Secure by Design lead for Defence

Cybersecurity Assurance Manager -Secure by Design

UK Defence Sector | Guildford | Hybrid

Must be eligible to attain National Security Vetting at SC or DV is desirable, which would require 10 years unbroken residency in the UK.

We're recruiting on behalf of a leading defence organisation for a Security Assurance Manager to own cybersecurity and information assurance across their products, programmes and spacecraft lifecycle.

This is a broad, senior assurance role - spanning certification (ISO 27001, CE+, DCC), ITHCs, Secure by Design reviews, supplier security, and space licensing assurance. You'll sit across Change Advisory Boards, incident response, and executive-level reporting.

This is the one thing that matters most for this role:

You need to have personally delivered Secure by Design assurance within a Defence programme. Not just an understanding of the framework - hands-on ownership: engaging with system and design owners, running gap analysis against security controls, and taking something through to a real outcome such as Authority to Operate or formal accreditation. If that's not something you've genuinely done, please don't apply - the client has been explicit that there isn't time to build this knowledge up from scratch.

What you'll need:

• Hands-on Secure by Design delivery experience in a Defence programme - as a Delivery Team Security Lead, Delivery Team Security Engineer, or Security Assurance Coordinator
• Hold, or have held, CISM, CISA, BCS CISMP, ChCSP or CMIRM
• Membership of a cybersecurity or information risk body (CIISec, IRM, or similar)
• Eligible for National Security Vetting at SC or above, with 5+ years unbroken UK residency (DV desirable)
• Proven delivery of security artefacts — Security Management Plans, Risk Registers, Security Requirements Documents, RMADS, Threat Models
• Experience coordinating ITHCs, including scoping and remediation prioritisation
• Technical understanding at architecture, design and audit level

If you've owned Secure by Design assurance on a Defence programme and can talk through a specific example of what you delivered and what it achieved, we'd like to hear from you.