/01/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Cyber Security Lead
NHS AfC: Band 8b
Our Organisation
The NHS is building a culture that is positive, compassionate and inclusive – and we all have our part to play.
As employers we are committed to protecting and promoting the physical and mental health and wellbeing of all our colleagues. This underpins our values as set out in the NHS Constitution and supports us to be an Employer of Choice, while helping our colleagues to deliver high quality services for our patients and communities.
As a flexible employer, we want to support you to work in a way that is best for the NHS, our patients and you. Talk to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time, hybrid working or another flexible pattern. In addition, although the role advertised may have a ‘home’ office base indicated, we remain committed to supporting flexibility around workplace locations. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.
Job overview
The post of Cyber Security Lead has been awarded a Recruitment and Retention Premia (RRP) in response to current labour market conditions. In recognition of this, the role attracts an additional monthly RRP payment equal to 30% per annum.
Please be aware that RRP is none contractual and subject to review.
NHS England's Cyber Operations team is at the forefront of safeguarding critical national healthcare services and ensuring patient safety through robust cyber resilience. The Cyber Security Lead role is a key part of the Security Consulting Team, operating within the Chief Information Security Office (CISO) function. This team provides specialist consultancy across NHS England, ensuring national services and Critical National Infrastructure are secure by design.
You will play a pivotal role in developing and implementing cyber-resilient architectures, providing expert advice and ensuring systems meet stringent security standards. Acting as a trusted advisor to project teams, you will embed secure practices into systems before they become live services, safeguarding data and operations across the NHS.
This role offers unparalleled opportunities to address challenges of national scale, contribute to improving healthcare outcomes, and enhance NHS cyber resilience. As part of a supportive and innovative environment, you will benefit from access to professional development, collaborative initiatives, and impactful work that directly supports patient care.
Main duties of the job
As a Cyber Security Lead, your responsibilities include:
Provide expert consultancy and guidance to ensure secure system design, governance, and compliance with frameworks like NIST Special Special Publications, ISO 27001/2/3, and NCSC guidelines.
- Set and embed security standards and patterns, aligned with best practices, to strengthen NHS England's cyber resilience.
- Lead threat modelling, security assessments, and risk mitigation efforts, delivering actionable advice to address identified vulnerabilities.
- Collaborate with stakeholders and teams to address challenges via DevSecOps practices, security reviews, and comprehensive risk analysis.
- Drive the development and implementation of NHS England's integrated cyber security strategy, defining objectives and addressing technical controls, risks, and issues.
- Act as a trusted advisor and subject matter expert, representing Cyber Operations at governance forums and during project lifecycles.
- Scope and review security testing reports, vulnerability assessments, and compliance audits to ensure robust application and endpoint security.
- Provide architecture modelling expertise to design and implement resilient, secure systems and services across NHS England.
- Support systems and services throughout their lifecycle, ensuring secure practices are maintained to minimise risks.
Working for our organisation
The NHS England board have set out the top-level purpose for the new organisation to lead the NHS in England to deliver high-quality services for all, which will inform the detailed design work and we will achieve this purpose by:
- Enabling local systems and providers to improve the health of their people and patients and reduce health inequalities.
- Making the NHS a great place to work, where our people can make a difference and achieve their potential.
- Working collaboratively to ensure our healthcare workforce has the right knowledge, skills, values and behaviours to deliver accessible, compassionate care
- Optimising the use of digital technology, research, and innovation
- Delivering value for money.
If you would like to know more or require further information, please visit https://www.england.nhs.uk/.
Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in-person.
Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.
NHS England hold a Sponsor Licence; this means that we may be able to sponsor you providing the Home Office requirements are met. To be eligible for sponsorship through the Skilled Worker route you’ll usually need to be paid the ‘standard’ salary rate of at least £38,700 per year, or the ‘going rate’ for your job, whichever is higher. You can find more information on the Government website.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification for more information about the role and responsibilities.
Please ensure your supporting statement includes demonstratable evidence and specific examples on how you meet the criteria for each of the key skills specified. This will be used in both the shortlisting and interview processes
Important: Please be aware there are residency requirements you need to meet:
All NHS England Cyber Security personnel must hold security clearance SC level as a minimum. To meet National Security Vetting requirements, you must have resided in the UK for a minimum of 3 out of the past 5 years for SC clearance. Candidates who were posted abroad for service with HM Government, Armed Forces or within a UK government role - will still be considered.
Please make sure you meet these requirements before applying for this role. You don't need to have SC already, however, failure to achieve the requirements for SC after offer, will result in the job offer being withdrawn.
Person specification
Knowledge & Experience
Essential criteria
- Consulting - Extensive knowledge of techniques, roles, and responsibilities in providing technical or business guidance to internal and external clients; and the ability to apply this knowledge appropriately to diverse situations.
- Information Assurance - Specialist knowledge of and the ability to protect information and systems while ensuring confidentiality, integrity and availability.
Desirable criteria
- Information Security Architecture - Detailed knowledge of the tools and techniques used for creating software, hardware, networking and application infrastructure; ability to meet information security objectives while using these
- Application Security - Specialist knowledge of the tools and processes for maintaining application security; ability to design and implement security programs to prevent data loss and access intrusion from web and mobile applications.
Skills
Essential criteria
- Specialist knowledge of and ability to support the secure development of enterprise architecture through conceptual, logical and physical approaches.
Desirable criteria
- Vulnerabilities Assessment - Extensive knowledge of vulnerability assessment tools, techniques, models, and systems; ability to utilise the knowledge to identify vulnerabilities on networks, operating systems, mobile applications, etc
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
This post will require a submission for Disclosure to be made to check for any unspent criminal convictions.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Craig Wilson
- Job title
- Head of Security
- Email address
- [email protected]
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