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Cognisys
Cognisys

Senior Information Security Consultant (United Kingdom)

Job summary
Permanent contract
Leeds
Fully-remote
Salary: £50K to 60K
Experience: > 5 years
Skills & expertise
Cybersecurity knowledge
Continuous improvement
Critical thinking
Consulting
Leadership
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Cognisys
Cognisys

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Questions and answers about the job

The position

Job description

  • We are looking for an experienced Senior Information Security Consultant to join our GRC Consulting team and work across ongoing advisory, security improvement and specialist client engagements
  • This is a consulting role for someone who brings genuine information security or cybersecurity experience and can apply that knowledge to complex client environments
  • Rather than focusing primarily on helping clients achieve a particular certification, you will work alongside organisations to understand their security challenges, manage risk and continuously improve their security posture
  • Your work may include ongoing security advisory, vCISO-style support, maintenance of existing security programmes, security improvement initiatives and specialist or additional consulting work. You will work with clients that may already have established security programmes and will help them improve, maintain and mature those programmes over time
  • This requires more than knowledge of security frameworks. You will need to understand how security works in practice, be comfortable discussing real-world security challenges and use your experience and judgement to help clients determine the right way forward
  • You will also need strong consulting skills. Our consultants work closely with client stakeholders, often across different functions and levels of seniority, so the ability to listen, ask good questions, communicate clearly and build trust is essential
  • This role would suit someone with hands-on or industry information security experience who wants to apply that knowledge in a client-facing consulting environment. This is a predominantly remote role, with client site visits kept to a minimum and only where an engagement needs it
  • Deliver ongoing information security advisory engagements across a range of clients and industries
  • Provide practical guidance on information security risks, security programmes and improvement priorities
  • Lead vCISO-style advisory services and ongoing security programme development
  • Assess existing security programmes and identify opportunities to improve their effectiveness, maturity and sustainability
  • Help clients prioritise security initiatives based on risk, business objectives and available resources
  • Provide independent thinking and practical recommendations rather than simply applying a predefined framework or checklist
  • Support specialist information security projects and additional client work where your expertise can add value
  • Work with clients to understand complex security problems and develop realistic approaches to addressing them
  • Support the development, maintenance and improvement of information security programmes
  • Assess security risks, controls, processes and operating practices
  • Help clients develop and maintain security roadmaps, risk registers, remediation plans and improvement programmes
  • Advise on security governance, risk management, controls, policies, procedures and operating processes
  • Identify weaknesses or areas of risk and help clients determine appropriate remediation approaches
  • Apply relevant frameworks, standards, regulations and industry practices where they add value to the client’s security objectives
  • Support security assurance and compliance activities where required as part of a broader engagement
  • Use GRC platforms and other security tooling where appropriate
  • Build trusted, long-term relationships with client stakeholders
  • Work confidently with technical teams, security professionals, operational stakeholders and senior leadership
  • Understand different stakeholder perspectives and translate security issues into language that is meaningful to the audience
  • Lead client meetings, workshops and advisory sessions, usually delivered remotely by video call
  • Ask thoughtful questions, challenge assumptions and help clients think through complex security decisions
  • Communicate risks, recommendations and trade-offs clearly
  • Manage expectations and proactively communicate progress, challenges and dependencies
  • Balance client needs with sound professional judgement
  • Lead client engagements end to end, including scoping, delivery and quality
  • Manage competing priorities across multiple clients and projects
  • Plan and organise delivery to meet agreed timelines and outcomes
  • Identify risks and blockers early and take appropriate action
  • Act as the senior point of escalation and provide guidance to other consultants
  • Shape and scope additional client work, and support proposals and pre-sales
  • Maintain a high standard of quality across all client deliverables
  • Mentor and develop junior and mid-level consultants, including reviewing their deliverables
  • Produce clear, accurate and commercially appropriate client deliverables
  • Apply Cognisys methodologies and quality standards consistently
  • Use professional judgement to ensure recommendations are practical, proportionate and aligned to the client’s circumstances
  • Continuously look for ways to improve client delivery and consulting practices
  • Share knowledge and contribute to the development of the wider GRC consulting team
  • What Success Looks Like:
  • Success in this role means becoming a trusted security advisor to your clients, bringing practical industry experience to complex security challenges and helping organisations continuously improve their security posture
  • For example:
  • Be a trusted advisor — Clients value your judgement, experience and ability to provide practical advice rather than simply documenting requirements
  • Bring practical security experience — You understand how security works in real organisations and can connect theory with practical implementation
  • Think beyond compliance — You understand that frameworks and certifications are only one part of an effective security programme
  • Understand the bigger picture — You can connect technical security risks with business priorities, operational realities and organisational risk
  • Solve problems — You don’t simply identify gaps; you help clients understand their options and determine a realistic way forward
  • Build strong relationships — You develop trusted relationships with stakeholders and become someone clients are comfortable seeking advice from
  • Communicate with impact — You can explain complex security issues clearly to technical teams, business stakeholders and senior leadership
  • Challenge constructively — You are comfortable questioning assumptions, raising concerns and having difficult but productive conversations with clients
  • Take ownership — You manage your engagements proactively, anticipate issues and remain accountable for delivery
  • Manage complexity — You can balance multiple stakeholders, priorities and workstreams while maintaining quality
  • Use sound judgement — You understand when to act independently and when to involve additional expertise
  • Continue to grow — You actively develop your technical, commercial and consulting capability
  • Contribute to the team — You share industry knowledge and experience and help strengthen the wider GRC consulting function
  • Develop others — You mentor and support colleagues, raising the quality and capability of the wider team
  • Live the Cognisys values — You demonstrate Together, Ownership, Momentum, and Excellence, in how you work with clients and colleagues

Preferred experience

  • Experience working in an operational, technical or industry information security environment
  • Proven ability to build strong client relationships and deliver effectively in a remote-first consulting model
  • Relevant certifications such as CISSP, CISM or CCSP are desirable
  • Consulting experience is highly desirable
  • Experience developing, operating, assessing or improving security programmes
  • Experience working with security controls, risk management, security processes or security operations
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills
  • Ability to understand complex problems and develop practical, commercially sensible solutions
  • Strong questioning, listening and relationship-building skills
  • Experience advising and influencing senior leadership and board-level stakeholders
  • Experience with vCISO, security advisory or ongoing security programme support is highly desirable
  • 6+ years’ experience in information security, cybersecurity, security consulting or a related industry role
  • Confident working with technical, operational and senior stakeholders
  • Strong client-facing and consulting skills
  • Exposure to frameworks such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, CAF, NIST or similar is useful, but strong practical security experience is more important than framework knowledge alone
  • Strong practical understanding of information security and cybersecurity principles
  • Strong organisational skills and the ability to manage multiple clients, workstreams and competing priorities
  • Experience identifying and managing real-world security risks rather than focusing solely on compliance requirements
  • Comfortable operating independently and using professional judgement
  • Experience with GRC platforms such as Vanta is desirable

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