Principal Enterprise Security Architect

About the Role

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is seeking a Principal Enterprise Security Architect to lead cyber security design and assurance for national-scale Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) programmes; requiring expertise in enterprise security architecture frameworks, cloud and IT technologies, risk mitigation, and relevant certifications such as CISSP or CISM, while collaborating with senior stakeholders and ensuring alignment with NPL’s security strategy and compliance with government and industry standards.

• Lead the cyber security architecture and design function across NPL’s PNT programmes to deliver at National Scale

• To oversee the design, delivery, and running of Cyber Operational capability that is dedicated for NPL's PNT programmes

• Develop an enterprise architecture and guiding principles for the PNT programmes which aligns with the NPL’s security strategy

• Communicate with senior stakeholders (across NPL and UK Government) and be responsible for defining the vision, principles and strategy for security architecture.

• Work alongside the Enterprise Architecture team to provide a consolidated and aligned architectural position to guide NPL in the safe use of IT technologies and systems

• Lead the technical cyber security design of systems and services across multiple PNT programmes and projects / technologies, up to an organisational or inter-organisational level

• Make and influence important business and architectural decisions

• Research, identify, validate and adopt new security technologies and methodologies that help NPL achieve its business objectives

• Research and apply innovative security architecture solutions to new or existing problems, and be able to justify and communicate design decisions

• Lead the engagement with NPL’s customers within both the UK Government and the private sector on security risk and architectural decisions

• Understand the impact of decisions, balancing requirements and deciding between approaches based on the business requirements and risk appetite of NPL

• Identify and communicate current and emerging threats, whilst designing security architecture elements to provide mitigation against those threats

• Maintain an understanding of the emerging threat profile, work with the wider team to contextualise this threat in terms of NPL’s own business/delivered programmes and ultimately develop a prioritised mitigation strategy. Develop a security posture which delivers this this mitigation through both technical implementation, operating procedures and business processes

About You

Essential:

• Referenceable, in-depth knowledge and experience in Cyber Security and IT; including business process design

• Ability to work with Enterprise Security Architecture frameworks (SABSA / TOGAF)

• Designing and constructing business processes, functions and organizational structures using appropriate tools/modelling languages

• Significant knowledge of cloud architecture and integration technologies 

• Understanding of IT, networking and virtualisation technologies 

• Proven ability to define architecture roadmaps, associated strategies, including design analysis.

• In-depth assessment of IT systems, cloud offerings (IaaS, PaaS and SaaS), services and IT Security controls to provide an independent view of their compliance and effectiveness with Security Policy, IT Security standards and external regulatory requirements.

• Assessing architectural designs to determine whether the relevant IT Security controls have been identified in line with business objectives and risk mitigation.

• Experience of cross-security domain approaches and solutions

• A working knowledge of IT Security risk assessment processes and ability to identify a proportionate set of IT Security controls, aligned with business objectives.

• Excellent communicator, verbal and written, with the ability to explain complex issues to a variety of stakeholders; technical and non-technical.

Desirable:

• Secure delivery of scale national infrastructure and subsequent managed service; including the ability to design and build practical security infrastructure within this environment, based on a contextualised understanding of risk.

• Experience of operating in Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) and the requirements around cyber security and operational resilience

• Understanding of threats in a government, mission and critical national infrastructure environments.

• Analysis, creation and compilation of relevant documentation determining the compliance level of systems and services, technical security controls with applicable certification, accreditation, and internal policy requirements

• Stakeholder engagement; promoting a mind-set of developing secure systems, transferring knowledge of security standards / processes and acting as a subject matter expert (SME)

• Experience of leading and mentoring colleagues

• Ability to work in small teams, across highly-specialised technology areas with diverse projects

Essential Cyber Security Certifications:

One of the following:

Two or more of the following certifications (or equivalent):

- CompTIA Security+

We actively recruit citizens of all backgrounds, but the nature of our work in specific departments means that nationality, residency and security requirements can be more tightly defined than others. You will be asked about this throughout the recruitment process. To work at NPL, you will need to obtain BPSS security clearance.

However, to work in this role in the Time & Frequency department, you will need to have an SC clearance with no restrictions, or you must have the ability to obtain an SC clearance.

About Us

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is a world-leading centre of excellence that provides cutting-edge measurement science, engineering and technology to underpin prosperity and quality of life in the UK.

NPL and DSIT have strong commitments to diversity and equality of opportunity, and welcome applications from candidates irrespective of their background, gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, or age, providing they meet the required criteria. Applications from women, disabled and black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates in particular are encouraged. All disabled candidates (as defined by the Equality Act 2010) who satisfy the minimum criteria for the role will be guaranteed an interview under the Disability Confident Scheme.

At NPL, we believe our success is a result of the diversity and talent of our people. We strive to nurture and respect individuals to ensure everyone feels valued by treating everyone on the basis of their own individual merits and abilities regardless of their own or perceived identity, as part of our commitment to diversity & inclusion, we hold memberships and accreditations to ensure we’re creating an environment where all our colleagues feel supported and welcome, please see our Diversity & Inclusion page.

We are committed to the health and well-being of our employees. Flexible working and social activities are embedded in our culture to create a positive work-life balance, along with a broad range of benefits . Our values are at the heart of what we do, and they shape the way we interact, develop our people and celebrate success.

To ensure everyone has an equal chance, we’re always willing to make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process. If you would like to discuss, please contact us.