Akamai Security Engineer (L3 SME) - 6 Month Contract - Hybrid (Farringdon) - Inside IR35

Akamai Security Engineer (L3 SME) - 6 Month Contract - Hybrid (Farringdon) - Inside IR35

This role sits within the Cyber Security function and is responsible for managing, optimising and securing enterprise-scale Akamai environments. The successful candidate will operate as a Level 3 SME within a high-pressure Cyber Defence environment, ensuring performance, resilience and security across critical digital platforms.

You will play a key role in protecting large-scale systems from advanced threats, optimising CDN performance, and ensuring compliance across both cloud and on-prem environments.

Key Responsibilities

Manage and optimise Akamai security suites including:

• WAF
• L7 Anti-DDoS
• Bot Manager Premier
• API Security
• Site Shield
• API Acceleration
• Implement advanced blocking measures and bot-attack prevention strategies to secure large-scale production systems.
• Ensure PCI compliance and maintain secure configurations across hybrid cloud and on-prem infrastructure.
• Configure and optimise Akamai CDN for performance, scalability and reliability.
• Set up application and web transaction monitoring, including customised reporting and alerting.
• Integrate automation tooling such as Terraform and CI/CD pipelines into Akamai deployments.
• Act as L3 SME for Akamai-related incidents within Cyber Defence Centres (CDCs).
• Lead service recovery during outages and ensure SLA/OLA adherence in high-stakes environments.
• Conduct deep technical troubleshooting, root cause analysis (RCA), and performance tuning across Akamai CDN services.
• Support transition of Akamai services from incumbent providers where required.
• Produce clear documentation, reporting and knowledge transfer materials.

What You Will Ideally Bring

• 7+ years of Cybersecurity experience.
• 3+ years operating as an Akamai SME/L3 Engineer.

Strong background in:

• Network Security
• Content Delivery Networks (CDN)
• Anti-DDoS
• Web Application Firewalls (WAF)
• Bot Management
• Hands-on experience managing and optimising enterprise Akamai environments.
• Akamai certifications (WAF, DDoS, Bot Manager, API Protector, Site Shield) highly desirable.
• Proven ability to work independently with minimal supervision in high-pressure environments.
• Strong stakeholder communication and collaboration skills.
• Experience working within structured incident and governance frameworks.

Contract Details

• Duration: 6 months
• Rate: £500 per day
• IR35 Status: Inside IR35
• Location: Hybrid - Farringdon
• Start Date: ASAP