Director, Counter Advisary Operations

Haleon; Greater London; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A global consumer health company in the UK is looking for a Director of Counter Adversary Operations. This pivotal role focuses on establishing and enhancing defenses against sophisticated cyber threats, leading initiatives in proactive threat intelligence and incident response. Candidates should possess extensive experience in cybersecurity, strategic business alignment, and crisis management skills, alongside key certifications. This position offers the opportunity to influence critical cybersecurity strategies within a dynamic health-focused organization.

Qualifications

• Vast experience in Cybersecurity with major incident response.
• Experience across international manufacturing and supply chains.
• Preferred Certifications: CISSP, GCIA, GCIH.

Responsibilities

• Lead a proactive threat intelligence program.
• Define and own a CTI-led threat hunting program.
• Deliver structured adversarial programs to test effectiveness.
• Detect and neutralise advanced threats early.
• Direct cyber incident responders during major incidents.
• Create a strategic roadmap for counter adversary operations.

Skills

Deep understanding of the cybersecurity landscape

Excellent communication and negotiation skills

Ability to make high-stakes decisions under pressure

Problem-solving and adaptability

Tools

Threat intelligence analysis tools

Incident response tools

Job description

Welcome to Haleon. We’re a purpose‑driven, world‑class consumer company putting everyday health in the hands of millions. In just three years since our launch, we’ve grown, evolved and are now entering an exciting new chapter – one filled with bold ambitions and enormous opportunity. Our trusted portfolio of brands – including Sensodyne®, Panadol®, Advil®, Voltaren®, Theraflu®, Otrivin®, and Centrum® – lead in resilient and growing categories. What sets us apart is our unique blend of deep human understanding and trusted science. Now it’s time to fully realise the full potential of our business and our people. We do this through our Win as One strategy. It puts our purpose – to deliver better everyday health with humanity – at the heart of everything we do. It unites us, inspires us, and challenges us to be better every day, driven by our agile, performance‑focused culture.

Director of Counter Adversary Operations

About the role

The Director of Cyber Counter Adversary Operations (DCAO) is responsible for establishing, directing, and maturing the organisation’s proactive defences against sophisticated cyber threats from Advanced Persistent Threat and Organised Crime Groups. The role is focused on anticipating, detecting, disrupting and neutralising adversarial activity within the organisation by combining threat intelligence, elite threat hunting capabilities and major incident response strategies. The primary goal is to shift security posture from reactive defence to proactive, adversary‑centric operations.

Responsibilities

• Leads a proactive threat intelligence program that collects, processes, analyzes and disseminates timely and relevant threat information. This includes intelligence related to external and internal threat actors, vulnerabilities, campaigns and TTPs (Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures).
• Defines and owns a proactive, CTI‑led threat hunting program, to search for undetected malicious activity within the organisation’s IT and OT environments. Executes the program, developing hypotheses, methodologies and tooling to proactively search for indicators of compromise (IOCs) and indicators of attack (IOAs) that evade automated defences.
• Delivers a structured, ethics‑driven adversarial program to simulate realistic, multi‑layered attacks against the organisation’s people, processes and technology, thereby rigorously testing the effectiveness of SecOps and IR. Delivers the program using a global ‘Red’ team.
• Detects and neutralises advanced threats in the early stages of the kill chain, minimising breach impact and improving overall organisational resilience.
• Leads the technical investigation of all major incidents, directing cyber incident responders in the Cyber Incident Response Team.
• Creates, owns and maintains a 3‑year strategic roadmap of counter adversary operations; driving tactical and strategic improvements as per the defined roadmap.

Impact and Influence

Maintains contact with incident response, business continuity and crisis management functions across all areas of the company, exercising regularly with them. Serves as the primary technical liaison between the CIRT and Divisional / Executive Management Teams. Ensures that the company has an industry leading response capability for major cyber security incidents and can react rapidly to a crisis anywhere in the world. Establishes and maintains relationships with other Senior professionals in the cyber security world to facilitate the flow of information.

Stakeholder Engagement

Represents the organization at industry events and contributes to information sharing partnerships. Establishes and maintains relationships with other investigation and remediation teams within the company, working closely with them to address the full spectrum of security issues. Requires excellent communication, negotiation, and relationship‑building skills.

Qualifications and Skills

Business Expertise:

Deep understanding of the cybersecurity landscape, including industry‑specific threats and compliance requirements. Strategic knowledge of the business environment, regulatory landscape, and competitor capabilities. Ability to align cybersecurity initiatives with business objectives and risk management strategies.

Problem Solving:

Tackles complex, evolving cybersecurity challenges requiring innovation and adaptability. Makes high‑stakes decisions under pressure, balancing rapid response with thorough investigation. Navigates regulatory requirements, emerging technologies, and human factors in cybersecurity.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Vast experience in Cybersecurity with demonstrable experience of responding to significant cyber incidents involving Organised Crime and Nations State threat actors
• Experience working across international manufacturing / supply chains
• Preferred Certifications: CISSP, GCIA, GCDA, GSOC, GCIH, GDAT

Job Posting End Date: 2026-02-03

Equal Opportunities Haleon are committed to mobilising our purpose in a way that represents the diverse consumers and communities who rely on our brands every day. It guides us in creating an inclusive culture, where different backgrounds and views are valued and respected – all in support of understanding and best serving the needs of our consumers and unleashing the full potential of our people. It’s important to us that Haleon is a place where all our employees feel they truly belong. During the application process, we may ask you to share some personal information, which is entirely voluntary. This information ensures we meet certain regulatory and reporting obligations and supports the development, refinement, and execution of our inclusion and belonging programmes that are open to all Haleon employees. The personal information you provide will be kept confidential, used only for legitimate business purposes, and will never be used in making any employment decisions, including hiring decisions.