Full time vacancy
FTC/Secondment 18 months from start date
This is a senior role on the Information Assurance Team within Joint ICT. The purpose of this role is to act as a technical specialist and provide security architecture expertise to ensure that all force IT systems remain compliant with national and local policies and standards.
It is essential to have experience of working in ICT transformation projects and programmes; and have a flexible and responsive approach to ensure critical delivery milestones are met while ensuring that security risks are managed and mitigated where possible.
The key responsibilities will include:
- Provide advice on the design and development of security designs to ensure compliance with the secure by design principles
- Lead on design reviews and risk assessments
- Ensure security controls are embedded into technology solutions from initial design through to operational deployment, aligned to the Force risk appetite; National Standards and NIST CSF
- Provide expert guidance across infrastructure, cloud services, applications and identity platforms ensuring the Force is resilient against emerging cyber threats
- Identify security gaps and recommend mitigations aligned to the Force risk appetite
- Support Incident Response teams with security architectural input during cyber events
- Ensure project and solution compliance with NIST CSF and other national and regulatory requirements
- Advise senior stakeholders on architectural decisions and security risks in a non-technical language
- Mentor team and support the uplift of the secure engineering capability
To be effective in this role you must be delivery focused with a strong security architecture background, and an understanding of the operational needs to enable the Force maintains operations while meeting operational needs. You will need to be a strategic thinker with the ability to balance business requirements and security constrains.
You will be expected to collaborate and effectively communicate with stakeholders across ICT, other internal departments and external regulatory bodies to ensure that security requirements and controls are embedded across both Forces.
This is a demanding role which requires strong experience in security engineering, security architecture and knowledge of Information Assurance/Risk Management principles.
The role holder will need to be able to work under pressure, prioritise and manage workload whilst remaining positive and motivated. You must maintain a high degree of integrity and trust when dealing with sensitive and classified information.
Knowledge of NIST CSF/ISO27001; CIS controls; and UK Policing would be an advantage.
Experience of secure software development; cloud security; network security and protocols; performing threat modelling and complex risk assessments would be an advantage.
Appropriate professional qualifications in the relevant discipline would be preferred (ie. Information Security, CISSP, CISMP etc)
You must have the ability to travel to different locations across both Forces and undertake all assignments in a timely manner. Due to the requirement to work flexibly, unsocial hours and personal safety for lone working, public transport may not be available or suitable at these times. For this reason, a full UK driving licence is considered essential.
Please attach a CV to apply for this role
If you are a permanent member of staff applying for this role, please note it will be offered on a secondment basis. Important: All secondments must be supported in writing by your Line Manager and Head of Department/Commander or Deputy. Please attach written approval from your line manager and Head of Department in your application. If the secondment is not supported then the role may be offered on a fixed term contract basis, but this has implications including loss of continuous service protections.
Please note: Shift allowance, on-call or other job related allowances from the previous role will not be protected unless they are attached to the new role for the duration of the secondment.
If you have not held residency in the UK for the last 5 years, we will not be able to process an application from you.
If you have any queries, please contact the Recruitment Team at RecruitmentstaffICT@thamesvalley.police.uk quoting reference 23439. We will endeavour to respond to your query as quickly as possible.
The closing date for enquiries and receipt of completed applications is Monday 4th May 2026.
