Cyber Security Advisor (GRC) | NHS England

NHS England; Leeds, Exeter, Greater London; On-site; GBP 59,000 - 68,000; Full time

Job summary

NHS England is seeking a Cyber Security Advisor (GRC) to strengthen governance, risk and compliance across the organisation. The role supports the Cyber Operations Business Plan, develops security metrics, and advises on secure-by-design practices to protect critical care information and public trust.

Based in the NHS England security function, the post emphasises evidence-based decision making, cross-team collaboration, and ensuring policy alignment with regulatory requirements.

Responsibilities

• Work with and support Cyber Security Leads to deliver against NHSE Security Model and Cyber Operations Business Plan, reducing overall security risk.
• Engage diverse stakeholders on GRC activities to drive improvements, acting as a contact and ensuring risks are prioritised and managed.
• Support development and management of key security metrics, dashboards and reporting for informed decisions.
• Provide support to system and service development teams to ensure secure by design and continual assurance.
• Support creation, development and review cycles of data security policies, standards and guides for systems and services.
• Support cyber security governance and assurance activities, producing papers, tracking actions and reporting to senior stakeholders.
• Undertake research and use data to inform decision making on data security best practice.
• Support the organisation with security advice and guidance to NHS England ensuring cyber resilience.

Job description

Cyber Security Advisor (GRC) | NHS England

Company: NHS England

Salary: £59,264 - £67,818 This includes a RRP payment of 20% (Excludes HCAS). Per annum

The post of Security Advisor /Analyst 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 20% per annum. Please be aware that RRP is non-contractual and subject to review

Please be aware that should you be successful in this position, you will be hired to the job title of Security Advisor /Analyst and this job title is advertised to attract the right skills needed for the role.

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 GRC team, within the CISO Function, plays a critical role by establishing strong governance frameworks, maintaining clear and usable security policies and standards, delivering robust cyber risk management, and providing assurance through compliance, audit, and control effectiveness activities. The team ensures decision makers have clear, evidence based views of security posture and maturity.

As a Cyber Security Advisor in our Security GRC team, you’ll play a key role in protecting what matters most, enabling the organisation to operate securely, confidently, and compliantly in an increasingly complex threat landscape.

You will

• Work with and support Cyber Security Leads to deliver against the requirements of the NHSE Security Model and Cyber Operations Business Plan, thereby helping to reduce overall security risk to the organisation.
• Engage diverse stakeholders on GRC activities to drive security improvements, acting as a point of contact, ensuring communications are actioned in a timely manner to ensure risks and issues are prioritised and managed accordingly.
• Support the development and management of key security metrics, dashboards and reporting to enable informed, evidenced based decision making.
• Provide support to key system and service development teams to ensure a secure by design and continual assurance approach is maintained.
• Support the creation, development and review cycles of data security related technical and non-technical policies, standards, and implementation guides for systems, solutions and services.
• Supporting cyber security governance and assurance activities, producing meeting papers, tracking actions and decisions, and ensuring effective follow up and reporting to senior stakeholders.
• Undertake research and make use of available information from multiple data streams to support, advise and inform decision making on data security best practice.
• Support the organisation with the provision of security advice and guidance to relevant teams within NHS England assuring cyber resilience.

NHS England has a wide range of statutory functions, responsibilitiesand regulatory powers. These are focused on supporting the wider NHS to deliverhigh qualitycare, as well as doing those things that are best done once for the whole NHS.

Our staff bringexpertiseacross 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 announcedthat NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions,ultimately leadingto NHS England being fully integrated into the department.

If you currently work within the NHS and if successful at interview, we willinitiatean Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). This retrieves key data from your current orpreviousNHS 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 forexternal candidates.

We are looking for talented security professionals to shape security outcomes, influence decision making, and work at the intersection of technology, risk, and business strategy. You won’t just be writing policies, you’ll be helping people understand risk, make better decisions, and embed security into everyday ways of working. The role ensures that security controls, policies, and processes align with regulatory requirements, recognised standards, and organisational risk appetite, enabling informed decision making and continuous improvement of the security posture.

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

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 don’t 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 Advisor/Analyst and this job title is advertised to attract the right skills needed for the role.

Secondments

Applicants from within the NHS will be offered on a secondment basis only, agreement should be obtained from their employer prior to submitting the application.

Please note that the reason for the fixed term of this contract is because to cover maternity leave.

You can find further details about the role, including key responsibilities and accountabilities, alongside the organisational structure and person specification in the attached Job Description and other supporting documents.

This advert closes on Tuesday 24 Nov 2026

£59,264.40 - £67,818 per Annum (this includes a RRP payment of 20%)

£86,556.60 - £100,578.40 Per Annum (this includes a RRP payment of 30%)