IT Operations and Security Lead

About the role

We are looking for an IT & Security Lead to own all IT operations and information security for our market office. Candidates must already have the right to work in the country where the role is based; visa sponsorship is not available. The role requires deep practical expertise in both IT operations and information security.

Key responsibilities

• Own and operate the full information security control baseline: vulnerability management, endpoint hardening, EDR/XDR, identity security, email and phishing defence, and security awareness.
• Serve as first responder for security incidents, handling detection, triage, containment, evidence preservation, escalation and post‑incident review.
• Manage the office network end‑to‑end, including routing, switching, VLAN segmentation, NGFW, IDS/IPS, VPN, Wi‑Fi and ISP relationships.
• Administer Microsoft 365, Entra ID and MDM: identity lifecycle, conditional access, MFA, device compliance and onboarding/off‑boarding.
• Provide primary IT support for the GCC market, owning ticket resolution, endpoint provisioning and service quality.
• Manage local vendors, procurement and the IT asset register across the full lifecycle.
• Operate IT and security controls required by the market’s financial regulator and data‑protection law, maintaining audit‑ready evidence.
• Lead a small local IT team or managed‑service partners, driving local IT projects and office expansions.
• Report security posture, risks and remediation progress to senior leadership and the global security function.

Required profile

• 6–8+ years progressive IT operations experience, including 2–3 years as the primary IT decision‑maker for a site or market.
• Hands‑on information security experience covering EDR, vulnerability and patch management, hardening baselines, email/phishing defence and security log triage.
• Incident‑response experience as a responder: detection, triage, containment, evidence preservation and escalation.
• Network engineering and security expertise: routing, switching, VLAN design, NGFW administration (Fortinet, Palo Alto, Cisco or equivalent), IDS/IPS, VPN and Wi‑Fi controller deployments.
• Strong Microsoft 365 and Entra ID administration skills, including identity lifecycle, conditional access, MFA and Exchange Online.
• Experience in a regulated financial services environment with exposure to audit and compliance requirements.
• People‑leadership experience managing direct reports, contractors or managed‑service teams.

Required skills

• Vulnerability management and endpoint hardening
• EDR/XDR solutions
• Identity security and MFA
• Email and phishing defence
• Security awareness training
• Incident response (detection, triage, containment, evidence preservation)
• Network routing, switching and VLAN segmentation
• NGFW administration (Fortinet, Palo Alto, Cisco)
• IDS/IPS and VPN (site‑to‑site, remote‑access)
• Wi‑Fi controller deployment
• Microsoft 365, Entra ID and Intune/MDM administration
• Conditional Access and device compliance
• Windows and macOS endpoint management, imaging, patch cadence, disk encryption
• Security frameworks (ISO 27001, SOC 2, NIST CSF, CIS Controls)
• Cloud security operations (AWS, GCP)
• Scripting for automation (PowerShell, Bash, Python)
• SIEM/SOAR tools (Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk, Elastic)