Senior Manager – Cyber Incident & Response – Consulting

Oliver James Group; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Oliver James Group is seeking a Senior Manager / Associate Director for Cyber Incident Response Advisory & Incident Management in the UK. You will lead complex engagements across proactive and live incident support, advising C-suite leaders on preparedness, response and resilience.

Expect leadership of multi-disciplinary teams, and a role contributing to growth and market development. You will interface with senior clients across the UK and Europe, shaping incident response playbooks, runbooks

Qualifications

• Significant experience in cyber incident response, incident management or crisis management.
• Proven ability to lead large client engagements and manage teams and budgets.
• Strong written and verbal communication for executives and technical staff.

Responsibilities

• Lead delivery of complex Cyber Incident Response advisory and incident management engagements.
• Advise clients on incident preparedness, crisis management and operational resilience.
• Develop incident response plans, playbooks and readiness assessments.
• Design cyber simulations, wargames and training for senior stakeholders.
• Coordinate live incident responses with technical specialists and client teams.
• Build senior client relationships and lead business development initiatives.
• Mentor colleagues and contribute to market reputation of the practice.

Skills

Cyber Incident Response

Leadership

Stakeholder management

Business development

C-suite engagement

Education

CISSP

ITIL

CompTIA Security+

SANS

Job description

Senior Manager / Associate Director – Cyber Incident Response Advisory & Incident Management

This is a senior opportunity within a leading Cyber Risk & Security practice, working with major organisations to strengthen their ability to prepare for, manage and recover from complex cyber incidents. The role sits across both proactive cyber incident response advisory and live incident management, helping clients improve resilience while supporting them through high-impact security events.

You will work closely with senior stakeholders and C-suite leaders, advising on cyber incident preparedness, crisis and incident management, response strategies and organisational resilience. Proactive engagements will include incident response planning, playbook development, readiness assessments, wargaming and simulation exercises, training and post-incident reviews. You will also support clients during live cyber incidents, coordinating response activities and working alongside technical specialists to contain threats and minimise business disruption.

At Senior Manager / Associate Director level, this is also a significant leadership and commercial role. You will lead complex client engagements, develop senior client relationships, contribute to business development and go-to-market activity, and help shape and grow the Cyber Incident Response offering.

• A) Responsibilities
• Lead the delivery of complex Cyber Incident Response (CIR) advisory and incident management engagements.
• Advise clients on incident preparedness, crisis management, response and operational resilience.
• Lead the development of incident response plans, scenario-specific playbooks, readiness assessments and post-breach reviews.
• Design and facilitate cyber simulations, wargames and incident response exercises, including sessions with senior executives and C-suite stakeholders.
• Support and lead aspects of live cyber incident responses, working collaboratively with technical response specialists and client teams.
• Act as a trusted adviser to senior client stakeholders, building strong and lasting relationships.
• Lead business development activity, including go-to-market initiatives, proposals, pitches and development of new client opportunities.
• Identify opportunities to expand existing client relationships across proactive and reactive cyber services.
• Lead multidisciplinary teams and take responsibility for successful project, programme, financial and people management.
• Contribute to the development of new Cyber Incident Response propositions and enhancement of existing services.
• Coach, mentor and develop colleagues while helping build capability across the wider Cyber practice.
• Contribute to the external profile and market reputation of the Cyber Incident Response practice.
• B) Experience & Qualifications
• Significant experience within Cyber Incident Response, incident management, crisis management or a closely related operational cyber role.
• Strong understanding of Cyber Incident Response methodologies, including attacker techniques, threat themes and key technical security concepts.
• Demonstrable experience developing incident response plans, procedures and scenario-specific playbooks.
• Experience designing and facilitating cyber incident exercises, simulations, wargames and training sessions for stakeholders at different levels of seniority.
• Proven track record of leading large, complex client engagements or programmes, including project, financial and people management responsibilities.
• Strong experience of business development within the private sector, ideally including propositions, pitches, proposals and senior client relationship development.
• Strong commercial awareness and understanding of how cyber incidents can affect wider business processes, technology and operational resilience.
• Experience working with and influencing senior executives and C-suite stakeholders.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex cyber issues for both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong leadership, problem-solving and stakeholder-management capabilities.
• Familiarity with security frameworks such as ISO 27001 and NIST is advantageous.
• Relevant professional qualifications such as CISSP, ITIL, CompTIA Security+, SANS or equivalent would be beneficial.
• Existing Government Security Clearance is advantageous, although candidates should be willing to undergo security vetting where required.
• Willingness to participate in an on-call rota and travel across the UK and EMEA when required to support live incidents.