About the role

Home Office Digital designs, builds and develops services for the rest of the department and for government. Every year our systems support up to 3 million visa applications, checks on 100 million border crossings, up to 8 million passport applications and deliver 140 million police checks on people, vehicles and property.

As a Lead Cyber Security Risk Manager in the Compliance and Assurance team, you will lead proportionate, risk-based cyber security assurance across Home Office projects and live services, identifying, assessing and helping mitigate cyber risks to critical national infrastructure and business-critical systems. Drawing on a range of evidence and your expertise, you will provide independent challenge and advice throughout the service lifecycle, enabling stakeholders, including senior leaders, to make informed, auditable decisions about cyber risk.

You’ll be joining an expert team of cyber professionals, committed toreducing the exposure to cyber-attack of new and existing digital systems. You’ll be aided in your role by a diverse and supportive organisational culture, and a commitment to further your continuous development.

Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. Where this is the case, employees will be expected to spend a minimum of  60% of their working time in the office.  Applicants can raise any queries to the email address at the bottom of the advert.

Watch this short video to hear from members of Home Office Digital talking about the projects they work on and their experience of working here: Working for Home Office Digital.

Job description

The Lead Cyber Risk Manager supports, plans and develops the implementation and management of organisation-wide processes and procedures for the management, assurance or governance of cyber risk.  They will provide tailored expert support and advice that highlights cyber security risks to a range of stakeholders, projects, business teams and service owners, helping them to remedy identified risks by enabling well-informed and auditable decisions, using published guidance and standards, and drawing on a range of experts as well as personal expertise.

Person specification

Main Responsibilities

• Independently and impartially undertaking risk management activities within a given area of practice or expertise, usually within established security and risk management governance structures. You will lead the independent derivation and analysis of security needs including assuring, evaluating and challenging the adequacy of risk assessments, controls and evidence, while retaining the ability to undertake targeted assurance activity where necessary.
• Lead and prioritise proportionate, risk-based second-line cyber security assurance across an assigned portfolio of projects, live services and product areas, ensuring assurance effort is focused on the areas of greatest material risk and formulate clear, evidence-based assurance opinions, identifying material control weaknesses, residual risks, dependencies and limitations, and provide recommendations to support informed and auditable risk decisions.
• Developing risk management-related policy and assure the ongoing appropriateness of policy in accordance with regulation and wider organisational and government policies, embedding Secure by Design principles where appropriate.
• Communicating effectively with senior stakeholders to ensure they recognise the importance of security considerations and advising senior stakeholders on their approach to risk assessment in the context of their organisational outcomes, providing independent constructive challenge where appropriate.
• Managing risk management processes, reviewing their efficiency and effectiveness, and leading recommendations for continuous improvement. This includes reviewing internal controls following any security breach, providing advice on how to remediate any vulnerabilities discovered, and agreeing and overseeing remedial solutions, controls and safeguards, including tracking assurance findings where appropriate.
• Assessing reviews and risk assessments and ensuring identified risks are managed in accordance with Home Office risk management policies, including assurance outcomes and remediation activity where applicable.

Working Pattern

Due to the business requirements of this role, it is only available on a full-time basis. However, compressed hours are available.

Essential Skills

• Information or cyber security including threat and risk analysis for complex, high-risk and/or mission critical systems, preferably involving the Home Office, Cabinet Office, NCSC or within industry Security Operations Centres (SOCs) and departments.
• Proven ability to lead, develop and provide professional oversight to cyber security risk or assurance practitioners, setting standards for quality, consistency and professional judgement.
• Proficiency analysing or implementing technical or security policies in a large organisation. Skilled in balancing security requirements with business impact to ensure practicality and effectiveness.
• Ability to champion cybersecurity risk and ensure ongoing appropriateness or practices.
• Proven track record in implementing cybersecurity risk, assurance or governance processes and procedures.
• Cyber risk and controls frameworks such as NIST, ISO27001, COBIT, BS EN 31111, Cyber Essentials, CAF and general wider NCSC guidelines.