Southern Water
Lead Security Operations Engineer
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Closing Date 2026-05-08
Job Title: Lead Security Operations Engineer
Location: Durrington / Hybrid working
Contract Type: Permanent
Hours: 37 hours per week
Salary: from £65k
About the Role
This is a new and pivotal role within IT Operations, created to establish and lead our Security Operations function at a time of significant transformation. Reporting into the Infrastructure Operational Support Manager, you’ll work closely with infrastructure, network and security governance teams to strengthen our cyber resilience and protect critical services.
As the Security Operations Subject Matter Expert, you’ll shape the operating model, define the roadmap, and embed best-practice security across our IT estate. This is an opportunity to combine hands-on technical delivery with leadership, strategy and influence, in a role where your expertise will make a visible and lasting impact.
What You Will Be Responsible For:
- Lead the day-to-day and strategic delivery of Security Operations, ensuring our people, platforms and partners work together to manage threats, vulnerabilities and incidents effectively.
- Establish and lead the Security Operations function, including defining processes, frameworks and tooling.
- Own vulnerability management across the organisation, identifying, prioritising and driving remediation using tools such as Qualys and Tenable.
- Manage and optimise security tooling including SIEM, endpoint protection, DLP and internet security solutions.
- Act as the primary technical escalation point for complex security incidents and operational issues.
- Coordinate incident response and emergency activities, working closely with internal teams and external partners.
- Manage and assure third-party SOC providers and near-/off-shore partners against agreed SLAs.
- Develop and own the security operations roadmap, driving continuous improvement and innovation.
Additional Requirements Specific to the Role
- Participation in a 24/7 on-call rota to support critical incident response.
- Travel across Southern Water sites as required.
- Close collaboration with infrastructure, network and governance teams across IT Operations.
What You’ll Bring to the Role:
Essential:
- Proven, hands-on experience in Security Operations, including incident response and vulnerability management.
- Strong technical knowledge of security tooling such as SIEM platforms, endpoint protection and vulnerability scanning tools.
- Experience leading or coordinating internal teams and third-party SOC providers.
- Familiarity with IT service management tools such as ServiceNow.
- Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence and collaborate across technical teams.
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Desirable:
- Professional certifications such as CISSP, CISM, CompTIA Security+ or equivalent.
- Experience within utilities, critical infrastructure or operational technology environments.
About Southern Water
Southern Water is at the forefront of transforming Britain’s water industry, investing significantly to enhance resilience, sustainability, and service excellence. With £7.8bn planned investment for 2025-30, this is an unparalleled opportunity to join a business committed to delivering a generational shift in the way water services are managed. You will be joining at a time of significant change, working alongside a highly skilled leadership team with a clear vision for the future.
We offer an environment where senior professionals can make a meaningful impact, influence major strategic decisions, and drive long-term value creation.
At Southern Water, we believe diverse perspectives drive innovation. If you’re passionate about making a positive impact and think you can bring value to our team, we’d love to hear from you—even if you don’t tick every box. Your unique skills and experiences could be exactly what we need.
If this role isn’t quite what you’re looking for but are keen to be contacted about opportunities at Southern Water, you can register your details here: [Introduce Yourself](myworkdaysite.com- Introduce Yourself)
Our Commitment to Diversity
We welcome applicants from all backgrounds, identities, and experiences. We do not discriminate based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, or any other protected characteristic. If you need reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know.
Additional Information:
In line with Southern Water’s security requirements, successful candidates will be required to provide evidence of their identity, eligibility to work in the UK, criminal record check (DBS) and verification of their employment and/or education history for the past three years. Appointment to this role is subject to the successful completion of all pre-employment checks, including security vetting. Please note that if a candidate does not meet the required security standards or fails to pass the vetting process, Southern Water reserves the right to withdraw the offer of employment. Some positions may also require higher levels of security vetting, which may involve providing additional documentation.
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Our Purpose
Our purpose is big. Our impact is huge. And we know that every single one of us has the power, through our actions, to positively change society and the environment for good. It’s why careers with us have real meaning. Because, if you’re driven and ambitious, we can offer you huge opportunities for personal growth, professional development and constant innovation. Forever evolving. Forever focused on doing the right thing, we empower and encourage everyone to play to their strengths and to help us shape a fair and positive future for all. We believe in Water for Life. If you do too, Dive Right In.
Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, because delivering water for life is our core purpose. To achieve this, we need 24/7 support in place to resolve incidents quickly and efficiently. All our employees understand the importance of out-of-hours incident support – because when problems appear, fixing them is our top priority. That’s why our people join together and support when and however needed to make sure our customers get the service they deserve.
Joining the Southern Water family means you’ll become part of our incident support team. During your interview, your manager will speak to you about any incident support rotas that apply to your position.
Does this opportunity excite you but you’re not 100% sure if you meet all the requirements for the role? Or are you concerned that ‘normal’ office hours aren’t possible given your personal circumstances? Whilst we can’t accommodate every flexible working request, we’ll try to find a practical solution. So why not engage with us and find out more about this role?
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