Senior Cyber Security Engineer - Reading, Berkshire

Senior Cyber Security Engineer - Reading, Berkshire, RG1 8DB

Contract: PermanentSalary: Competitive salary up to £78,000 per annumAs a Senior Cyber Security Engineer, you will play a critical role in delivering Thames Water’s cyber strategy, with responsibility for the design, implementation, and ongoing effectiveness of security capabilities across IT and OT environments.

You will engineer and maintain the technical capabilities that enable early threat detection, rapid and consistent response, and sustained cyber risk reduction, while translating cyber risk, regulatory, and business demands into practical, measurable, and operationally sustainable security controls.

This is a hands‑on engineering role for individuals who enjoy building resilient security capabilities, integrating platforms and telemetry, and turning strategy, risk, and incident learnings into practical engineering outcomes. The role requires a strong understanding of security engineering concepts, infrastructure technologies, and best practices, along with the ability to collaborate effectively across IT, OT, and security operations to drive continuous improvement.

You must be able to obtain Counter Terrorist Check (CTC) Clearance to be eligible for this position.

What you’ll be doing as a Senior Cyber Security Engineer

• Collaborate with stakeholders to design, implement and maintain security controls to meet business, compliance, and risk mitigation requirements; ensuring controls are effective, measurable, and operationally sustainable.
• Implement and maintain detection and response capabilities through SIEM integration with security controls and IT systems, with a focus on reducing time‑to‑detect and time‑to‑remediate through improved pre‑incident engineering.
• Participation in a 24x7 on‑call support rota, responding to SIEM health alerts and restoring log ingestion where required.
• Manage use cases, perform data enrichment, and define standardized and automated containment workflows.
• Develop and manage operational procedures and reporting methodology.
• Manage and oversee security technology platforms (e.g. SIEM, SOAR, EDR, and email security).
• Monitor ongoing control performance and coordinate remediation where gaps are found.
• Automate operation procedures and reporting processes and integrate outputs into risk reporting frameworks.
• Liaise with IT and OT teams to ensure controls are implemented according to agreed baselines.
• Align control design with industry standards, regulations, and best practices. (e.g. NIS, ISO27001, GDPR).
• Support audits, reviews, and assessments of security controls.
• Identify and implement improvements to control coverage and resilience.
• Proactively advise on technology, best practices, and delivery models.

Base location – Hybrid – Clearwater Court, Reading.
Working pattern – 36 hours Monday to Friday.

What you should bring to the role

• Experience in Security Engineering, with a focus on detection & response engineering in an enterprise environment.
• Strong understanding of both IT and OT systems and infrastructure.
• Experience in identifying and remediating cyber risks in evolving digital environments.
• Familiarity with SIEM, EDR, email security and identity and access management technologies (e.g. Entra ID, CyberArk).
• Familiarity with a range of operating systems and security considerations across SaaS, IaaS, end-user computing, and server estate.
• Sound knowledge of cloud and network security technologies.
• Strong analytical, planning, and organisational skills.
• Ability to communicate technical issues clearly to non-technical stakeholders.
• Degree in Cyber Security, Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field.
• Industry certification(s) such as CISSP, CCSP, CompTIA Security+, or SC-200.

It would be great if you also had

• Previous experience working in a large, complex infrastructure-based or water utility organisation.
• Experience in systems or network administration in IT and/or OT environments.
• Experience leading or mentoring others in delivering cyber security outcomes.
• Security engineering vendor or product certifications such as Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate, Tenable, or CyberArk.

What’s in it for you?

• Competitive salary up to £78,000 per annum depending on experience
• Annual Leave - 26 days holiday per year increasing to 30 with the length of service (plus bank holidays)
• Generous Pension Scheme through AON
• Access to lots of benefits to help you take care of you and your family’s health and wellbeing, and your finances – from annual health MOTs and access to physiotherapy and counselling, to Cycle to Work schemes, shopping vouchers and life assurance.

Find out more about our benefits and perks (Please note different T&Cs apply if on secondment)

Who are we?
We’re the UK’s largest water and wastewater company, with more than 16 million customers relying on us every day to supply water for their taps and toilets. We want to build a better future for all, helping our customers, communities, people and the planet to thrive. It’s a big job and we’ve got a long way to go, so we need help from passionate and skilled people, committed to making a difference and getting us to where we want to be in the years and decades to come.

Learn more about our purpose and values

Working at Thames Water
Thames Water is a unique, rewarding and diverse place to work, where every day you can make a difference, yet no day is the same. As part of our family, you’ll enjoy fast-tracked career opportunities, flexible working arrangements and excellent benefits.
Whether you’re interested in a role in one of our call centres or science labs, we’re looking for people like you with real passion and a burning desire to make things better.

So, if you’re looking for a sustainable and successful career where you can make a daily difference to millions of people’s lives while helping to protect the world of water for future generations, we’ll be here to support you every step of the way. Together, we can build a better future for our customers, our region and our planet.

Real purpose, real support, real opportunities. Come and join the Thames Water family. Why choose us? Learn more.

Our overarching aim is to ensure that Thames Water is great, diverse and inclusive place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and offer extra support for those who need it throughout the recruitment process. Our aim is to remove any real or perceived barriers to success, so if you need assistance, we’re here to help and support.

When a crisis happens, we all rally around to support our customers. As part of Team Thames, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up to support our customers on the frontline as an ambassador. Full training will be given for what is undoubtedly an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s also a great opportunity to learn more about our business, meet colleagues and earn some extra money along the way.

Disclaimer: due to the high volume of applications we receive, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.