Trac proudly powers the recruitment for

NHS England

About

NHS England leads the NHS in England to deliver high quality care for all. We support NHS organisations to deliver better outcomes for our patients and communities, work to get the best possible value for taxpayers, and drive improvement across the NHS.

Through our seven regional teams, NHS England supports local integrated care systems, made up of public services that provide health and care – NHS organisations, primary care professionals, local councils, social care providers and the community, voluntary and social enterprise sector – to improve the health of the population, improve the quality of care, tackle inequalities and deliver care more efficiently.

Contact

Address
Wellington House
133-155 Waterloo Road
London
SE1 8UG
Contact Number
0300 330 1369

Find out more

Jobs Website
Open
Ref: 990-TDD-CY-602-E Vacancy ID: 7782224

Head of Cyber Security (Lead) - Incident Management

Accepting applications until: 23-Feb-2026 23:59

Open

Accepting applications until: 23-Feb-2026 23:59

Location

Wellington Place, Leeds; Hexagon House, Exeter; Wellington House, London
Leeds/Exeter/London
LS1 4AP
West Yorkshire

Contract type & working pattern

Permanent
Full time - 37.5 hours per week

Salary

£100,055 - £115,287 Per Annum (this includes a RRP payment of 30%). Exclusive of HCAS
Yearly

(NHS AfC: Band 8c)

Specialty

Cyber Operations

Our Organisation

The NHS is building a culture that is positive, compassionate and inclusive – and we all have our part to play.

As employers we are committed to protecting and promoting the physical and mental health and wellbeing of all our colleagues. This underpins our values as set out in the NHS Constitution and supports us to be an Employer of Choice, while helping our colleagues to deliver high quality services for our patients and communities.

As a flexible employer, we want to support you to work in a way that is best for the NHS, our patients and you. Talk to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time, hybrid working or another flexible pattern. In addition, although the role advertised may have a ‘home’ office base indicated, we remain committed to supporting flexibility around workplace locations. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.

We are an accredited Living Wage Employer which means that every colleague working for our organisation and third-party contractors will earn a real Living Wage.  We are one of over 15,000 organisations, who voluntarily chose to pay the real Living Wage.

Trosolwg o'r swydd

Cyber Operations purpose is to support safe care and build public trust by building NHS England’s cyber resilience and enabling the wider health system to be cyber resilient, supporting Transformation Directorate’s purpose of delivering the best care and outcomes for the NHS.

The Cyber Operations sub-directorate consists of four operational areas:

  • Cyber Security Operations Unit (CSOU & SIO)
  • Cyber Delivery Unit (CDU)
  • Cyber Improvement Programme
  • Chief Information Security Office Function (CISO)

The National CSOC Incident Management function operates within the NHS National CSOC operational team, working alongside protective monitoring, threat hunting, and intelligence activities. This team is responsible for coordinating the management of cyber incidents across the entire NHS, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), and its arm's-length bodies. Their responsibilities include overseeing incident response capabilities and managing relationships with our internal and external stakeholders. 

The Head of Security (Lead) Incident Management, will be accountable for the delivery of key operational services and outputs from the Incident Management function within the Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC). This includes oversight and management of Incidents Management, Incident Response, prioritising tasks, services, resourcing, and outputs. 

Advert

  • Ensure the objectives and activities of the Incident Management team are aligned with overarching CSOC strategy.
  • Lead the 24/7 major cyber incident response: triage and categorisation, containment, eradication, service recovery and post-incident review.
  • Act as primary Incident Commander during nationally significant incidents, providing clear strategic direction and proportionate, risk-based decisions.
  • Own and continually improve national incident playbooks, escalation frameworks and exercised readiness (including cyber incident response exercises).
  • Provide executive-level briefings and assurance to NHS England leadership and, when required, cross-government partners and Ministers.
  • Establish governance, reporting and metrics for incident preparedness and response; drive lessons learned and maturity uplift programmes.
  • Ensure integration of incident management with business continuity, disaster recovery, clinical safety and public communications.
  • Coordinate with regional and local organisations during incidents, ensuring consistent messaging and effective multi-agency collaboration.
  • Oversee secure handling of incident information, evidence preservation, regulatory notifications and sensitive communications.
  • Responsible for the management and production of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for the function.
  • Responsible for the national cyber incident management strategy aligned to NCSC incident management guidance and government resilience frameworks.  

