2027 Cloud Assurance and Cyber Security Apprentice - Crawley

Government jobs, apprenticeship; Crawley; On-site; GBP 20,000 - 28,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Holiday entitlement 201 hours a year

Health care cash plan

Hybrid/flexible working options

Employee assistance programme

Learning and development support

Employee discounts

Life cover

Volunteering opportunities

Job summary

Thales UK Limited is offering a 2-year Cyber Security Technologist Apprenticeship in Crawley. You will learn on the job, monitor cloud platforms, and participate in secure operations while studying a Level 4 cyber security course.

The role requires successful BPSS and SC checks and provides a structured development path with on‑the‑job training. You will study with QA Limited as the training provider and begin on Monday 6 September 2027, working 37 hours per week with a wage of £24,000 per year.

Qualifications

• GCSE English and Maths (or equivalent) required.
• A Level ICT or equivalent preferred.
• BPSS and Security Clearance checks required for UK government work.
• Permanent right to work in the UK required.

Responsibilities

• Learn on the job with hands-on experience in cloud security and cyber operations.
• Assist in monitoring and protecting cloud infrastructure.
• Support incident response and security investigations.
• Contribute to governance, risk and compliance activities.

Skills

Communication skills

Attention to detail

Problem solving

Logical

Team working

Education

GCSE English & Maths

A Level ICT

Job description

Summary

Do you love troubleshooting and finding a solution to complex challenges? If so, turn your curiosity into a career.... We would love to hear from you. This apprenticeship is a fantastic opportunity to learn about cloud assurance and cyber security within a leading UK tech and defence company.

Wage

£24,000 a year

Minimum wage rates (opens in new tab)

• Competitive salary of £24,000 per annum
• Performance-related pay uplifts
• Contributory Company Pension

Training course

Cyber security technologist (2021) (level 4)

Hours

Monday - Friday. 8 hours, Monday - Thursday. 5 hours on a Friday. 37 hours a week

Start date

Monday 6 September 2027

Duration

2 years

Positions available

1

Work

Most of your apprenticeship is spent working. You'll learn on the job by getting hands‑on experience.

What you'll do at work

As a Cloud Assurance and Cyber Security Apprentice, you will gain hands‑on experience and practical knowledge in cyber security, particularly focused on security operations and safeguarding cloud platforms. This role offers a unique opportunity to contribute to the security and integrity of critical systems while gaining exposure to government‑level security operations.

What You Will learn

• Cloud Security Monitoring: Assist in monitoring and maintaining the security of the Thales adopted public cloud infrastructure (e.g., Azure, Google Cloud) in compliance with government security guidelines
• Incident Response: Support the reporting, investigation and analysis of security incidents and potential breaches within classified environments, helping to resolve issues swiftly
• Security Auditing: Help perform regular audits of cloud‑based systems to ensure compliance with security protocols and government regulations
• Risk and Vulnerability Assessments: Participate in identifying vulnerabilities within cloud services, maintaining Risk reporting mechanisms and proposing mitigations to improve security posture
• Compliance & Governance: Assist in ensuring that the Thales cloud environments comply with government policies, such as GDPR, NCSC guidelines, and other relevant frameworks
• Collaboration with Development Teams: Work alongside cloud architects, developers, and engineers to ensure security is integrated into all stages of development, from design to deployment
• Training & Development: Engage in continuous learning and development, including completing certifications relevant to cloud security and government standards

Where you'll work

Manor Royal
Crawley
RH10 9HA

Training
Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You'll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.

Training provider

QA LIMITED

Training course

Cyber security technologist (2021) (level 4)

Understanding apprenticeship levels (opens in new tab)

