Job summary
- Main area
- Cyber Operations
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8b
- Contract
- Fixed term: 13 months (Secondment only for current NHS Employees. Until 31/10/2026)
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 990-TD-14997-E
- Employer
- NHS England
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Wellington Place, Leeds / Hexagon House, Exeter / Wellington House, London
- Town
- Leeds / Exeter / London
- Salary
- £83,792 - £97,365 Per annum (includes a RRP payment of 30% and exclusive of HCAS)
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 09/09/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Cyber Security Lead (Analyst) - Threat Hunting
NHS AfC: Band 8b
Our Organisation
The NHS is building a culture that is positive, compassionate and inclusive – and we all have our part to play.
As employers we are committed to protecting and promoting the physical and mental health and wellbeing of all our colleagues. This underpins our values as set out in the NHS Constitution and supports us to be an Employer of Choice, while helping our colleagues to deliver high quality services for our patients and communities.
As a flexible employer, we want to support you to work in a way that is best for the NHS, our patients and you. Talk to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time, hybrid working or another flexible pattern. In addition, although the role advertised may have a ‘home’ office base indicated, we remain committed to supporting flexibility around workplace locations. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.
We are an accredited Living Wage Employer which means that every colleague working for our organisation and third-party contractors will earn a real Living Wage. We are one of over 15,000 organisations, who voluntarily chose to pay the real Living Wage.
Job overview
Cyber Operations purpose is to support safe care and build public trust by building NHS England’s cyber resilience and enabling the wider health system to be cyber resilient, supporting Transformation Directorate’s purpose of delivering the best care and outcomes for the NHS.
The Cyber Operations sub-directorate consists of 4 operational areas:
- Cyber Security Operations Unit (CSOU)
- Cyber Delivery Unit (CDU).
- Cyber Improvement Programme.
- Chief Information Security Office Function (CISO)
The Cyber Security Lead – Threat Hunting will be responsible for leading a dedicated threat hunting team and the outputs from function within the Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC). The Threat Hunting Lead will be responsible for the proactive investigation into cyber threats to healthcare organisations onboarded to CSOC services, hunting across endpoint, cloud and identity signals.
The post of Security Lead (Analyst) has been awarded a Recruitment and Retention Premia (RRP) in response to current labour market conditions. In recognition of this, the role attracts an additional monthly RRP payment equal to 30% per annum.
Please be aware that RRP is non contractual and subject to review.
Main duties of the job
The Post Holder will:
- Act as the specialist for the threat hunting team and act as an escalation point for all threat hunting activities in the topic.
- Generate reports for technical and non-technical stakeholders, creating documentation or detailed reports that provide narrative for complex subjects to board level / senior management.
- Act as a technical specialist in advanced forensic investigations in support of Security Operations function.
- Responsible for the management and delivery of threat use cases and content, Ideation, production of bespoke detections to identify malicious activity across NHS tooling and telemetry.
- Prioritise workload and hunts carried out by the team.
- Interface and build relationships with Incident Management and Threat Intelligence teams.
- Management of staff, resource allocation, and workload.
- Ensure the objectives and activities of the function are aligned with overarching Threat Operations strategy.
Working for our organisation
The NHS England board have set out the top-level purpose for the new organisation to lead the NHS in England to deliver high-quality services for all, which will inform the detailed design work and we will achieve this purpose by:
- Enabling local systems and providers to improve the health of their people and patients and reduce health inequalities.
- Making the NHS a great place to work, where our people can make a difference and achieve their potential.
- Working collaboratively to ensure our healthcare workforce has the right knowledge, skills, values and behaviours to deliver accessible, compassionate care
- Optimising the use of digital technology, research, and innovation
- Delivering value for money.
If you would like to know more or require further information, please visit https://www.england.nhs.uk/.
Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in-person.
Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.
If you are successful at interview, we will run an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) in the Electronic Staff Record system (ESR). This transfer gathers valuable information from a previous or current NHS employer to support the onboarding process, including; statutory and mandatory competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You will have the opportunity throughout the recruitment process to inform us if you do not consent.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification for more information about the role and responsibilities.
Please ensure your supporting statement includes demonstratable evidence and specific examples on how you meet the criteria for each of the key skills specified. This will be used in both the shortlisting and interview processes
Important: Please be aware there are residency requirements you need to meet:
All NHS England Cyber Security personnel must hold Security Clearance level as a minimum. To meet National Security Vetting requirements, SC clearances require 5 years continuous UK residency. In certain cases, this can be reduced to three years continuous UK residency, with additional overseas checks for the previous two years. Candidates who were posted abroad for service with HM Government, Armed Forces or within a UK government role - will still be considered.
Please make sure you meet these requirements before applying for this role. You don’t need to have SC already, however, failure to achieve the requirements for SC after offer will result in the job offer being withdrawn. For further advice please check https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels/national-security-vetting-clearance-levels#security-check-sc
Please be aware that should you be successful in this position, you will be hired to the job title of Security Lead (Analyst) and this job title is advertised to attract the right skills needed for the role.
Please note that the reason for the fixed term of this contract is short term vacancy.
If you like what you have read and think you have the skills and experience, we need then don't delay, apply today! We get lots of applications for our roles and so we sometimes have to close our posts early. Don't miss out!
Secondments
Applicants from within the NHS will be offered on a secondment basis only, agreement should be obtained from their employer prior to submitting the application.
Person specification
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- In-depth knowledge of technologies and technology-based solutions dealing with information security issues; ability to apply these in protecting information security across the organisation.
- Extensive knowledge of concept, procedures and processes of Security Information and Event Management (SIEM); ability to utilise related applications to protect organisational networks from cyber risks.
Desirable criteria
- Extensive knowledge of techniques, approaches and processes of digital threats; ability to detect, monitor, analyse and prevent digital threats.
Skills and Experience
Essential criteria
- Demonstrable knowledge of tools, techniques and processes of intrusion detection and prevention; ability to detect, resolve and prevent intrusion behaviours to protect organisational networks.
Desirable criteria
- Expert knowledge of and ability to utilise a variety of specific tools for collecting, analysing, and presenting digital-related evidence.
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Masters level degree or equivalent level of experience.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
This post will require a submission for Disclosure to be made to check for any unspent criminal convictions.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Ryan Lee
- Job title
- Security Principal
- Email address
- [email protected]
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