Senior security engineer

Band 7 · Security engineer · 490 job evaluation points

A senior security engineer designs and leads the delivery of significant security controls, and advises teams on secure design.

Responsibilities

Design and lead the delivery of security controls, such as privileged access management, security monitoring, and backup protection.
Advise product and infrastructure teams on secure design for clinical and patient-facing services.
Design compensating controls for medical devices and other systems that cannot be patched.
Assess the security of suppliers and their products, including cloud services.
Support the response to serious security incidents with technical expertise and recovery plans.
Coach security engineers and share good practice across teams.

Skills

Skill	Expected level	What this level means
Security technologyUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	This skill level is currently not defined.
Information securityUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: design solutions and services with security controls included, specifically engineered to mitigate security threats
Designing secure systemsUK GDaD PCF	Working (2)	You can: design and review system architectures through the application of patterns and principles
Cyber risk managementUK GDaD PCF	Working (2)	Senior leadership skill: the UK GDaD PCF defines it with one statement, not by level. You can: Examples of leadership using this skill: maintain a clear understanding of the cyber and information security risks across the whole organisation develop and implement risk assessment processes oversee the assessment of the organisation's partners and supply chain for potential threats or vulnerabilities building a culture where teams have awareness of, and take responsibility for, risks and mitigating them advising programme owners and people running IT services about risks in a way that enables them to act on that advice communicating with senior leaders in a way that enables them to make decisions about accepting or mitigating risk
Identity and access managementThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: design and run identity and access services review access regularly and fix problems
Vulnerability managementThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: prioritise vulnerabilities by risk, including to patient services scope and manage penetration tests and remediation
Security operationsThis reference	Working (2)	You can: monitor alerts and triage them using runbooks gather evidence and escalate events tune simple detection rules under guidance
Information governance and data protectionThis reference	Working (2)	You can: apply data protection principles to your work contribute to data protection impact assessments handle information requests and records correctly
Understanding health and care servicesThis reference	Working (2)	You can: explain the clinical and care workflows your work supports use common health care terms correctly with clinical and care colleagues recognise when a change could affect patient care and raise it

Typical qualifications and experience

Substantial experience of security engineering, at a level equivalent to a postgraduate diploma.
Relevant advanced security certifications, or equivalent experience.

Band 7 outline

Knowledge: Highly developed specialist knowledge, typically to master's level or equivalent experience.
Autonomy: Works to organisational policy; decides how results are achieved; is the expert others consult.
Scope: Several products or services, or a specialist function.
Leadership: Leads a team or a professional practice area.
Accountability: Delivery of a service or specialist function, and its budget if held.

Job evaluation (illustrative)

Factor	Level	Level summary	Points
Communication and relationship skills	5	Gives highly complex or contentious information needing developed persuasion and negotiation, presents to large groups, or communicates where there are significant barriers to acceptance.	45
Knowledge, training, and experience	6	Specialist knowledge across the range of the specialism (postgraduate diploma level or equivalent).	156
Analytical and judgemental skills	4	Judgements on complex facts or situations needing analysis, interpretation, and comparison of options.	42
Planning and organisational skills	4	Plans a broad range of complex activities or strategies, adjusting them as needed.	42
Physical skills	3	Developed skills needing speed or accuracy, such as advanced keyboard use.	27
Responsibility for patient and client care	1	Helps patients, clients, or relatives during incidental contact.	4
Responsibility for policy and service development	3	Implements policies for own area and proposes changes that affect other areas.	21
Responsibility for financial and physical resources	3	Authorises payments, buys some assets or supplies, monitors or holds a delegated budget, or maintains assets.	21
Responsibility for people	3	Manages a group of staff day to day, teaches core or specialist training, or gives core HR advice.	21
Responsibility for information resources	5	Designs and develops major information systems, or runs information systems for several services as the main duty.	34
Responsibility for research and development	2	Regularly does research, development, trials, or equipment and system testing as part of the job.	12
Freedom to act	4	Results are defined, but the job holder decides how to achieve them, within broad policy.	32
Physical effort	1	Sitting, standing, and walking, with little physical effort.	3
Mental effort	4	Frequent prolonged concentration, or occasional intense concentration.	18
Emotional effort	1	Rare exposure, or occasional indirect exposure, to distressing circumstances.	5
Working conditions	2	Occasional unpleasant conditions, frequent travel or outdoor work, or near-continuous screen use on most days.	7
Total (Band 7: 466 to 539)			490

Senior security engineer

Responsibilities

Skills

Typical qualifications and experience

Band 7 outline

Job evaluation (illustrative)

Self assessment