Head of Security | Cybersecurity & Digital Platforms
Location: Kuwait
Employment Type: Full-time | Permanent
Industry: E-commerce / Digital Technology
Recruitment Partner: Ameera Talent Solutions Ltd
About the Opportunity
Ameera Talent Solutions is recruiting an experienced Head of Security for an established organisation operating in the digital commerce and technology sector.
This is a senior leadership opportunity for a hands-on cybersecurity professional who can build and lead a security function, shape security strategy and protect complex, high-traffic digital platforms.
We're looking for someone who combines technical security expertise, commercial judgement and strong people leadership. You must be comfortable making technical decisions, challenging engineering teams and communicating security risks to senior executives.
This is not a purely governance or compliance-focused position.
Key Responsibilities
Security Strategy & Leadership
- Develop and execute the organisation's cybersecurity strategy and roadmap.
- Build and lead security capabilities across engineering, operations, governance and offensive security.
- Establish security policies, risk management frameworks and measurable security objectives.
- Manage security budgets, technology investments and external security partners.
- Present security risks, priorities and recommendations to executive leadership.
Application, Cloud & Platform Security
- Oversee security across web and mobile applications, APIs, cloud environments and corporate infrastructure.
- Strengthen secure software development practices, including code security, dependency scanning and secrets management.
- Implement effective identity and access management, privileged access controls and security monitoring.
- Partner with engineering teams to identify architectural vulnerabilities and improve security design.
- Protect critical digital services against bots, credential attacks and application-layer threats.
Threat Detection & Incident Response
- Establish effective security monitoring, threat detection and incident response capabilities.
- Lead major cybersecurity incident investigations, containment and recovery.
- Develop incident response procedures, escalation frameworks and security testing programmes.
- Oversee vulnerability assessments, penetration testing and remediation activities.
Digital Commerce Security & Fraud Prevention
- Work closely with technology and business teams to prevent account takeover, payment fraud and platform abuse.
- Strengthen security controls across authentication, payment and transactional systems.
- Address bot activity, credential stuffing and abuse of customer-facing functionality.
Governance, Risk & Compliance
- Develop security governance and risk management practices.
- Support compliance with relevant GCC data protection regulations.
- Oversee alignment with applicable frameworks, including ISO 27001, NIST CSF and PCI DSS.
- Manage security audits, third-party risk assessments and remediation activities.
Required Experience
- 10+ years of experience in cybersecurity or information security.
- At least 5 years leading security teams, functions or significant security programmes.
- Proven experience building, transforming or maturing cybersecurity capabilities.
- Experience securing high-traffic digital platforms, e-commerce environments or comparable consumer-facing technology businesses.
- Strong technical knowledge of application security, APIs, cloud infrastructure, identity management and incident response.
- Experience leading major security incidents and coordinating technical investigations.
- Knowledge of security architecture, secure software development and vulnerability management.
- Understanding of digital fraud, bot mitigation and account security.
- Experience working with senior executives and communicating complex security risks.
Highly Desirable
- Experience working in GCC markets.
- Knowledge of Saudi PDPL and regional data protection requirements.
- Experience with AWS or comparable cloud platforms, Kubernetes and CI/CD security.
- Familiarity with PCI DSS, ISO 27001 and NIST CSF.
- Professional certifications such as CISSP, CISM, CCISO or OSCP.
- Experience securing AI-enabled development tools and automation.
- Arabic language proficiency.
The Ideal Candidate
You’ll be a technically credible security leader who can operate both strategically and hands-on.
You’ll have the confidence to challenge technical decisions, build a capable security team, manage external security partners and translate cybersecurity risks into practical business decisions.
Most importantly, you’ll have a track record of improving security across complex production environments, not simply producing security policies.
- All applications will be treated confidentially