Chief Information Security Officer

Financial Ombudsman Service; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 98,000 - 109,000; Full time

Job summary

The Financial Ombudsman Service is seeking a Chief Information Security Officer to lead its cybersecurity efforts. This role involves developing a security culture, managing risks, and ensuring compliance in a dynamic environment. The ideal candidate will have significant experience at the CISO level and relevant certifications.

Benefits

25 days holiday entitlement

Generous pension

Private medical insurance

Employee Assistance Programme

Nationwide gym membership discounts

Qualifications

• Experience at CISO level in a sensitive and complex environment.
• Proven track record in IT security and governance.
• Experience leading teams and managing budgets.

Responsibilities

• Lead governance and implementation of cybersecurity strategy.
• Translate technical expertise into business language.
• Manage security policies and compliance processes.

Skills

IT security

Cybersecurity strategy

Risk management

Team leadership

Compliance

Education

CISSP certification

CISM certification

CRISC certification

Job description

Looking for a new challenge?

Take a look at our current vacancies. If you see a vacancy that is right for you, we encourage you to apply!

Chief Information Security Officer

We currently have an exciting opportunity for an experienced Chief Information Security Officer.

If you are keen to maintain and develop an environment and culture for our organisation that ensures and assures the security of our information and technology then we would really like to hear from you.

Employment Type: Full-time

Working hours: 35 hours per week. Where possible, we are open to considering part time/flexible working patterns. Please let us know in your application your desired working pattern

Reporting to: CTO

Salary: London range – from £106,600 - £118,000 (dependent on experience),Manchester range: From £98,400 - £109,000 (dependent on experience)

Location: London docklands (Hybrid) or Manchester (Hybrid). Our permanent hybrid policy sees us all working at least four days across a fortnight in the office.

About Financial Ombudsman Services

The Financial Ombudsman Service has been resolving customer complaints since 2001. Our service is free for consumers to use and over 1 million people contact us every year. The last few years have seen the Financial Ombudsman Service embark on an organisation-wide transformation journey.

With the customer at the heart of everything we do, we have already delivered significant improvements in the service we offer and 2025 will see us continue with our ambitious transformation agenda.

Last year we welcomed our new CTO and this year will see him launch the new IT strategy for the department. With the move to cloud computing in 2023 and the ever-changing technology landscape, it is a very exciting time to be joining the Technology team here at the Financial Ombudsman Service.

As our Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), you will maintain and develop an environment and culture for our organisation that ensures and assures the security of our information and technology. Given the nature of our Service’s work, this is a key role for our IT team and for the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Key responsibilities

• Leading the governance and implementation of our cyber security and information strategy and the supporting governance framework, ensuring that security is considered in all our organisation’s initiatives and that governance is aligned to the overall organisational governance framework. You will establish strategic plans, ensuring that our Cyber Strategy progresses against expected milestones are met with having the ability to calibrate our plans accordingly.

• As the CISO, you understand our business principles and service standards, and the impact on our regulatory requirements. You are able to translate the deep technical cyber expertise into business language and explain the impact to our risk appetite, proactively managing our assurance and compliance processes.

• Identifying and managing any issues that impact the organisation’s ability to meet security policies and ensuring that the organisation is following the standards set out in the governance framework.

• Maintaining a detailed and helicopter view of the cyber and information security risks across the whole organisation and ensuring that the risk assessment processes are fit for purpose and effective (including the assessing of any third parties/ supply chain partners).

• Working with the Chief Architect and the Enterprise Architecture team, ensuring that the organisation’s architecture is robust, resilient to cyber threats/ attacks and has the appropriate recovery mechanisms in place.

• Ensuring FOS is prepared for and can effectively detect and respond to critical incidents by implementing cyber incident management processes.

• Continuously educating our people on information security awareness and working closely with our L&D colleagues to ensure that training and educational courses are in place.

• Building influential relationships with senior leaders within the organisation (including c suite). Representing our CTO at various executive governance boards, audit functions and business continuity scenarios.

• Leading and developing a team of cyber and information security professionals.

To be considered for this role, you’ll need to show us that you’ve got the skills and capabilities. You’ll have to meet the following minimum criteria:

Minimum Criteria

• Demonstrable experience working at CISO level in an organisation that operates a sensitive and complex environment and is undergoing significant change/transformation.

• You will have a proven track record in IT security and experience of setting cyber information and security strategy and governance.

• CISSP, CISM or CRISC certification and some formal training in information security standards or significant professional experience.

• Experience of leading and managing a team and a budget.

• Experience of managing a 3rd party service and hybrid teams in a matrix management model.

Why Financial Ombudsman Service?

We are a values led organisation. Our values define our culture, influence our decisions, and underpin our vision and strategy. They set out how we play our PART through Purpose, Ambition, Respect and Trust. You can learn more about our values here: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/who-we-are/aims-values

We also offer an attractive, competitive salary and flexible benefits to suit our people. Here’s a list of some of the many benefits and perks you can get for working with us:

• 25 days holiday entitlement, with the option to buy extra or sell days

• Generous pension

• Various Family Friendly Policies, including enhanced maternity pay, carers and dependants leave

• Employer provided benefits such as Private medical insurance, virtual GP, Critical illness cover, Life assurance cover, to name a few

• Choice of voluntary benefits including Technology scheme, Cycle to work scheme, Will-writing service amongst others

• Employee Assistance Programme

• Extensive opportunities for personal and career development

• Nationwide gym membership discounts, and a fully equipped on-site gym open 24/7 in London

• Extensive Well-being resources including on-site therapists (London office only)

• Beautiful and bright London office looking over the Thames and near to mainline stations

• Our Manchester office is 7 minutes’ walk from the Oxford Road station

• Our employee led networks (a couple of examples being our Women's Network, Carers network, and Neurodiverse Network) do fantastic work in educating and raising awareness across a range of experiences and support us in being an inclusive employer and a great place to work. You can get involved, too!

How do I apply?

• Please upload your CV, which should highlight relevant skills and experience and explain any gaps in your working life.

• Use the supporting statement box to demonstrate how you meet the minimum criteria.

This advert will close at Midnight on Sunday, 8th June 2025

Due to high application numbers this advert may end earlier than the date specified, so please don't delay and apply now

A full job profile is available on request and will be provided to candidates shortlisted to the first stage of the assessment process.

We’re proud to be an inclusive employer

We view diversity as fundamental to our success and welcome applications from underrepresented groups across all communities.

We’re committed to being a great place to work– attracting and developing people from the widest possible range of backgrounds. We want everyone to perform at their best and feel able to be themselves. We understand that if we’re diverse and inclusive, we’ll better understand different perspectives, which is fundamental to our job resolving financial complaints.

We welcome applications from Black and other ethnic minority candidates, and female candidates, for all positions and particularly so for senior leader positions as they are under-represented within the Financial Ombudsman Service at this level.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. This means that we will put disabled candidates entering under the scheme through to the next stage of the recruitment process should they meet the minimum criteria for a role. A minimum criterion needs to be measurable from reviewing a candidate’s CV/supporting statement. Exceptions may apply if due to the volume of applications we are not able to interview all eligible candidates who qualify under the scheme. If you would like to speak to a member of our team about any reasonable adjustments you need, please email [e-mail] and let us know your preferred method of contact.

Find out more

Check out below channels to find out more about everyday life at the Financial Ombudsman Service – and don’t forget to follow us while you’re there!

• LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/financial-ombudsman-service

• Our careers page: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/who-we-are/join-us

Good luck with your application!