Senior Security & Cyber Operations Manager (Financial Services)

Consol Partners; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Consol Partners is seeking a Senior Security and Cyber Operations Manager to own the end-to-end security operations, incident response, and cyber defence across cloud and on-premises environments. The role reports to the CISO and drives rapid detection, containment, remediation, and learning from security events.

You will lead vendor management with MSSPs, apply AI and SOAR to reduce alert fatigue, and partner with CIO stakeholders to integrate threat detection into operational pipelines.

Qualifications

• Experience leading SOC, cyber defence, or incident response in regulated environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end cyber defence across SIEM, SOAR, EDR/XDR, NDR, and identity telemetry.
• Manage major security incidents with containment, root-cause analysis and post-incident learning.
• Apply AI, automation and SOAR playbooks to shorten investigations and automate triage.
• Oversee MSSP, threat intelligence vendors, and incident response retainers to ensure value and SLAs.
• Collaborate with Engineering, Cloud, Data and Architecture to embed security into pipelines.
• Define and report on metrics (MTTD, MTTR, telemetry health) to CISO and Board.

Skills

Operations leadership

Security tooling depth

Incident management

MSSP management

AI & automation

Executive communication

Job description

Role: Senior Security and Cyber Operations Manager
Location: Corporate Offices/Hybrid (UK)
Industry: Financial Services/Insurance (Regulated Environment)
Type: Full-Time, Permanent

Senior Security & Cyber Operations Manager | Operations, Incident Response & AI Innovation

• End-to-end operational ownership of enterprise security operations (SOC), incident response, threat detection, and cyber defence capabilities.
• Drive detection engineering, SOAR automation, and AI integration across cloud, hybrid infrastructure, endpoints, and third-party services.
• Key focus: Incident leadership, MSSP/vendor management, response playbooks, metrics (MTTD/MTTR), and executive risk governance.

About the Opportunity

A leading UK financial services organisation is seeking a high‑performing Senior Security and Cyber Operations Manager to lead, mature, and optimize its end‑to‑end security operations and cyber defence ecosystem.
Reporting directly to the CISO, you will act as the organisational subject matter expert for incident response, threat monitoring, and operational cyber risk. In this hands‑on leadership role, you will bridge the gap between Real Time threat telemetry and executive risk decision‑making-ensuring security events are rapidly detected, contained, remediated, and learned from. You will also lead the vendor management of external MSSP partners while leveraging AI, SOAR, and intelligent data enrichment to build a modern, high‑velocity SOC function.

Key Accountabilities

• End‑to‑End Cyber Defence Ownership: Lead the complete operational life cycle across SIEM, SOAR, EDR, NDR, and identity telemetry-covering monitoring, alert triage, incident containment, root‑cause eradication, and post‑incident learning.
• Major Incident Response & Crisis Leadership: Act as the operational escalation point during major security events; lead crisis containment strategies, evidence collection, regulatory reporting, and executive updates.
• AI, SOAR & Continuous Improvement: Champion the practical application of AI, orchestration, and automated triage to reduce alert fatigue, minimize false positives, streamline investigations, and accelerate response playbooks.
• Vendor & MSSP Governance: Own relationships with external managed security service providers (MSSPs), threat intelligence vendors, and incident response retainers, ensuring SLA compliance, delivery quality, and value alignment.
• Cross‑CIO Collaboration: Work across Engineering, Cloud, Data, and Architecture to embed threat detection models, logging standards, and incident playbooks directly into operational pipelines.
• Governance & Executive Metrics: Define and maintain core performance metrics (MTTD, MTTR, telemetry health, alert fidelity) and deliver actionable reporting for CISO, Risk Committee, and Board discussions.

Required Skills & Experience

• Enterprise Operations Leadership: Proven track record managing SOC, cyber defence, or incident response functions in complex, regulated environments (Financial Services/Insurance preferred).
• Technical Depth in Security Tooling: In‑depth knowledge of SIEM, SOAR, EDR/XDR, NDR, threat intelligence platforms, and telemetry architectures across cloud and hybrid environments.
• Incident Management Mastery: Demonstrable experience leading major security incidents, assessing severity, defining containment strategies, and executing post‑incident root‑cause remediation.
• MSSP & Partner Management: Direct experience governing external managed security service providers and third‑party incident response retainers.
• AI & Automation Focus: Practical understanding of applying AI, machine learning, or SOAR playbooks to automate security workflows and enrich threat triage.
• Executive Stakeholder Communication: Ability to translate complex technical cyber incidents into clear business risk impact and pragmatic recommendations for senior leadership.