Head of Cyber Security and Information Governance

This is a rare opportunity to help build something new at one of London’s most ambitious boroughs. Southwark is establishing a brand new Digital and Resident Experience, and as Head of Operations, you’ll be one of the people shaping it from the ground up, building a team, a culture and a way of working that keeps services running smoothly for residents, communities and colleagues. You’ll join at a genuinely exciting time for the council, as we invest in our people and technology to better serve more than 300,000 residents across Southwark’s diverse communities. This is your chance to build and grow a talented operations team, develop their skills and give them a real sense of purpose, while working alongside colleagues who care about the difference technology makes to people’s everyday lives. If you’re an operations leader who wants to build something new, develop people and make a genuine impact on the communities we serve, we’d love to hear from you.

As Head of Cyber Security and Information Governance, you will:

• Build and lead a new specialist cyber security team within Southwark’s Digital and Resident Experience, growing capability, developing people and creating a culture the team is proud to be part of.
• Develop and own Southwark’s cyber security strategy, roadmap and improvement plans, aligned to corporate priorities and the council’s ambitions for the borough.
• Direct and assure the outsourced Security Operations Centre and govern vulnerability management practice, holding providers and suppliers to account for service performance.
• Own the council’s cyber incident response plans and lead the response to security incidents, keeping our services and our residents’ information safe.
• Lead security compliance and assurance activity, and information governance and data protection, working closely with colleagues across the council to embed a security-conscious culture.

We’re seeking an experienced and credible security leader who brings:

• A strong track record of leading and building a cyber security function within a large, complex organisation, ideally within local government or the public sector.
• Strong working knowledge of security operations, vulnerability management and security compliance frameworks such as PSN, Cyber Essentials, PCI DSS and UK GDPR.
• Experience of leading the response to cyber security incidents, including coordination with major incident management and external agencies.
• A genuine passion for developing people, building inclusive teams and creating a culture where colleagues can do their best work.
• A commitment to using technology and security to protect and improve outcomes for Southwark’s residents and communities.

As part of our commitment to inclusion, we offer guaranteed interviews for specific groups of people. To qualify, you'll need to meet the minimum requirements for the role, and identify with one of the below criteria:

• Members of the Armed Forces and veterans
• Are currently in care, or have previously been in care
• If you consider yourself to be disabled or if you have a long-term health condition

We are an organisation who is passionate about our people and understands that richness of diversity is a requirement to provide the best possible services to our communities. This is demonstrated through our council-wide ambitious commitment to tackle racial inequality in our communities and workforce through our Southwark Stands Together programme. We particularly welcome applications from members of the Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities to increase representation at senior management level in the Council.