Advanced Intrusion Testing Lead

Lloyds Banking Group; Manchester; On-site; GBP 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous pension contribution

Annual bonus

Share schemes

Discounted shopping

30 days holiday + bank holidays

Wellbeing initiatives

Parental leave

Job summary

Lloyds Banking Group is seeking an experienced Advanced Intrusion Testing Lead to steer our Adversary Emulation capability in Manchester. You will guide Red Team and Purple Team operations, develop the roadmap, and lead a high-performing team to deliver threat-led assessments.

Reporting to the Offensive Security Lead, you will translate findings into risk-reducing actions and collaborate with senior stakeholders to improve cyber resilience across the group.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience leading Red Team, Purple Team and adversary emulation functions within a large and complex organisation.
• Demonstrable expertise in planning and delivering intelligence-led attack simulations.
• Strong understanding of adversary tactics, techniques and procedures, threat-led testing methodologies and offensive security tooling.
• Ability to conduct targeted, covert tests including identifying vulnerabilities and post-exploitation activities without heavy reliance on tools.
• Experience building, developing and leading high-performing technical teams.
• Excellent stakeholder management with technical and executive audiences.
• Recognised offensive security certifications such as CREST, CRTO, GIAC, OSCP, OSCE or equivalent.
• Software development, automation or engineering in languages like C#, C++, Python, Bash, Java, Rust.

Responsibilities

• Draw on extensive hands-on adversary emulation experience to shape testing strategy and guide Red/Purple Team operations.
• Lead, mentor and develop a high-performing team of Red Team and Purple Team specialists.
• Define and carry out the AIT roadmap aligned to CSO and Group security objectives.
• Build relationships with stakeholders, communicating testing outcomes and strategic recommendations to varied audiences.
• Translate testing outputs into measurable risk reduction and drive remediation with pace.

Skills

Adversary emulation

Red Team leadership

Offensive security

Team mentoring

Stakeholder communication

Threat intelligence

Python

C/C++

Education

Degree in Cyber Security

Tools

C2 frameworks

Malware evasion

Attack simulation tooling

Security testing tooling

Job description

We're looking for an experienced and highly capable Advanced Intrusion Testing (AIT) Lead to lead and evolve our Adversary Emulation capability. Reporting to the Offensive Security Lead, you'll be accountable for the strategic direction, operational delivery and technical excellence of the team. This role combines deep offensive security expertise with inspirational leadership. You'll lead a team of highly skilled operators, and shape the roadmap for adversary emulation to deliver Red Teaming and Purple Teaming exercises across the Group. If you're passionate about offensive security, enjoy developing high-performing teams, and want to influence cyber resilience at enterprise scale, we'd love to hear from you.

What You'll Be Doing:

• Draw on extensive hands-on adversary emulation experience to shape testing strategy, guide the execution of sophisticated Red Team and Purple Team operations, and ensure the delivery of realistic, threat-led assessments that provide impactful insights into the Group's cyber resilience.
• Lead, mentor and develop a high-performing team of Red Team and Purple Team specialists, fostering a culture of technical excellence, continuous improvement, innovation and knowledge sharing.
• Define and carry out the AIT roadmap, ensuring alignment to CSO and wider Group security objectives.
• Build strong relationships with stakeholders across the Chief Security Office and wider organisation, communicating security risks, testing outcomes and strategic recommendations to audiences ranging from technical practitioners to executives.
• Drive security improvement by translating testing outputs into measurable risk reduction, partnering with collaborators to prioritise and remediate findings at pace.

Qualifications & Experience:

• Extensive experience leading Red Team, Purple Team and adversary emulation functions within a large and complex organisation.
• Demonstrable expertise in planning and delivering sophisticated intelligence-led attack simulations.
• Strong understanding of adversary tactics, techniques and procedures, threat-led testing methodologies and offensive security tooling, including C2 frameworks, malware and evasion techniques.
• Ability to conduct targeted, covert tests including identifying vulnerabilities, exploiting them, and performing post-exploitation activities, without needing to rely heavily on tools.
• Experience building, developing and leading high-performing technical teams.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to communicate effectively with technical and non-technical audiences, including senior leadership.
• Passion for cyber security research, continuous learning and advancing offensive security practices, Recognised offensive security certifications such as CREST, CRTO, GIAC, OSCP, OSCE or equivalent.
• Software development, automation or engineering experience in any low level or high-level language (C#, C++, C, Python, Bash Scripting, Java, Rust, etc.).
• Experience within financial services or other highly regulated environments.
• Degree or postgraduate qualification in Cyber Security, Computer Science, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Familiarity with AI-enabled security testing, attack simulation frameworks and modern security engineering practices. At Lloyds Banking Group, we're driven by a clear purpose; to help Britain prosper. Across the Group, our colleagues are focused on making a difference to customers, businesses and communities. With us you'll have a key role to play in shaping the financial services of the future, whilst the scale and reach of our Group means you'll have many opportunities to learn, grow and develop.

We keep your data safe. So, we'll only ever ask you to provide confidential or sensitive information once you have formally been invited along to an interview or accepted a verbal offer to join us which is when we run our background checks. We'll always explain what we need and why, with any request coming from a trusted Lloyds Banking Group person. We're focused on creating a values-led culture and are committed to building a workforce which reflects the diversity of the customers and communities we serve. Together we're building a truly inclusive workplace where all of our colleagues have the opportunity to make a real difference.

We're transforming at pace. Investing billions in our people, data and tech to change the way we meet the needs of our 28 million customers. We're growing, and we'd love you to be part of the journey. This is a place for you. Our ambition is to be the leading UK business for diversity, equity and inclusion supporting our customers, colleagues and communities, and we're committed to creating an environment in which everyone can thrive, learn and develop.

We also offer a wide-ranging benefits package, which includes:

Benefits:

• A generous pension contribution of up to 15%
• An annual performance-related bonus
• Share schemes including free shares
• Benefits you can adapt to your lifestyle, such as discounted shopping
• 30 days' holiday, with bank holidays on top
• A range of wellbeing initiatives and generous parental leave policies