Lead Offensive Security Operator in London

Location: National

Closing Date: 21/08/26

Interviews: Week commencing 25/08/26

Grade: G7 (MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)

Salary: National: £58,511 - £73,450 (which may include an allowance up to £14,939); London: £63,343 - £78,225 (which may include an allowance up to £14,882)

Working pattern: Full-time, Part-time, Flexible working

Contract Type: Permanent

Number of vacancies: 1

Vacancy number: 20502

*We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your local office.

The Role

Please note this role requires you to pass Security Check clearance. We're recruiting for a Lead Offensive Security Operator here at Justice Digital Data and Science, to be part of our warm and collaborative Digital Infrastructure and Security Operations Team (DISO). The team are responsible for the live services, delivery, product changes and developments for all networking, security, voice, video and hosting services across the MoJ estate.

This role aligns against Penetration Testing Principal from the Government Security Profession framework.

You will be part of a small team of cyber red teaming specialists who provide independent full-spectrum adversary emulation services to security stakeholders within the Ministry of Justice. You will conduct safe, simulated cyber-attack simulations against our technology estates, acting as a real-world adversary might, to test our defences, highlight weaknesses and contribute cyber security expertise and insight in support of the department's strategic security decision-making functions. You will be familiar with exploitation methodologies across a wide range of technologies, from classic enterprise technology stacks to modern digital services. You will have a well-developed ability to tactically assess and to execute a diversity of attack types, including chained attacks and evasion techniques, to achieve your desired goal.

Benefits

• A generous employer pension contribution of 28.97% through the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
• 25 days of annual leave, (increasing to 30 days once you have reached 5 years of service), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King's birthday.
• Flexible working arrangements including hybrid working, working part time or compressed hours.
• Employees are allocated 10% of their working time for personal and professional development.
• A £1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best-in-class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e-learning platforms.
• Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave.

Key Responsibilities

• Designing and executing threat intelligence-based full-spectrum cyber-attack simulations, including long-term campaign planning, persistence, and post-exploitation operations against the Ministry of Justice.
• Adopting a red team approach, discovering high-impact weaknesses across the organisation's most important technology estates and business areas, and validating whether the overarching cyber security apparatus is working effectively.
• Demonstrate expertise of the latest exploitation and evasion techniques in at least one area of specialism.
• Communicating technical findings in clear risk and impact-focused terms to senior stakeholders, enabling effective understanding and support for strategic decision-making.
• Development and implementation of technology platforms, tools and methodologies to augment and to automate team offensive and analytical capability.

Person Specification

Essential

• Proven ability to plan and execute complex, multi-phase operations, including: Scenario-driven adversary simulation and Threat intelligence analysis and assessment.
• Post-exploitation, persistence and lateral movement, including tactical analysis of attack paths leading to high-value targets.
• Conducting engagement activities in line with operational security best practice and within a range of threat actor capabilities and tradecraft.
• Deep understanding of security technologies found in end-user and server operating systems and supporting infrastructure, including relevant architectural and operational patterns of at-scale deployment and administration of complex legacy and modern enterprise environments.
• Experience using, developing and deploying tools in support of red teaming activities, including attack infrastructure, C2 frameworks and infrastructure-as-code technologies.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to clearly explain complex technical issues related to vulnerabilities and risk to diverse audiences, including senior stakeholders, in support of vulnerability management, threat mitigation, and risk-based decision-making.

Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for SC clearance.

We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate based on culture, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability status, sexual orientation, educational or social background or any other factor.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found.