Cloud Security Team Lead

Reporting to the Cyber Security Technical Manager, you will lead a team focused on Cloud & Technical Security, safeguarding MO’s infrastructure. You will oversee team activities, mentor network security specialists, and collaborate with infrastructure and application teams to strengthen our network defences. Your leadership will ensure the secure design, deployment, and operation of network services in line with organisational and security best practices. This is a technical, hands-on role that involves managing the implementation of network security controls, performing security assessments, and supporting the design and deployment of secure network solutions.

Role Responsibilities:

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of Network Security Specialists, fostering a collaborative and continuous improvement environment.
• Define and guide team priorities, ensuring alignment with overall security strategy and business objectives.
• Conduct regular performance reviews and professional development planning to up-skill team members in line with organisational goals.
• Act as the primary point of contact for network security within the organisation, representing the team in strategy and planning meetings.
• Collaborate with the Cyber Security Technical Manager to define security goals, align priorities, and implement security standards.
• Ensure continuous improvement of security practices by developing and refining policies and frameworks to advance organisational security maturity.
• Provide expert security input on network design, enforcing best practices at both software and platform levels.
• Utilise and adapt existing secure development frameworks (e.g., NCSC, NIST) to align with organisational needs.
• Oversee threat modelling sessions to anticipate and mitigate potential security threats early in the planning cycle.
• Establish comprehensive security requirements for AWS network configurations, ensuring alignment with organisational policies.
• Coordinate security assessments and testing, including overseeing vulnerability assessments and automated security tools.
• Create and maintain detailed security documentation and reports to communicate security posture and compliance.
• Build strong relationships with teams, developers and business stakeholders to promote security best practices.
• Regularly engage with teams to interpret and implement security requirements, providing technical guidance and risk assessment insights.
• Represent the Network Security team in cross-functional meetings, forums, and working groups to advocate for and enhance security awareness across the organisation.
• Lead response efforts for network security incidents, coordinating with relevant teams and stakeholders to manage mitigation efforts.
• Support organisation-wide security operations as needed, ensuring incident response readiness and swift resolution of security threats.

About You:

This role is ideal for someone passionate about network security, especially in cloud environments like AWS. You should have hands-on experience in securing AWS cloud networks, protecting data, and enhancing network resilience against cyber threats. A strong communicator, you’ll be able to influence teams and stakeholders to adopt security best practices. A background in cloud networking, especially with AWS services like VPC, Transit Gateway and AWS WAF, is essential. Familiarity with security controls, network monitoring, incident response, and AWS-specific security tools (for example GuardDuty, CloudTrail) is expected. Knowledge of secure network design principles and compliance requirements like NIST, CIS benchmarks and experience implementing “shift-left” practices for network security will be beneficial.

Minimum Criteria:

You’ll need all of these:

• Experience in a lead hands-on network security or cloud security role, preferably with a strong focus on AWS.
• Proven experience in securing network architectures and performing security assessments.
• Strong knowledge of network protocols, network security controls, and network defence mechanisms.
• Practical experience with firewalls, VPNs, IDS/IPS, and related network security tools.

Qualifications:

Degree in Information Security, Computer Science, or equivalent certifications (e.g., AWS Certified Security – Specialty, CISSP) are advantageous but not mandatory.

About The Company:

Motability Operations is a unique organisation, virtually one of a kind. We combine a strong sense of purpose with a real commercial edge to ensure we provide the best possible worry-free mobility solutions to over 800,000 customers and their families across the UK. Customers exchange their higher rate mobility allowance to lease a range of affordable vehicles (cars, wheelchair accessible vehicles, scooters, and powered wheelchairs) with insurance, maintenance and breakdown assistance included. We are the largest car fleet operator in the UK (purchasing around 10% of all the new cars sold in the UK) and work with a network of around 5,000 car dealers and all the major manufacturers. We pride ourselves on delivering outstanding customer service, achieving an independently verified customer satisfaction rating of 9.8 out of 10.

Our values are at the heart of everything we do. They represent ambition, and we look for our people to live and breathe them every day:

• We find solutions
• We drive change
• We care

We operate hybrid working across the organisation where we split our time between working on-site at our offices, and at home, remotely within the UK. We believe hybrid working achieves a good work/life balance for our colleagues, allowing us to connect with each other, collaborate on important work, and perform together to deliver for our customers. It allows us to have the flexibility to work remotely up to 2-days per week whilst also using the great office spaces we have available.

As a Motability Operations team member, the benefits you can expect are:

• Competitive reward package including an annual discretionary bonus
• 15% non-contributory pension (9% non-contributory pension during probation period)
• 28 days annual leave with option to purchase and sell days
• Free fresh fruit and snacks in the office
• 1 day for volunteering
• Funded Private Medical Insurance cover
• Electric/Hybrid Car Salary Sacrifice Scheme and Cycle to Work Scheme
• Life assurance at 4 times your basic salary to give you a peace of mind that your loved ones will receive some financial help
• Funded health screening for over 50s
• Voluntary benefits: charitable giving, critical illness insurance, dental insurance, health and cancer screenings for you and your partner, discounted gym memberships and season ticket loans
• Employee Discount Scheme with an app to save on the go
• Free access to healthcare apps such as Peppy, Unmind, Aviva Digital GP and volunteering app on Hand for all employees
• Generous family leave policies

At Motability Operations, we believe in building a diverse workforce, where our people are empowered to attend work as their true selves, and we encourage people from all backgrounds to apply. We want to sustain a culture that nurtures, where employees are free to flourish and where they’re rewarded equally, regardless of race, nationality or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, age, disability, or gender. We pride ourselves on being an inclusive employer and as such, all our offices provide first rate disability access. With our hybrid working environment, we do our best to accommodate part-time and flexible working requests where possible, building on our culture of trust, empowerment, and flexibility.