Cyber Security Officer (Insider Risk)
Job summary
Cyber Operations purpose is to support safe care and build public trust by building NHS England's cyber resilience and enabling the wider health system to be cyber resilient, supporting Transformation Directorate's purpose of delivering the best care and outcomes for the NHS.
The Cyber Operations sub-directorate consists of four operational areas:
- Cyber Security Operations Unit (CSOU & SIO)
- Cyber Delivery Unit (CDU)
- Cyber Improvement Programme
- Chief Information Security Office Function (CISO)
The Cyber Security Officer Insider Risk role sits within the CISO function in the Insider Risk team. This team is responsible for monitoring the insider threat and carrying out mitigating activities such as staff vetting, training and awareness and providing secure communications. The Security Officer role is a dynamic role that will provide support to senior colleagues in all areas of the insider risk team. This will involve working with the team and stakeholders on the security measures that will help protect NHS England from security breaches and attacks on its computer networks and systems.
Our ideal candidate is a team player with tenacity and enthusiasm to keep our data safe. You will be able to work proactively under pressure to deliver against individual and team targets, whilst maintaining a clear focus on quality customer service and a razor-sharp attention to detail.
Main duties of the job
The main duties of the Security Officer would be to support each of the Security Leads in the Insider Risk team and assist them in; monitoring carrying out investigations of insider risk activity, undertaking pre-employment checks of staff and contractors and promoting education and awareness of insider risk. To do this to Security Officer's main duties would be to:
- Monitor the insider risk inbox providing an initial response and advice regarding security measures, access to training and pre-employment checks, referring to the relevant senior lead where necessary
- Review monitoring data to interpret user behaviour to identify potential threats and raise investigations
- Provide support to senior security leads during investigations of incidents of insider risk
- Support insider risk stakeholder group providing support to the group to allow visibility of insider threats and the mitigations in place
- Engage with managers, Data Protection Officer, investigations, and policy teams regarding insider risk investigations
- Manage the communications with the Security Champions community and co-ordinating events and meetings
About us
NHS England has a wide range of statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers. These are focused on supporting the wider NHS to deliver high quality care, as well as doing those things that are best done once for the whole NHS.
Our staff bring expertise across clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial specialisms -- enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.
In March 2025, the Government announced that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions, ultimately leading to NHS England being fully integrated into the department.
If you currently work within the NHS and if successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR).This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the process.
Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in our offices.
Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.
We cannot offer visa sponsorship for any vacancies.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification for more information about the role and responsibilities.
Please ensure your supporting statement includes demonstratable evidence and specific examples on how you meet the criteria for each of the key skills specified. This will be used in both the shortlisting and interview processes
Important: Please be aware there are residency requirements you need to meet:
All NHS England Cyber Security personnel must hold Security Clearance level as a minimum. To meet National Security Vetting requirements, SC clearances require 5 years continuous UK residency. In certain cases, this can be reduced to three years continuous UK residency, with additional overseas checks for the previous two years. Candidates who were posted abroad for service with HM Government, Armed Forces or within a UK government role - will still be considered.
Please make sure you meet these requirements before applying for this role. You dont need to have SC already, however, failure to achieve the requirements for SC after offer will result in the job offer being withdrawn.
For further advice please check https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels/national-security-vetting-clearance-levels#security-check-sc
Please be aware that should you be successful in this position, you will be hired to the job title of Security Officer and this job title is advertised to attract the right skills needed for the role.
The post of Security Officer has been awarded a Recruitment and Retention Premia (RRP) in response to current labour market conditions. In recognition of this, the role attracts an additional monthly RRP payment equal to 10% per annum.
Please be aware that RRP is non-contractual and subject to review
If you like what you have read and think you have the skills and experience, we need then don't delay, apply today! We get lots of applications for our roles and so we sometimes have to close our posts early. Don't miss out!
Person Specification
Knowledge
- Knowledge of IT security policies, standards, and procedures; ability to utilise a variety of administrative skill sets and technical knowledge to ensure cyber security compliance.
- Knowledge of the processes, tools and techniques of information security management, ability to deploy and monitor information security systems, as well as detect, resolve and prevent violations of IT security, to protect organisational data.
- Knowledge of and the ability to protect information and information systems while ensuring their confidentiality, integrity and availability.
- Knowledge of the tools and processes for maintaining application security; ability to design and implement security programs to prevent data loss and access intrusion from web and mobile applications.
- Knowledge of concepts, tools and practices of dealing with computer crime; ability to detect and prevent business crimes that involve computers/networks as instruments
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Employer details
Employer name
NHS England
Address
Wellington Place
Leeds
LS1 4AP
United Kingdom
Employer's website
https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/working-for/