Cyber Threat & Vulnerability Manager - Reading, Berkshire

As a Cyber Threat & Vulnerability Manager, you will play a key role within the Security Operations function at Thames Water, leading the organisation's approach to identifying, assessing, and reducing cyber risk across both IT and OT environments. Working closely with cybersecurity leadership, enterprise architects, and business stakeholders, you will ensure that threat and vulnerability management (TVM) capabilities are effective, scalable, and continuously improved.

This role contributes to Thames Water's cybersecurity resilience by establishing robust vulnerability management frameworks, integrating threat intelligence into risk processes, and driving proactive security improvements. You will collaborate across the organisation to reduce risk exposure, enhance cyber maturity, and ensure compliance with industry standards while maintaining strong governance and reporting practices.

You must be able to obtain Counter Terrorist Check (CTC) Clearance to be eligible for this position.

What you'll be doing as a Cyber Threat & Vulnerability Manager:

• Lead vulnerability management across the enterprise, ensuring frameworks for identification, categorisation, and mitigation are defined, implemented, and maintained.
• Establish and manage the operating model for vulnerability management, ensuring alignment and adoption across the business.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to develop threat assessment and TVM strategies aligned to organisational objectives.
• Develop and maintain TVM documentation, including policies, standards, and procedures.
• Integrate vulnerability management and threat intelligence tools with existing systems and infrastructure.
• Evaluate and recommend tools, technologies, and vendors to support TVM capabilities.
• Investigate newly identified vulnerabilities and provide risk-based mitigation and remediation guidance.
• Coordinate with technology and business stakeholders to ensure effective patching and vulnerability remediation.
• Maintain and evolve a cyber threat assessment methodology aligned to industry standards.
• Perform proactive threat hunting to identify emerging risks across the technology estate.
• Develop and maintain dashboards and reporting to track vulnerability and threat metrics.
• Ensure compliance with relevant standards and regulations such as GDPR, NIS, and ISO 27001.
• Monitor and optimise TVM tool performance, implementing improvements where required.
• Provide technical leadership and guidance to junior team members.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with vendors and service providers.
• Stay current with emerging threats, technologies, and best practices to continuously enhance security operations.
• Support major incident response where required as part of Security Operations.

What you should bring to the role:

• Experience leading or managing threat and vulnerability management processes within a complex enterprise environment.
• Strong experience in vulnerability remediation and patch management across diverse technology stacks.
• Experience managing cyber risk across dynamic and evolving digital environments.
• Ability to line manage and develop at least one team member towards shared objectives.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
• Experience working with third-party delivery partners and vendors.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain complex security concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong organisational, planning, and strategic thinking capabilities.
• Innovative mindset with a focus on continuous improvement and risk reduction.

Technical experience and skills:

• Hands-on experience with vulnerability management tools such as Tenable and Qualys.
• Strong understanding of TVM concepts, including threat modelling, vulnerability assessment, and OSINT.
• Knowledge of patch management approaches across SaaS, IaaS, end-user computing, and server environments.
• Ability to develop metrics and dashboards that demonstrate risk reduction and control effectiveness.
• Experience aligning security practices with frameworks such as ISO 27001, NIS, and GDPR.

Desirable qualifications and experience:

• Experience working within utilities, critical infrastructure, or large enterprise environments.
• Experience managing vulnerabilities in operational technology (OT) environments.
• Familiarity with legacy systems and managing risk in ageing technology estates.
• Experience supporting cyber security programmes and transformation initiatives.

Desirable technical skills and qualifications:

• Degree in Cyber Security, Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field.
• Professional certifications such as CISSP, CISM, or CCSP.
• TVM-specific certifications such as Certified Threat Intelligence Analyst (CTIA) or Certified Vulnerability Assessor (CVA).
• Knowledge of penetration testing or ethical hacking practices.

What's in it for you?

• Competitive salary: Up to 90,000 per annum, depending on experience.
• Car Allowance: 5,800.
• Annual Leave: 26 days holiday per year, increasing to 30 with the length of service (plus bank holidays).
• Performance-related pay plan directly linked to company performance measures and targets.
• Generous Pension Scheme through AON.
• Access to lots of benefits to help you take care of you and your family's health and wellbeing, and your finances from annual health MOTs and access to physiotherapy and counselling, to Cycle to Work schemes, shopping vouchers and life assurance.

Thames Water is a unique, rewarding, and diverse place to work, where every day you can make a difference, yet no day is the same. As part of our family, you'll enjoy meaningful career opportunities, flexible working arrangements and excellent benefits.

If you're looking for a sustainable and successful career where you can make a daily difference to millions of people's lives while helping to protect the world of water for future generations, we'll be here to support you every step of the way. Together, we can build a better future for our customers, our region, and our planet.

We're committed to being a great, diverse, and inclusive place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and want to ensure you feel supported throughout the recruitment process. If you need any adjustments, whether that's extra time, accessible formats, or anything else, just let us know. We're here to help and support.