NIS Programme Manager

LA International; Snodland; Hybrid; GBP 92,000 - 111,000; Full time

Job summary

LA International is seeking an experienced NIS Programme Manager for a 6-month contract with extensions. Hybrid working with 1-2 days per week onsite in Snodland, UK. Rate £500-£600 per day via Umbrella.

The role focuses on leading complex IT/OT programmes within a regulated environment, ensuring CAF v4 compliance and secure-by-design delivery. The successful candidate will align capital and operational initiatives, manage multi-disciplinary teams, and engage regulators and stakeholders to

Qualifications

• Proven leadership of IT/OT convergence programmes in regulated environments.
• Knowledge of UK NIS Regulations and CAF v4 framework.
• Experience with SCADA/PLC and Purdue Model concepts.
• Experience building audit-ready evidence repositories and governance artifacts.
• Proven vendor management with Tier-1 partners and external auditors.

Responsibilities

• Orchestrate a blended portfolio of enhancements and base initiatives to meet CAF v4 requirements.
• Coordinate cross-functional resources to hit regulatory deadlines across sites.
• Identify and mitigate cyber and regulatory risks affecting deployment schedules.
• Drive change management across field teams and supply chain for secure-by-design processes.
• Manage multi-million-pound budgets with ring-fenced AMP8 funding and ROI focus.
• Communicate IT/OT challenges and regulatory benefits to executives and regulators.

Skills

Critical Infrastructure Leadership

Regulatory Expertise

OT Architecture

Governance & Evidence

Vendor Management

Cyber Maturation

Job description

NIS Programme Manager 6 Month contract initially + Extensions Based: Hybrid working. 1-2 days p/w onsite in Snodland. Rate - £500 - £600 p/d via Umbrella

We have a great opportunity with a world leading organisation where you will be provided with all of the support and development to succeed. A progressive organisation where you can really make a difference. We have a great opportunity for an NIS Programme Manager on a long term program of work.

Key Responsibilities

• Blended Portfolio & Benefits Alignment: The ability to orchestrate a complex portfolio of both Enhanced capital projects and Base operational initiatives, ensuring every output directly contributes to achieving the required status for the enhanced CAF sector-specific profile of the NIS CAF v4.
• Cross-Functional Resource Management: Highly skilled at orchestrating dedicated project resources in a matrixed environment. You must be able to negotiate and resolve friction between Capital Delivery and Planned Maintenance teams, ensuring field deployment squads are effectively ring-fenced from BAU firefighting to hit hard regulatory deadlines.
• Dynamic Risk Mitigation: A proactive approach to identifying, quantifying, and mitigating interconnected regulatory, cyber, and operational risks. Capable of balancing aggressive deployment schedules against live site environments, ensuring network isolation and upgrades do not disrupt essential water supply functions.
• Transformational Change Management: Expertise in driving profound organisational and behavioural change across field teams, engineering departments, and the supply chain. You must be able to overcome cultural resistance to new cybersecurity protocols (e.g., MFA, jump-boxes, least-privilege access) and embed secure-by-design processes into daily operations.
• Financial & Totex Acumen: The skill to manage multi-million-pound budgets, specifically protecting ring-fenced AMP8 funding, while navigating the nuances of strict regulatory capital versus operational business costs, ensuring all projects remain financially viable and protected from clawback.
• Executive & Tactical Communication: The ability to articulate complex IT/OT challenges, regulatory risks, and strategic benefits to the Executive Sponsor (SRO), external regulators, and operational site staff in a clear, concise, and persuasive manner.

Key Skills & Experience

• Critical Infrastructure Leadership: A proven track record of successfully leading complex IT/OT convergence or transformation programmes within Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) or heavily regulated utility environments.
• Sector-Specific Regulatory Expertise: Deep practical knowledge of the UK NIS Regulations and a demonstrated track record of delivering compliance against the enhanced CAF sector-specific profile of the NIS CAF v4. Familiarity with ISA/IEC 62443 industrial automation security standards is highly desirable.
• OT Architecture & Field Delivery: Evidence of operating within structured Operational Technology environments, possessing a firm grasp of Purdue Model segmentation, SCADA systems, PLCs, and telemetry network modernisations.
• Governance & Evidence Engine Management: Experience building and managing robust compliance frameworks (e.g., Master Action Trackers, evidence repositories) that translate technical field deployments into robust audit evidence for external technical assurance partners and regulators (e.g., DWI, Ofwat).
• Industrial Vendor Management: Experience managing complex relationships with Tier-1 industrial engineering partners, OT framework vendors (e.g., Siemens, Ovarro), and external assurance auditors, navigating high-stakes SLAs and strict compliance deliverables.
• Enterprise Cyber Maturation: Experience elevating an organisation's holistic cyber posture beyond just technical hardware, including leading business continuity overhauls, driving third-party supply chain resilience, and executing enterprise-wide cyber culture campaigns.

Desirable skills/knowledge/experience

• End-to-End Programme Delivery: Manage the comprehensive NIS portfolio, spanning IT, OT, and Operations, from initiation to closure. Ensure all physical, logical, and procedural deliverables collectively achieve the required status for the enhanced CAF sector-specific profile of the NIS CAF v4 by the mandated regulatory deadlines.
• Hub-and-Spoke Execution: Direct the hybrid delivery structure, overseeing both central PMO governance and the ring-fenced field deployment squads responsible for executing site communications modernisations and complex AMP8 PLC replacements.
• Capital Protection & Financial Control: Manage the overall financial health of the ring-fenced AMP8 capital allocation. Make strategic decisions to optimise spending, rigorously separate Enhanced regulatory spend from Base operational costs, and demonstrate a clear return on investment to ensure regulatory compliance.
• Operational Risk & Dependency Management: Take ownership of the complex interdependencies between site deployments, network boundary hardening, and legacy IT systems. Proactively mitigate programme-level risks to ensure operational resilience and zero disruption to essential water services during commissioning windows.
• Drive Organisational Change & Maturation: Lead the enterprise-wide procedural changes required to support technical deployments. Secure buy-in across all levels to overhaul Business Continuity Plans (BCP), establish manual operational overrides, and enforce critical supply chain cyber resilience.
• Regulatory Reporting & Assurance: Oversee the central evidence repository and Master Action Tracker (MAT). Ensure all workstream outputs pass rigorous internal gateways and external technical assurance audits, ultimately preparing the internal draft assurance and annual DWI progress submissions for Executive Sponsor sign-off.
• Stakeholder Orchestration: Actively manage the expectations of a wide range of stakeholders, from field technicians up to the Executive Technical Committee. Nurture strategic relationships with key external delivery partners, regulators, and technical assurance bodies.

This is an excellent opportunity on a great project of work.

We welcome applications from all individuals, regardless of background or identity, and we encourage candidates who may not meet every listed requirement to still apply.

Please Note: If a high volume of applications is received, only candidates shortlisted will be contacted.