Gweithio i'n sefydliad

Our staff bring expertise across clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial specialisms — enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.

We lead the NHS in England by:

  • Enabling local systems and providers to improve the health of their people and patients and reduce health inequalities
  • Making the NHS a great place to work, where people can develop and make a difference
  • Working collaboratively to ensure our healthcare workforce has the right knowledge, skills, values and behaviours to deliver accessible, compassionate care
  • Optimising the use of digital technology, research, and innovation
  • Delivering value for money

Earlier this year, the Government announced that NHS England will gradually merge with the Department of Health and Social Care, to create a smaller, more strategic centre that reduces duplication and waste.

If successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the process.

Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in-person.

Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.

Swydd-ddisgrifiad a phrif gyfrifoldebau manwl

Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification for more information about the role and responsibilities.  

Please ensure your supporting statement includes demonstratable evidence and specific examples on how you meet the criteria for each of the key skills specified. This will be used in both the shortlisting and interview processes

Important: Please be aware there are residency requirements you need to meet:

All NHS England Cyber Security personnel must hold Security Clearance level as a minimum. To meet National Security Vetting requirements, SC clearances require 5 years continuous UK residency. In certain cases, this can be reduced to three years continuous UK residency, with additional overseas checks for the previous two years. Candidates who were posted abroad for service with HM Government, Armed Forces or within a UK government role - will still be considered.
Please make sure you meet these requirements before applying for this role. You don’t need to have SC already, however, failure to achieve the requirements for SC after offer will result in the job offer being withdrawn. For further advice please check https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels/national-security-vetting-clearance-levels#security-check-sc

Please be aware that should you be successful in this position, you will be hired to the job title of Head of Security (Lead) and this job title is advertised to attract the right skills needed for the role.

The post of Head of Security (Lead) has been awarded a Recruitment and Retention Premia (RRP) in response to current labour market conditions. In recognition of this, the role attracts an additional monthly RRP payment equal to 30% per annum.
Please be aware that RRP is non-contractual and subject to review.

If you like what you have read and think you have the skills and experience, we need then don't delay, apply today! We get lots of applications for our roles and so we sometimes have to close our posts early. Don't miss out!

 

 

Applicant requirements

This post will require a submission for Disclosure to be made to check for any unspent criminal convictions.

Person specification

Knowledge

Meini prawf hanfodol
  • Extensive knowledge of techniques, roles, and responsibilities in providing technical or business guidance to clients, both internal and external; ability to apply this knowledge appropriately to diverse situations.
  • In-depth knowledge of techniques, approaches and processes of digital threats; ability to detect, monitor, analyse and prevent digital threats.
Meini prawf dymunol
  • Detailed knowledge of technologies, methods and tools of forensics investigations for IT security violations or potential threats; ability to identify, uncover and evaluate violations, warning reports, suspected incidents and insidious events.

Skills and Experience

Meini prawf hanfodol
  • Expert knowledge and experience of methods and processes to monitor, analyse and respond to network attacks, intrusions or any unauthorised actions; ability to use techniques and tools to perform network defence.
Meini prawf dymunol
  • Highly developed specialist knowledge of tools, techniques, approaches and processes of cybersecurity risk management; ability to ensure organisational network operation and minimise negative effect by cybersecurity risks.

Qualifications

Meini prawf hanfodol
  • Masters level degree in Cyber Security or a relevant subject, or equivalent level of experience.

Documents

Further details / informal visits contact

Enw
Ryan Lee
Teitl y swydd
Security Principal
Cyfeiriad ebost
[email protected]
Apprenticeships logo
Disability confident committed
Step into health
Accredited Living Wage Employer

Start your application

You must sign in to a Trac account before you can apply for this job.

Sign in

By signing in you are acknowledging our privacy notice.

Create an account

Create your account and apply for your new job!