Security Manager - SOC

Tesco Technology; Welwyn Garden City; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

25 days holidays

Private medical insurance

Maternity & adoption leave

Paternity leave

Mental health support

Job summary

Tesco Technology is seeking a Security Manager for the Security Operations Centre to drive transformation and enhance cyber defence capabilities across a large retail ecosystem.

You will lead a high-performing team of analysts, embed a product and service mindset, and champion AI-driven improvements while maintaining strong operational resilience and alignment with Tesco’s strategic priorities.

Qualifications

• Demonstrable experience leading technical teams and developing talent.
• Ability to define and execute strategic roadmaps aligned to business objectives.
• Strong ability to communicate cyber risk to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead SOC transformation and change, delivering the roadmap with new capabilities.
• Maintain high-performance SOC operations, ensuring strong detection and response.
• Champion Applied AI and automation to optimise workflows and investigations.
• Develop and mentor a diverse, high-performing security team.
• Engage with Cyber Defence, Technology and Business stakeholders to align priorities.
• Embed product/service mindset within the SOC for measurable outcomes.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic thinking

Communication

Operational cyber expertise

Change leadership

SOC tooling awareness

Applied AI awareness

Technical interviewing

Collaboration & inclusion

Education

Relevant degree

Tools

Zendesk

xMatters

SIEM

EDR

SOAR

Job description

As a Security Manager within Tesco’s Security Operations Centre (SOC), focused on transformation and change, you will lead the evolution of our cyber defence capabilities, ensuring the proactive protection of a retail ecosystem that serves millions of customers. You will empower and support the development of a high-performing team of analysts, aligning operational outcomes with Tesco’s strategic business priorities. This role is central to maintaining operational resilience whilst driving continuous change across people, process and technology. Acting as a guardian of both performance and transformation, you will enable innovation, including the responsible adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI), to deliver a modern, customer-first cyber defence capability. This role reports to the SOC Manager and forms a key role within our Investigation & Incident Response management team.

About the role

As a Security Manager within Tesco’s Security Operations Centre (SOC), focused on transformation and change, you will lead the evolution of our cyber defence capabilities, ensuring the proactive protection of a retail ecosystem that serves millions of customers. You will empower and support the development of a high-performing team of analysts, aligning operational outcomes with Tesco’s strategic business priorities. This role is central to maintaining operational resilience whilst driving continuous change across people, process and technology. Acting as a guardian of both performance and transformation, you will enable innovation, including the responsible adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI), to deliver a modern, customer-first cyber defence capability. This role reports to the SOC Manager and forms a key role within our Investigation & Incident Response management team.

You will be responsible for

• Lead
  SOC Transformation & Change: Define and deliver the SOC roadmap, ensuring new capabilities (process, tooling, AI, and operating models) are effectively scoped, implemented, and embedded without compromising operational performance.
• Drive
  Operational Excellence: Ensure the SOC operates at high performance, maintaining strong detection and response capability, service reliability, and measurable outcomes aligned to business risk.
• Enable
  Innovation: Champion the adoption of Applied AI and automation to optimise SOC workflows, reduce analyst toil, and improve the quality and speed of investigation and response.
• Develop
  High-Performing Teams: Lead, mentor, and grow a diverse team of security professionals, fostering a culture of inclusion, continuous learning, and engineering-led ways of working.
• Strengthen
  Stakeholder Engagement: Act as a senior interface between Cyber Defence, Technology, and Business stakeholders, clearly communicating risk, influencing outcomes, and aligning priorities.
• Own
  Service & Product Mindset: Embed a product and service-oriented approach within the SOC, ensuring changes are outcome-driven, measurable, and aligned to customer and organisational needs.

You will need

Essential

• Leadership
  & Team Development: Demonstrable experience leading and managing technical teams, including coaching, performance development, and building inclusive, high-performing environments.
• Strategic
  Thinking & Problem Solving: Proven ability to define and execute strategic roadmaps, translating complex challenges into clear, actionable plans aligned to business objectives.
• Communication
  & Influencing: Strong capability to communicate complex cyber risks effectively to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, influencing decisions at senior levels.
• Operational
  Cyber Expertise: Demonstrable understanding of threat detection and incident response practices, ensuring the SOC delivers effective, timely, and high-quality defensive outcomes.
• Change
  Leadership: Experience embracing and enabling change, successfully integrating new tools, processes, and operating models whilst maintaining service continuity.
• Operational
  Tooling Awareness: Exposure to SOC tooling such as Zendesk and xMatters, and an understanding of how workflow, escalation, and incident management processes are orchestrated.
• Applied
  AI Awareness: Foundational understanding of how AI and automation can be applied to cyber defence operations, particularly in improving efficiency and decision-making.
• Technical
  Interviewing & Talent Building: Experience in hiring and assessing technical talent, building teams that meet both current and future capability needs.
• Collaboration
  & Inclusion: Demonstrable commitment to fostering inclusive teams and working effectively across diverse technology and security domains.

Desirable

• Awareness
  of core technology landscape and retail systems, and how cyber risk translates into customer and business impact.
• Understanding
  of cyber incident management models and escalation frameworks across enterprise environments.
• Familiarity
  with core cyber defence technologies (e.g. SIEM, Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR)).
• Knowledge
  of cloud and container security, and modern technology architectures.
• Experience
  with product methodologies and service-oriented delivery models.
• Exposure
  to data analytics and insights to drive operational decision-making and performance improvement.
• Experience
  managing budgets, vendors, or procurement processes within a technical environment.
• Demonstrated
  curiosity, learning mindset, and contribution to professional communities.
• Awareness
  of responsible AI governance principles and how they apply to operational environments.
• Familiarity
  with engineering and development lifecycle concepts to better align security with technology delivery.
• GIAC
  certification and or relevant certifications such as CISSP or CISM
• A
  relevant degree, with professional experience.

Whats in it for you?

• Annual bonus scheme of up to 20% of base salary.
• Holiday starting at 25 days plus a personal day (plus Bank holidays).
• Private medical insurance.
• 26 weeks maternity and adoption leave (12 months service required at the qualifying date) at full pay, followed by 13 weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay or Statutory Adoption Pay, we also offer 6 weeks fully paid paternity leave.
• Free 24/7 virtual GP service, Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) for you and your family, free access to a range of experts to support your mental wellbeing.
• This information is a shortened summary, refer to our policies for full details.

About Us

You might know us as a supermarket, technology company or even for our award-winning mobile network. Truth is, we’re all of those things, and much more. Our colleagues work with one goal in mind, helping to make every day a little better for our customers, colleagues and communities all over the world. No two customers are the same, neither are our colleagues.

At Tesco, we champion a balance that lets you thrive both in and out of work. Spend 60% of your week collaborating with colleagues at our office locations or local sites and the rest remotely. Whether you're just kicking off your career, juggling passions, or navigating big life events, we're here to support you. We always welcome a conversation about flexible working, so talk to us throughout your application about how we can support.

We’re proud to be an accredited Disability Confident Leader, where everyone’s welcome. That’s why we commit to providing a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process.