Security Architect

Join us at the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), where we are on a mission to translate scientific discovery into real-world impact. We bring together visionary scientists, technologists, engineers, researchers, educators, and innovators to tackle humanity's greatest challenges in four transformative areas:

• Health, Medical Science & Generative Biology
• Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture
• Climate Change & Managing CO₂
• Artificial Intelligence & Robotics

This is ambitious work that demands curiosity, courage, and a relentless drive to make a difference. At EIT, you'll join a community built on excellence, innovation, tenacity, trust, and collaboration, where bold ideas become real-world breakthroughs.

Your Role: At EIT, we are seeking an experienced and detail-oriented Security Architect to design, maintain, and evolve our security architecture. This role ensures that security is built into systems and platforms by design, supporting advanced research while managing risk appropriately. This role operates at the intersection of strategy, technology, and delivery, working closely with IT, research computing, data, cloud, and facilities teams to embed security across complex, high-performance, and collaborative environments.

We have two positions available, one focusing on Central IT security architecture and another focusing on the security architecture of the scientific research and development programmes and institutes.

Your Responsibilities:

• Security Architecture & Design
  • Define and maintain the institute's security architecture and target-state security models
  • Design security controls for new and existing systems, platforms, and services
  • Review solution designs and technical changes to ensure alignment with security standards
  • Produce clear architectural documentation, diagrams, and design patterns
• Cloud, Infrastructure & Platforms
  • Design security architectures for cloud, on-premise, and hybrid environments
  • Define identity, access, network segmentation, encryption, and monitoring patterns
  • Advise on secure adoption of new technologies and services in the context of AI, robotics, and data platforms
• Risk, Threat & Assurance
  • Translate threat models and risk assessments into architectural controls
  • Conduct security architecture reviews and threat modelling exercises
  • Support security assurance activities and provide architectural input to audits and assessments
• Standards, Policy & Governance
  • Define security architecture standards, reference architectures, and design principles
  • Ensure architectural alignment with frameworks such as ISO 27001, NIST, and Zero Trust
  • Contribute to institutional security strategy and long-term roadmap planning
• Collaboration & Enablement
  • Act as a trusted technical authority on security architecture
  • Influence technology decisions through clear risk-based recommendations
  • Support scientific operations and engineering teams with architectural guidance

Requirements:

Essential Skills, Qualifications & Experience:

• Proven experience as a Security Architect or senior security engineering role
• Designing security for complex, distributed environments
• Supporting cloud-first or hybrid infrastructures
• Working with sensitive data, IP, or regulated research information (ISO27001, etc)
• Experience with cloud platforms (OCI) in a security context
• Able to cross collaborate with different stakeholder groups
• Promoter of IT security as an enabler, not a blocker

For the Institutes & Programmes Security Architect role - Security Architect experience in research, higher education, scientific computing, aerospace, or engineering environments is essential.

Desirable Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• Experience in research, higher education, or scientific computing environments
• Familiarity with HPC, large-scale data platforms, or AI/ML infrastructure
• Relevant certifications (e.g. CISSP, CCSP, SABSA, TOGAF with security focus)
• Experience with advising scientific staff and researchers within an R&D environment

Benefits:

• Salary: £70,000 - £80,000 + travel allowance + bonus
• Enhanced holiday + options to buy additional days
• Pension
• Life Assurance
• Income Protection
• Private Medical Insurance
• Hospital Cash Plan
• Therapy Services
• Perk Box
• Electric Car Scheme
• Childcare benefit

Working Together - What It Involves:

You must have the right to work permanently in the UK with a willingness to travel as necessary. You will live in, or within easy commuting distance of, Oxford (or be willing to relocate).