Security Engineer

Tailsco Ltd; Richmond; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading pet food company in Richmond is seeking a Security Engineer to strengthen their cyber security function. You will define security standards, ensure compliance, and collaborate across teams to implement secure practices while providing hands-on support as needed. The ideal candidate has cyber security experience, strong knowledge of security frameworks, and excellent communication skills. This role offers a competitive salary, annual bonuses, and flexible hours, contributing to a balanced work-life culture.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Annual bonus

Flexible core hours

Health insurance

Discounted gym membership

25 days holiday

Qualifications

• Experience in cyber security, security engineering, or governance roles.
• Strong knowledge of security frameworks like ISO 27001 and GDPR.
• Ability to translate technical risk into actionable requirements.

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain security standards across the company.
• Collaborate with teams to embed security requirements.
• Conduct risk assessments and support incident response.

Skills

Cyber security experience

Knowledge of security frameworks

Secure design understanding

Incident response familiarity

Scripting or automation skills

Strong communication skills

Job description

Changing the world of pet food for good

As a Security Engineer at tails.com, you will play a key role in strengthening the organisational cyber security function.

Build our brand

We’re building an international brand, fast. We set ambitious goals. We challenge and support each other in equal measure. At the pace we’re moving, we prefer to test ideas and learn quickly rather than spend months building a business case. That means we celebrate when things go right, and we learn when things go wrong.

Sound like a team you want to join? Here’s how you’ll make a difference:

The role

As a Security Engineer at tails.com, you will play a key role in strengthening the organisational cyber security function. You’ll define, embed, and assure the security standards, guardrails, and risk management practices that shape how technology is designed, delivered, and operated across the business.

Working closely with engineering, infrastructure, data, and business teams, you’ll ensure security requirements are understood and consistently applied, balancing operational pragmatism with strong governance. While your focus is on direction and assurance, you’ll get hands-on when needed to validate controls, support investigations, or verify technical implementation.

You’ll collaborate deeply with the Nestlé Cyber team—drawing on their expertise, intelligence, and tooling as an extended part of the tails.com security capability. With full access to their resources, you’ll help maintain a secure, resilient, and well-governed technology environment that supports tails.com’s growth and day-to-day operations.

You will be responsible for:

Security Standards, Guardrails, and Governance

• Define and maintain security standards, guardrails, and controls across tails.com.
• Ensure standards are clear, pragmatic, and consistently applied across teams.
• Align controls to recognised frameworks (e.g. ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, GDPR).
• Embed security expectations through collaboration and enablement.
• Promote secure-by-design principles across delivery lifecycles.
• Provide oversight to ensure controls remain effective and proportionate.

Collaboration, Assurance, and Operational Oversight

• Partner with engineering, infrastructure, data, and business teams to embed security requirements.
• Provide practical guidance to help teams implement secure patterns independently.
• Collaborate with Nestlé Cyber, leveraging SOC intelligence, tooling, and insights.
• Lead assurance activities and support audits with clear, accurate evidence.
• Conduct risk assessments, identify gaps, and track remediation to closure.
• Translate central insights into local actions and ensure accountable ownership.
• Support incident response through structured analysis and hands-on validation where needed.
• Deliver targeted communications and training to improve security awareness.

Security Maturity, Improvement, and Governance Evolution

• Review and evolve standards and practices to stay effective and business-aligned.
• Improve automation, efficiency, and consistency across governance and assurance activities.
• Monitor emerging threats and technologies, updating guidance as required.
• Drive measurable improvements through maturity tracking and regular review cycles.
• Contribute to the ongoing development of the tails.com cyber security function.

The skills you’ll bring:

• Experience in cyber security, security engineering, or security governance roles.
• Strong knowledge of security frameworks (ISO 27001, NIST CSF, CIS, PCI-DSS, GDPR).
• Understanding of secure design, cloud security, and infrastructure security patterns.
• Experience defining, assessing, or assuring security controls and standards.
• Familiarity with SOC operations, threat intelligence, and incident response.
• Ability to translate technical risk into clear, actionable requirements.
• Basic scripting or automation skills (e.g. Python, Bash, PowerShell).
• Strong written and verbal communication skills across technical and non-technical audiences.
• Relevant certifications beneficial but not required.

Key Attributes:

• Governance-minded: Applies structured, standards-led security practices.
• Operationally aware: Adapts security expectations to real delivery environments.
• Collaborative: Builds trust across technology, business, and Nestlé Cyber teams.
• Pragmatic: Balances risk, security, and operational realities.
• Detail-oriented: Produces clear, accurate documentation and evidence.
• Analytical: Assesses issues methodically and communicates impact clearly.
• Curious: Keeps pace with evolving threats and best practices.
• Calm under pressure: Responds to incidents with structure and composure.
• Outcome-focused: Prioritises measurable improvements over policy alone.

What’s in it for you?

• Competitive salary, reviewed annually
• Annual bonus, based on company performance
• Flexible core hours, giving you true work life balance
• Hybrid role to ensure this role works for you
• 25 days of holiday (excluding bank holidays) which increases over time to a max of 27 days
• 9/10 day working week to enhance your wellbeing without a reduction in pay and leave allowance
• Optional 5 days unpaid leave and 1 paid volunteer day each year
• When you need a change of scenery, you can work from abroad 2 weeks every 6 months
• Health insurance for you, paid by tails.com
• Extended maternity, paternity, shared parental and adoption pay. 6 months at 70% pay
• Flexible paid care leave to support immediate dependants, people close to you and pets
• In house L&D team, with access to year round courses to help drive your development
• 50% discount on all tails.com
• Discounted gym membership

What’s next?

If this sounds like it matches your experience and what you’d love to do, we can’t wait to hear from you! If you’re unsure whether you fit our criteria exactly, please get in touch anyway. And because we believe that diverse teams perform better, we’d especially love to hear from you if you’re from an under-represented demographic.

Here’s a taster of how our recruitment process works:

1. Once you have applied your CV will be reviewed by the Talent Acquisition Team.
2. If selected, you will then have a call with the TA Team who will tell you more about us and the role, as well as learning more about your skills and experience.
3. Should you be successful, the next stage will be a video call with the hiring manager.
4. If successful, you will be invited to present a task back to a panel of interviewers.

Our Commitment

We’re proud to be an active equal opportunity employer. We want to give everyone a fair chance to join us in changing the world of pet food for good. We do this by conducting a structured recruitment process for all candidates, as well as actively promoting our roles to communities that are under-represented at tails.com.

During your interview process you’ll meet some of our team with varying levels of responsibility and experience. We want to give every candidate a fair interview process and if you need any reasonable adjustments made, please let us know.