What you'll learn

• Discover vulnerabilities in a system by using a mix of research and practical exploration.
• Analyse and evaluate security threats and hazards to a system or service or processes. Use relevant external source of threat intelligence or advice (e.g. National Cyber Security Centre) Combine different sources to create an enriched view of cyber threats and hazards.
• Research and investigate common attack techniques and relate these to normal and observed digital system behaviour and recommend how to defend against them. Interpret and demonstrate use of external source of vulnerabilities (e.g. OWASP, intelligence sharing initiatives, open source).
• Undertake security risk assessments for simple systems without direct supervision and propose basic remediation advice in the context of the employer.
• Source and analyse security cases and describe what threats, vulnerability or risks are mitigated and identify any residual areas of concern.
• Analyse employer or customer requirements to derive security objectives and taking account of the threats and overall context develop a security case which sets out the proposed security measures in the context with reasoned justification.
• Identify and follow organisational policies and standards for information and cyber security and operate according to service level agreements or other defined performance targets.
• Configure, deploy and use computer, digital network and cyber security technology.
• Recommend improvements to the cyber security posture of an employer or customer based on research into future potential cyber threats and considering threat trends.
• Write program code or scripts to meet a given design requirement in accordance with employers' coding standards.
• Identify cyber security threats relevant to a defined context.
• Accurately, objectively and concisely record and report the appropriate cyber security information, including in written reports within a structure or template provided.
• Design, build, test and troubleshoot a network incorporating more than one subnet with static and dynamic routes, to a given design requirement without supervision. Provide evidence that the system meets the design requirement.
• Analyse security requirements given (functional and non-functional security requirements that may be presented in a security case) against other design requirements (e.g. usability, cost, size, weight, power, heat, supportability etc.) for a given system or product. Identify conflicting requirements and propose, with reasoning, resolution through appropriate trade-offs.
• Design and build, systems in accordance with a security case within broad but generally well‑defined parameters. This should include selection and configuration of typical security hardware and software components. Provide evidence that the system has properly implemented the security controls required by the security case.
• Design systems employing encryption to meet defined security objectives. Develop and implement a plan for managing the associated encryption keys for the given scenario or system.
• Use tools, techniques and processes to actively prevent breaches to digital system security.
• Configure digital system monitoring and analysis tools (e.g. SIEM tools), taking account of threat & vulnerability intelligence, indicators of compromise.
• Conduct cyber-risk assessments against an externally (market) recognised cyber security standard using a recognised risk assessment methodology.
• Develop information security policies or processes to address a set of identified risks, for example from security audit recommendations.
• Develop information security policies within a defined scope to take account of legislation and regulation relevant to cyber security.
• Take an active part in a security audits against recognised cyber security standards, undertake gap analysis and make recommendations for remediation.
• Develop plans for local business continuity for approval within defined governance arrangements for business continuity.
• Assess security culture using a recognised approach.
• Design and implement a simple 'security awareness' campaign to address a specific aspect of a security culture.
• Develop plans for incident response for approval within defined governance arrangements for incident response.
• Integrate and correlate information from various sources (including log files from different sources, digital system monitoring tools, Secure Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools, access control systems, physical security systems) and compare to known threat and vulnerability data to form a judgement based on evidence with reasoning that the anomaly represents a digital system security breach.
• Recognise anomalies in observed digital system data structures (including by inspection of network packet data structures) and digital system behaviours (including by inspection of protocol behaviours) and by inspection of log files and by investigation of alerts raised by automated tools including SIEM tools.
• Undertake root cause analysis of events and make recommendations to reduce false positives and false negatives.
• Manage local response to non- major incidents in accordance with a defined procedure.
• Discover vulnerabilities in a system by using a mix of research and practical exploration.
• Analyse and evaluate security threats and hazards to a system or service or processes. Use relevant external source of threat intelligence or advice (e.g. National Cyber Security Centre) Combine different sources to create an enriched view of cyber threats and hazards.
• Research and investigate common attack techniques and relate these to normal and observed digital system behaviour and recommend how to defend against them. Interpret and demonstrate use of external source of vulnerabilities (e.g. OWASP, intelligence sharing initiatives, open source).
• Undertake security risk assessments for simple systems without direct supervision and propose basic remediation advice in the context of the employer.
• Source and analyse security cases and describe what threats, vulnerability or risks are mitigated and identify any residual areas of concern.
• Analyse employer or customer requirements to derive security objectives and taking account of the threats and overall context develop a security case which sets out the proposed security measures in the context with reasoned justification.
• Identify and follow organisational policies and standards for information and cyber security and operate according to service level agreements or other defined performance targets.
• Configure, deploy and use computer, digital network and cyber security technology.
• Recommend improvements to the cyber security posture of an employer or customer based on research into future potential cyber threats and considering threat trends.
• Write program code or scripts to meet a given design requirement in accordance with employers' coding standards.
• Identify cyber security threats relevant to a defined context.
• Accurately, objectively and concisely record and report the appropriate cyber security information, including in written reports within a structure or template provided.

Training schedule

This is a 24-month programme aligned to the Level 4 Cyber Security Technologist Apprenticeship standard and delivered in partnership with a digital specialist provider.

The programme is delivered via a virtual learning model consisting of live taught lectures and online learning materials.

More training information

The programme will conclude with an End Point Assessment, followed by roll‑off into your permanent role within the Thales UK business.

Essential qualifications

GCSE in: 5 subjects to include English and Maths (grade 9-4 (A-C))

A Level in: ICT (grade C, or above)

Share if you have other relevant qualifications and industry experience. The apprenticeship can be adjusted to reflect what you already know.

Skills

• Communication skills
• Attention to detail
• Problem solving skills
• Logical
• Team working

Other requirements

To be considered for this position, you must have the permanent right to work in the UK and be able to successfully complete and maintain UK Government security checks, including Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) screening and Security Clearance (SC), which is a government background check, before starting employment.

To be eligible for SC clearance, you will typically need to have lived in the UK continuously for the last five years. As part of the vetting process, you will be asked to provide evidence of your identity, right to work in the UK, any time spent overseas during the last five years, and your employment and/or education history.

For further details of the evidence required to apply for security clearance please follow this link - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels/national-security-vetting-clearance-levels

About this employer

Together, we create the ingenious technological systems and innovations that impact and improve people’s lives every single day. Even if you haven't heard the name Thales before, you've definitely benefited from our inventiveness. We reinvest 20% of our sales in Research & Development in the UK. Together we supply invention across 4 core areas: Aerospace, Space, Defence and Security, Digital Identity and Security.

https://careers.thalesgroup.com/global/en/uk-apprenticeship-roles (opens in new tab)

Company benefits

• Holiday entitlement of 201 hours a year (plus a company day and bank holidays)
• Health care cash plan
• Hybrid/flexible working options
• Employee assistance programme
• Learning and development support
• Employee discounts and wellbeing initiatives
• Life cover
• 80 hours volunteering per year (first two years)

Disability Confident

A fair proportion of interviews for this apprenticeship will be offered to applicants with a disability or long- term health condition. This includes non-visible disabilities and conditions.

You can choose to be considered for an interview under the Disability Confident scheme. You'll need to meet the essential requirements to be considered for an interview.

After this apprenticeship

Your earnings can increase over time with an apprenticeship. Find out about potential future pay (opens in new tab).

Upon successful completion, you will roll‑off into a permanent role within Thales UK.

Contact

THALES UK LIMITED

Future Talent Team

[e-mail]

The reference code for this apprenticeship is VAC2000057383.