Senior Lead Security Operations Analyst- Cardiff & Edinburgh

Companies House; Cardiff; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Companies House is seeking a Senior Lead Security Operations Specialist to lead the security operations function, protect services, systems and information from cyber threats, and provide technical guidance to the team in a Microsoft/AWS environment.

The role combines hands-on monitoring, investigations and incident response with senior leadership responsibilities and collaboration across engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Leading security investigations and incident response – owning complex/high‑impact incidents with containment, remediation and escalation.
• Providing technical leadership – senior escalation point, guiding investigations and supporting decision making.
• Developing security monitoring and detection – creating/reviewing/tuning detections to identify threats.
• Managing and improving Microsoft Sentinel and Defender – enhancing monitoring and detection capabilities.
• Monitoring cloud environments – investigating activity across AWS and Azure using security telemetry.
• Improving automation and processes – identifying opportunities to automate security workflows.
• Developing incident response capability – improving procedures, playbooks and escalation processes.
• Developing the team – mentoring analysts and building investigative capability.
• Supporting operational leadership – prioritising/security operations and providing leadership when needed.
• Working across Companies House – collaborating with security, cloud, platform, infra and software teams.
• Advising senior stakeholders – clearly communicating incidents/risks with evidence-based recommendations.
• Driving continuous improvement – staying ahead of threats and evolving security capabilities.

Job description

To be eligible for this role you also need to meet our Nationality requirements which are outlined below and also successful candidates must meet the security requirements for Security Clearance (SC) before they can be appointed. To gain (SC) clearance you will need to have been a UK resident for a minimum of 3 years out of the last 5 years. For more details, please refer to the ‘Things you need to know’ section below.

As the Senior Lead Security Operations Specialist, you will be a senior technical leader within the Companies House Security Operations team, helping to protect our services, systems and information from cyber security threats.

You will combine hands-on technical expertise with leadership responsibility, leading complex security investigations, developing our monitoring and detection capabilities and providing technical guidance to the wider team. You will act as a senior escalation point and support the Head of Security Operations in developing the function.

You will be trusted to make operational security decisions, coordinate responses to significant incidents and engage with senior stakeholders when required.

Companies House operates across Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services and enterprise technology environments, with Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender forming key parts of our security monitoring and investigation capability.

Your key responsibilities will include:

• Leading security investigations and incident response – taking technical ownership of complex or high-impact incidents and coordinating investigation, containment, remediation and escalation.
• Providing technical leadership – acting as a senior escalation point for analysts, providing guidance on complex investigations and supporting effective decision making.
• Developing security monitoring and detection – creating, reviewing and tuning security detections to improve our ability to identify malicious and suspicious activity.
• Managing and improving Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender – using and developing our security technologies to investigate threats, improve detection coverage and maintain effective monitoring.
• Monitoring cloud environments – detecting and investigating security activity across Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure using cloud security services, logs and other security telemetry.
• Improving automation and processes – identifying opportunities to automate Security Operations activities and improve monitoring, investigation and response workflows.
• Developing incident response capability – improving investigation procedures, playbooks and escalation processes and supporting security exercises and readiness activities.
• Developing the team – mentoring analysts, sharing technical knowledge and supporting the development of investigative and technical capability.
• Supporting operational leadership – helping prioritise and coordinate Security Operations activity and providing operational leadership in the absence of the Head of Security Operations when required.
• Working across Companies House – collaborating with security, cloud, platform, infrastructure and software engineering teams to investigate security issues and improve monitoring and response.
• Advising senior stakeholders – communicating significant incidents, risks and technical findings clearly and providing evidence-based recommendations.
• Driving continuous improvement – keeping pace with emerging threats and technologies and using lessons from incidents and operational activity to continually improve our security capability.

This is a hands-on technical role with technical and operational leadership responsibility. You will remain actively involved in security monitoring, investigations, detection engineering and incident response while helping to develop the capability of the wider Security Operations team.

Please note - Companies House cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign.